Vocal Communication Skills Training Techniques

Effective communication is essential in all aspects of life, especially in professional settings. It involves the exchange of ideas, understanding different perspectives, and solving problems. Mastering communication skills can significantly enhance your ability to connect with others and achieve your goals. We all use language to communicate, to express ourselves, to get our ideas across, and to connect with the person to whom we are speaking. When a relationship is working, the act of communicating seems to flow relatively effortlessly. When a relationship is deteriorating, the act of communicating can be as frustrating as climbing a hill of sand.

The act of communicating involves verbal, nonverbal, and paraverbal components. The verbal component refers to the content of our message‚ the choice and arrangement of our words. The nonverbal component refers to the message we send through our body language. The paraverbal component refers to how we say what we say - the tone, pacing and volume of our voices. In order to communicate effectively, we must use all three components to do two things:

Send clear, concise messages.
Hear and correctly understand messages someone is sending to us.

How to Improve Your Vocal Communication Skills

Communication Involves Three Components:

Verbal Messages - the words we choose
Paraverbal Messages - how we say the words
Nonverbal Messages - our body language

These Three Components Are Used To:

Send Clear, Concise Messages
Receive and Correctly Understand Messages Sent to Us.

Communication Model

Sending Messages

Verbal Messages

Our use of language has tremendous power in the type of atmosphere that is created at the problem-solving table. Words that are critical, blaming, judgmental or accusatory tend to create a resistant and defensive mindset that is not conducive to productive problem solving. On the other hand, we can choose words that normalize the issues and problems and reduce resistance. Phrases such as "in some districts, people may . . .", "it is not uncommon for . . ." and "for some folks in similar situations" are examples of this.

Sending effective messages requires that we state our point of view as briefly and succinctly as possible. Listening to a rambling, unorganized speaker is tedious and discouraging - why continue to listen when there is no interchange? Lengthy dissertations and circuitous explanations are confusing to the listener and the message loses its concreteness, relevance, and impact. This is your opportunity to help the listener understand YOUR perspective and point of view. Choose your words with the intent of making your message as clear as possible, avoiding jargon and unnecessary, tangential information.

Effective Verbal Messages:

Are brief, succinct, and organized
Are free of jargon
Do not create resistance in the listener

Nonverbal Messages

The power of nonverbal communication cannot be underestimated. In his book, Silent Messages, Professor Albert Mehrabian says the messages we send through our posture, gestures, facial expression, and spatial distance account for 55% of what is perceived and understood by others. In fact, through our body language we are always communicating, whether we want to or not!

You cannot not communicate.

Nonverbal messages are the primary way that we communicate emotions:

Facial Expression: The face is perhaps the most important conveyor of emotional information. A face can light up with enthusiasm, energy, and approval, express confusion or boredom, and scowl with displeasure. The eyes are particularly expressive in telegraphing joy, sadness, anger, or confusion.
Postures and Gestures: Our body postures can create a feeling of warm openness or cold rejection. For example, when someone faces us, sitting quietly with hands loosely folded in the lap, a feeling of anticipation and interest is created. A posture of arms crossed on the chest portrays a feeling of inflexibility. The action of gathering up one's materials and reaching for a purse signals a desire to end the conversation.

Nonverbal Messages:

Account for about 55% of what is perceived and understood by others.
Are conveyed through our facial expressions as well as our postures and gestures.

Paraverbal Messages

Paraverbal communication refers to the messages that we transmit through the tone, pitch, and pacing of our voices. It is how we say something, not what we say. Professor Mehrabian states that the paraverbal message accounts for approximately 38% of what is communicated to someone. A sentence can convey entirely different meanings depending on the emphasis on words and the tone of voice. For example, the statement, "I didn't say you were stupid" has six different meanings, depending on which word is emphasized.

Some points to remember about our paraverbal communication:

When we are angry or excited, our speech tends to become more rapid and higher pitched.
When we are bored or feeling down, our speech tends to slow and take on a monotone quality.
When we are feeling defensive, our speech is often abrupt.

Paraverbal Messages:

Account for about 38% of what is perceived and understood by others.
Include the tone, pitch, and pacing of our voice

Communication Skills

The Importance of Consistency

In all of our communications we want to strive to send consistent verbal, paraverbal and nonverbal messages. When our messages are inconsistent, the listener may become confused. Inconsistency can also create a lack of trust and undermine the chance to build a good working relationship.

When a person sends a message with conflicting verbal, paraverbal and nonverbal information, the nonverbal information tends to be believed. Consider the example of someone, through a clenched jaw, hard eyes, and steely voice, telling you they're not mad. Which are you likely to believe? What you see or what you hear?

Receiving Messages

Listening

The key to receiving messages effectively is listening. Listening is a combination of hearing what another person says and psychological involvement with the person who is talking. Listening requires more than hearing words. It requires a desire to understand another human being, an attitude of respect and acceptance, and a willingness to open one's mind to try and see things from another's point of view.

Listening requires a high level of concentration and energy. It demands that we set aside our own thoughts and agendas, put ourselves in another's shoes and try to see the world through that person's eyes. True listening requires that we suspend judgment, evaluation, and approval in an attempt to understand another is frame of reference, emotions, and attitudes. Listening to understand is, indeed, a difficult task!

Often, people worry that if they listen attentively and patiently to a person who is saying something they disagree with, they are inadvertently sending a message of agreement.

When we listen effectively we gain information that is valuable to understanding the problem as the other person sees it. We gain a greater understanding of the other person's perception. After all, the truth is subjective and a matter of perception. When we have a deeper understanding of another's perception, whether we agree with it or not, we hold the key to understanding that person's motivation, attitude, and behavior. We have a deeper understanding of the problem and the potential paths for reaching agreement.

Listening:

Requires concentration and energy
Involves a psychological connection with the speaker
Includes a desire and willingness to try and see things from another's perspective
Requires that we suspend judgment and evaluation

"Listening in dialogue is listening more to meaning than to words . . .In true listening, we reach behind the words, see through them, to find the person who is being revealed. Listening is a search to find the treasure of the true person as revealed verbally and nonverbally. There is the semantic problem, of course. The words bear a different connotation for you than they do for me. Consequently, I can never tell you what you said, but only what I heard. I will have to rephrase what you have said, and check it out with you to make sure that what left your mind and heart arrived in my mind and heart intact and without distortion." - John Powell, theologian

Learning to be an effective listener is a difficult task for many people. However, the specific skills of effective listening behavior can be learned. It is our ultimate goal to integrate these skills into a sensitive and unified way of listening.

Key Listening Skills:

Nonverbal: Giving full physical attention to the speaker; Being aware of the speaker's nonverbal messages;
Verbal: Paying attention to the words and feelings that are being expressed; Using reflective listening tools such as paraphrasing, reflecting, summarizing, and questioning to increase understanding of the message and help the speaker tell his story.

Giving Full Physical Attention To The Speaker

Attending is the art and skill of giving full, physical attention to another person. In his book, People Skills, Robert Bolton, Ph.D., refers to it as "listening with the whole body".

Effective attending is a careful balance of alertness and relaxation that includes appropriate body movement, eye contact, and "posture of involvement". Fully attending says to the speaker, "What you are saying is very important. I am totally present and intent on understanding you". We create a posture of involvement by:

Leaning gently towards the speaker;
Facing the other person squarely;
Maintaining an open posture with arms and legs uncrossed;
Maintaining an appropriate distance between us and the speaker;
Moving our bodies in response to the speaker, i.e., appropriate head nodding, facial expressions.

As psychiatrist Franklin Ernst, Jr. writes in his book, Who's Listening?"."To listen is to move. To listen is to be moved by the talker - physically and psychologically . . . The non-moving, unblinking person can reliably be estimated to be a non-listener . . . When other visible moving has ceased and the eyeblink rate has fallen to less than once in six seconds, listening, for practical purposes, has stopped."

Being Aware of the Speaker’s Nonverbal Messages

When we pay attention to a speaker's body language we gain insight into how that person is feeling as well as the intensity of the feeling. Through careful attention to body language and paraverbal messages, we are able to develop hunches about what the speaker (or listener) is communicating. We can then, through our reflective listening skills, check the accuracy of those hunches by expressing in our own words, our impression of what is being communicated.

Paying Attention to the Words and Feelings

In order to understand the total meaning of a message, we must be able to gain understanding about both the feeling and the content of the message. We are often more comfortable dealing with the content rather than the feelings (i.e., the relationship), particularly when the feelings are intense.

Vocal Communication Training Techniques

Diaphragmatic Breathing

Proper breathing is the foundation of a powerful voice. Without it, your voice may lack support and strength. Diaphragmatic breathing, where you engage your diaphragm, is essential for better voice control. This technique ensures you have enough air to support your speech, allowing you to maintain a steady and powerful voice.

Diaphragmatic Breathing: Lie down with a book on your stomach.
Counting Breaths: Inhale for a count of four, hold for four, and exhale for four.
Breath Support: Practice speaking while exhaling slowly to extend your breath support.
Relaxation Breathing: Take deep breaths while focusing on relaxing your shoulders and neck.

Vocal Warm-Ups

Just as athletes warm up their bodies, your voice needs preparation too. Warm-up exercises prevent strain and prepare your vocal cords for any speaking engagement. When you’re warmed up, your voice is flexible and ready to perform at its best, reducing the risk of damage.

Clear Articulation

Clear articulation is key to being understood. Improving diction ensures your message is delivered effectively. Good articulation makes your speech crisp and clear, helping your audience grasp your points without confusion.

Varying Pitch and Tone

Varying your pitch and tone keeps your audience engaged. A dynamic speaking voice captures attention and conveys emotion. Using different pitches can highlight key points, while tone modulation can reflect the emotional undertones of your message.

Resonance

Resonance adds richness to your voice, making it sound fuller and more vibrant. A resonant voice carries better, sounds more pleasant, and can be less tiring for the speaker.

Projection

Projection ensures your voice carries well without straining. Proper technique allows your voice to be heard clearly even in large spaces.

Record and Review

Recording your practice sessions and seeking feedback are vital for improvement. These steps allow you to hear yourself objectively and make necessary adjustments. Reviewing recordings helps you pinpoint areas for improvement and track your progress over time.

Regular Practice

Regular practice is essential for long-term improvement. Incorporate vocal exercises into your daily routine to see significant progress. Consistency helps reinforce new habits and skills, making them second nature over time.

Additional Tips for Effective Communication

Preparation: Outlining carefully and explicitly what you want to convey and why will help ensure that you include all necessary information.
Nonverbal Cues: Your nonverbal cues must, at all times, support your message. At best, conflicting verbal and nonverbal communication can cause confusion.
Tone Control: Be sure to read your communication once, even twice, while thinking about tone as well as message.
Active Listening: Therefore, listening is just as important as speaking when it comes to communicating successfully. The goal of active listening is to ensure that you hear not just the words the person is saying, but the entire message.
Emotional Intelligence: Communication is built upon a foundation of emotional intelligence. Understanding and managing your own emotions is only part of emotional intelligence.
Communication Strategy: A communication strategy is the framework within which your business conveys and receives information. Starting most broadly, your strategy should incorporate who gets what message and when.
Building Trust: Employees will be more receptive to hearing their manager’s message if they trust that manager.

The Power of Your Voice

If you devote any time to making yourself a more effective communicator, spend it on developing your vocal skills. Why does your voice alone make such a difference? Well, for one thing, we all respond in basic, even primitive ways to the qualities of a person’s voice. If a voice is pleasant and authoritative, for instance, it may inspire confidence in the listener.

Vocal dynamics is one of the most powerful tools a presenter can use to win over an audience. Tone quality, pitch, inflection, emphasis, variety in pace, pauses, and all the emotional nuances our voices can project offer a nearly limitless palette to paint our “word pictures” and convince others. The suppleness of your vocal instrument is a factor too easy to neglect. The key to this effect is practice.

Combining Voice with Content

To be convincing, you must combine the use of your voice with what you are saying. Beautiful words that don’t sound meaningful will not convince people. The converse is true as well: Heartfelt emotion presented without eloquence can come across as merely clumsy.

Content’s power and effectiveness hinges on your ability to combine it with the quality of your voice and your nonverbal communication. If you truly believe in your message, the way you move and your voice quality will make that message come through loud and clear. You will not have to try to be persuasive-you will be persuasive. At that point, the presentation will have a natural flow and persuasion will occur among audience members.

Finally, once you’re aware of the potential of vocal power, you can learn how to use vocal subtlety to influence your audience. When you’ve practiced enough to smoothly use your vocal tools in your presentations, remember a last point: Your listeners must trust and respect you, which means you must have an honest conversation with your audience. Be yourself-which really means speaking and moving like yourself. Also, be sure to keep good eye contact with audience members at all times. Look them in the eye and use your voice to persuade them of your cause.