Use your voice as a tool to strengthen your leadership

Energy, if you think about it, is the power, the force. It’s everywhere. We keep talking about it: clean energy, fossil energy, it’s always available. I view energy as something that is always looking for a host to manifest itself, to apply itself. It’s looking for a form which is going to receive it so that it can do its job, which is to show aliveness and connect with other energy forms and other hosts. And when you look at this from this angle, then you stop wanting to control it, but you start learning to be with it. 

If you are reading this, you’ve probably encountered me stating that all our behaviors or our souls are fruits, the results of an algorithm. 

The same thing applies to the voice which is a very precise output from long-term algorithm development and energy is what’s going to power that algorithm. There is nothing new there. But how do you harness this understanding in your routine life, in your daily interactions with your colleagues, even when you are alone?

When you are on the phone or on your zoom calls, the interesting thing is to trust and rest on your energy, to allow it to find its way through your body, through your vocal cords, so that they can express themselves and communicate with the people around you. So the biggest requirement is to leverage that understanding and to try to identify that while being honest with yourself. Have a moment of honesty with yourself and others and realize how much we are in integrity with ourselves, with the world and with what we are doing. Because the more we are in integrity with what matters to us and what we believe in, the more our voice carries our ideas like little vessels travelling through space and landing in people’s minds and hearts, so that they can put them in motion. 

Let me give you a few examples of how energy influences our voice on a daily basis from my clients, from me personally and from life in general, and while you’re reading this, try to recognize or identify moments in your life where this might have applied to you or to your colleagues whom you want to help get ready for presentation, dinner, business meetings etc. In my line of work, which is executive coaching, voice is really a big deal. What we are learning to do with my clients is to recognize the signs of their voices. We’re not intending to become professional and expert voice coaches, although there are quite a few people who are really good at that. We simply want to develop self-awareness around the voice. I often recognize trembling in the voice when people are not very comfortable. So I ask them where does that start? And they always know. They know it starts somewhere down in the belly. There is a little bit of sadness, and a little bit of fear, and they don’t know what to do with it. The more they think about it or try to connect with it and push it out, the more the voice is revealing what’s happening inside. Similar to an echo that you don’t want to share and don’t want to hear. 

Some other times when people are on stage and they know they nailed it, or they’ve done a pitch, had a board meeting or something alike, and they leave the room without the need for any feedback or recognition whatsoever because they know it’s done. They know they’ve been there; they know every idea was flowing. And then I ask: How did you know? Where did that come from? Quite often they would say that their voice was much lower, it came from a lower place, their body was warm, and the energy in the belly was very much available, quite warm as well. And that’s something you can practice and you can connect with. Even now while reading this try to connect with the center of your belly and identify whether it’s warm, just right or cold energy. If you were to speak now, would you be convincing? The more you can connect with that part of your body, the more you can access the center of voice, its root. As a result, you can allow your arms, your eyes, and your facial expressions to send signals to people around you in the same way. Your voice is going to be able to share the subtlety of your being, the subtlety of your ideas in ways that the words can’t convey. I’m very curious to read your comments and ideas on those perspectives because they’re just perspectives from experience. For that matter, if you have anything to share with me, please do so. I want to be in conversation with you.