Do you find it difficult asserting yourself, in meetings, negotiations or conflict resolutions?
Assertiveness is such a critical skill in biz. If you fail to assert yourself, it not only affects your confidence, but others’ confidence in your competence. After a while, they may say to themselves, “Well, he doesn’t seem to have a strong stand, let’s just ask someone else.” Or, “She’s ok with everything we say.”
Did you experience the same frustrations?
Hi, Cynthia … In this video, you are going to learn the two areas to work on in order to assert yourself and one technique to sound assertive whenever you speak up.
To assert yourself is to stand up for your own rights while respecting others’; you express your own opinions, needs, and feelings without apologizing or hurting others.
What does an assertive voice sound like? Confident, firm, self assured.
To sound assertive, we work on two areas of your voice:
1. your voice quality
Say “This is my opinion” in different ways.
If your voice is too soft, “This is my opinion.” It doesn’t project assertiveness.
How about this? High pitched. You are getting ready for a fight. The high-pitched voice is too aggressive.
An assertive voice is solid and full, it helps you project firmness.
To have a solid and full voice, proper breathing and full resonance are two essential steps. When you develop your voice quality, not only will you sound more assertive, but look and feel more assertive. It is an inside-out process.
2. your voice dynamics
Voice Dynamics is what many people refer to as “how you say it.” Your tone, pitch, volume, pace etc.
“I’m sorry. I can not make this exception.”
The major difference is in the ending. The first one sounds like a question. You sound not sure, uncertain. The 2nd one is certain, sure. End of the discussion.
The voice dynamic in this example is called “inflection”, refers to how we end our sentence. If it ends with sounding like a Q, it is called upward inflection; if it ends with sounding as a statement, we call it downward inflection.
To sound more assertive, which inflection will you use? Downward.
Start from now, try it in your conversations and you’ll hear the difference not just in your voice, but feel it physically. The fact is voice is physical. When you change the way you use your voice, you change the way you feel physically.
