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Help! I'm Short!
Non-verbal Communication - Part 2
By Dr. Carol Fleming

You may be short but that doesn’t mean that your voice has to sound small. You should have a mature voice with adult intonations. We all know that a high voice is associated with a small body, i.e. a child. Because you are very aware of this you may try to push your voice down to the very bottom of your range. This just makes you sound desperate and your voice will not sound good at all.

Use more simple declarative sentences when you talk; avoid ‘box-carring’ sentences with conjunctions. “I went to see him and he said he didn’t care so I told him the whole story, but… blah, blah” and on and on.

A stronger version: “I went to see him. He said he didn’t care. I told him the whole story”.

Read the two versions above outloud to experience the great difference in maturity.

Avoid extreme intonation fluctuation where your voice goes sky high or swoops around in great leaps. This sounds childlike and excitable. Keep your cool and your melodic line contained – not monotone, but contained.

Avoid superlatives: “Fantastic! Terrific! Adorable! You were just great! I loved the way you handled that!” These expressions make you sound like an undiscriminating teen-ager. Exercise a cooler judgment and make your highest praise a little harder to get.

Higher standards reveal more mature range of experience .In this case, keep your vocabulary contained.

So if you are short, keep your statements contained (in verbiage, vocabulary and melody) and you will sound bigger. That’s how it works.

Contact us today to discuss how our workshops, coaching and training products can improve your Personal Professionalism and Communication Impact.

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