Critical skills all leaders need to practice
Habit 1: Monotone.
The physiological effects upon a listener and the speaker.
Habit 2: Underpowering.
How your body may be working to keep you alive but at the expense of your voice.
“Man is condemned to be free; because once thrown into the world, he is responsible for everything he does.” J. P. Sartre
We are free because we have the capacity to become angels of our better nature; we are condemned because we are born into contexts not of our choosing and hence everywhere curtailed by limits.
Your voice and the muscular physiology that fuel it have been moulded with precision to account for the…
Three rules to attain an influential voice
You may have heard through the grapevine that human communication can be broken down into three proportions:
55% of communication is body language, 38% is the tone of voice, and 7% is the actual words spoken.
Although, these proportions tend to change over the years because the jury is still out on this one; it is too simplistic to explain such a complex matrix but it did provide a nice framework for life coaches everywhere.
Indeed, so as not to throw the baby out with the bathwater, body language is vital due to the effects it has on the unconscious…
And why children never do…
There tend to be four main drivers of occupational voice loss; they aren’t exclusive but they are the most common reasons in my profession. They are also almost non-existent in healthy children which is far from a coincidence as to why children rarely misplace their voice.
Like children, speaking should not be effortful, but fluid. Not painful, but joyful.
The Issue is Not Occupational
Clients ranging from business analysts, meditation teachers, to QA techs have come to me for this issue that debilitates their ability to present, guide, or coach. Some occupations demand them to talk all day, while others ask for merely an hour…
The small everyday triumphs that matter
The Count of Monte Cristo is a massive book. It is also a masterpiece. Many of us will pick it up and throw in the towel halfway through. It will go to join the other books with remaining dog-eared pages at the bottom of the shelf.
Much like the half-finished books lying around, other remnants of started but never completed plans and projects litter the room and so fill the empty spaces of your mind.
The follow-through is wanting.
The failing of not fulfilling a project to its end might appear self-evident; its resultant shortcomings, however, are rather more obscure…
Every dollar you spend plays a part
Any possible act has many sides to it which are relevant to its rightness or wrongness — Sir David Ross
It is a difficult question to ask yourself currently— how can I be better than I was yesterday? Especially, when each action you take may have many unknown consequences — I just found out Pringles cans aren’t recyclable…
Where do you begin?
In our attempt at improving a little each day, why not start with the known consequences of our actions. …
The three human errors that lead to a false confession
In 1985, David McCallum III and Willie Stuckey confessed to a crime they didn’t commit. They were tried, found guilty, and sentenced to prison.
29 years later, they were exonerated. In a bittersweet ending, David walked free but without his friend, for a cruel twist of fate had taken Willie too early to his grave.
In our fight for David’s freedom, many of the naysayers commonly quipped, “why would you ever confess to a crime you didn’t commit?” First, let’s begin by setting the record straight — there are thousands of wrongfully convicted men and women in the US alone.
…
Getting a job in the era of Covid and beyond
My partner, Emma, endured six months of unemployment. Throughout this time I saw her evolve due to the circumstances laid at her feet; and, indeed, in hindsight, this growth was due to three main rules she adapted to get herself to the finish line. I hope that for anyone going through the same ordeal this may provide some illumination and kindred feeling.
There is no instant panacea to the suffering to be found here. Instead, I offer you a roadmap of how to endure, how to get to the finish line, and perhaps to get you a nose ahead.
To…
Insight into the anatomy of the “you” in your voice
Where is the “you” in your voice? “Speech”, to the average person, is a terribly simple phenomenon that is largely an afterthought but underneath its simplicity lies a myriad of complex processes that each feeds into the way you speak and how you are heard.
How you are heard influences your career trajectory, has been found to influence sexual attractiveness, and creates all kinds of opportunities if speaking is treated with skill and finesse.
Becoming a great speaker demands that you understand how your anatomy works, and how it affects the “you” in your voice; because the powerhouse behind it…
The hidden statistics behind employment in the arts
With any kind of investment vehicle a legal caveat is required to be placed alongside promotional activities and typically runs like this:
Invest in Bitcoin at zero commission and start trading like the professionals. *Warning capital is at risk and you may get back less than you invested.
The legality behind this is to make sure individual investors, like you and I, take some time to think things through, understand the risk, rather than be blinded by the lust for wealth that the advertisement promotes.
Similarly, studying a degree such as a Masters in Performance (Acting) should also contain the…
The benefits of boxing
If you’ve ever thought that therapy may be worthwhile, but are trepidatious to put a foot through the door, boxing, although unconventional, can be an alternate means of self-discovery through an ironically gentler nudge.
I began boxing because I had a deeply ingrained habit to put other people’s needs above my own, a pattern I developed to survive an emotionally void and unstable support system in my childhood. The repression of feelings, whether or not they are anger or rage, have consequences down the line, and these patterns encroach upon every angle of your life.
Gabor Mate’s book “When The…
