Voice and Speaking Skills For Dummies

Chapter 7

Exploring Volume and Speed

In This Chapter

Turning your volume up and down

Getting people’s attention

Playing with your pace

What are the criticisms you hear frequently after someone’s given a speech? Too quiet or too loud, too fast or too slow. One of the easiest ways to ensure others listen to you is to get your volume and your speed right. This means right for the occasion, whether that’s public speaking, addressing a small group, talking to a colleague or making a phone call. Fortunately, developing your ability to adjust your volume and speed is quite straightforward and makes an enormous difference to your impact as a communicator. When you have full control of the volume and speed buttons of your voice, you can adapt to any occasion, and choose how you want to respond to people.

Turning Up (and Down) the Volume

A business woman meets an associate at a networking event in a large city hotel. ‘Hello,’ she says smiling. ‘I’m Caroline. What’s your name?’ ‘T’ong,’ he replies quietly. ‘I’m so sorry,’ she apologises, ‘I didn’t quite catch that.’ ‘T’ong,’ he repeats. ‘Please ...