I’m sitting writing this tip on a train down to a training day I’m doing and there’s a couple talking to each other a few seats away. For “him” I can hear that he’s talking: for “her” I can hear every word quite comfortably. Why’s that?
Because women’s voices are (generally) higher pitched than mens’.
As any Hi-Fi freak will tell you, their woofers (bass speakers) lose ‘focus’ more quickly than their tweeters (high-range speakers). For them it’s a pain because they need to spend a lot of time putting their tweeters in very precises places. For women presenters it’s more of a blessing however, as it means that their voice carry more easily to their audience, where-as men’s voices tend to become ‘blurred’ and lose clarity much more quickly.
What can men do about this? Well, lots of things, but the most simple is to make sure that, rather than raising their voice and speaking louder, they speak with better diction (all the way through their presentation, not just at the start!).
The best way to do that, of course, is to warm up your face before you start to make your presentation. Yawn – hugely – and rub your face to get the muscles warmed up. Better still, make a point of doing some tongue-twisters every now and then to get the muscles around your mouth and lips used to working hard. Good old Peter Piper is a good one – and so is Mary Mac’s Mother.
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