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If you’re an executive who has made it to the C-Suite, chances are you’ve been coached on how to dress, how to write an email, and even how to speak in order to project authority. But, has all the advice about avoiding vocal fry, limiting hedge phrases, and even lowering your pitch made you sound not more authoritative but more like a straight white man?
On the latest episode of Chief’s podcast, Co-Founders Carolyn Childers and Lindsay Kaplan talk to vocal coach Samara Bay about how women, people of color, queer, and non-cis people can command the room without changing their voice.
“In the same way that there are beauty standards that we have to work to not compare ourselves to, there are voice standards,” says Bay. “And they are so entrenched that we don't have the language to talk about them.” The author of Permission to Speak: How to Change What Power Sounds Like, Starting With You, says that for many of us there have been moments that have made us knowingly or unknowingly change our regional accent or cultural dialect, causing us to quiet our authentic sound. Many of these experiences have taught us “what smart sounds like, what being taken seriously in a particular space sounds like, maybe what likable sounds like, what charming sounds like, and what works to get the attention of the person you want to get attention from.”
But, for individuals who are tired of conforming and who are ready to lead from a more authentic place, Bay says there are a few things you can do. Listen to the latest episode of “The New Rules of Business,” brought to you by Fidelity, to learn how to embrace your authentic sound at work and change what “power” sounds like for yourself and for everyone in the room. Be sure to follow wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes drop every Tuesday.
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