This is an article I wrote for Asia Pacific Coaching Conference 2012: UNUSUAL COACHING TIP – Effective coaching through identifying clients’ voice patterns. You can also read it HERE
Voice is our unique identity. It’s embedded with our personal history and shines out our personality. You can’t find another person who has the same voice as you do. Voice also reflects our physical, mental and emotional state. When we are sick, stressed or sad, we sound different from the time when we are healthy, calm or happy. Our voice broadcasts everything about us. It never lies no matter how hard we may try to hide our voice.
As a coach, if you can use voice as a reference, it’ll help you better understand clients’ personality, identify what may be hindering them from advancing, find the right approach to guiding different clients and determine what strategy may work better for different clients.
Start from the breath.
Breath is the soul of our voice and the key to identifying what challenges your clients may be undergoing.
When we project our voice, we should speak on the out-breath. People who are not easy to let go of emotions or mental struggles tend to hold their breath when they speak. This often results in a voice that sounds short and brief. Clarity is also affected. You may even hear tension in their voice. It happens to a few of my executive clients. In this case, I focus more on coaching them to let go of their breath so as to release whatever is held in their mind. In your coaching area, if you could recognize this breath pattern, it may help you find out the root problem and adjust your approach and strategy.
Besides the problem of holding the breath, another problem is the out-breath does not flow out smoothly. A client of mine is very cautious in her exhalation, which resulted in a voice that’s small and soft. It reflects in her work as she shared with me that she’s very careful and cautious, trying to make everything perfect, thus lost a few opportunities.
Other problems in breath and voice, e.g. shallow breath, short and fast breath, breathlessness and breathiness, all reflect different challenges in the mind, which can work as a tool for you as a coach to identify the challenge sooner and more accurately.
