In a recent interview with my dear friend, mentor
and colleague Arthur Joseph, we talked about why all
leaders need to master the art of voice. Arthur,
pictured on your left, is the founder of the Vocal
Awareness Institute.
Deborah: Arthur, you wrote an excellent
paper for the World Leadership Summit in Abu Dahbi,
United Arab Emirates about Voice and Leadership.
Today I’d like to discuss why you feel that every
leader needs to master the Art of Voice. Where shall
we begin?
Arthur: Voice is power—2500 years ago, the
great Roman orator Cicero understood this. There was
a Roman system of oratory that trained public
speakers. It taught seeking out ideas or lines of
argument; structure and organization; diction and
style; physical delivery; and memory (speeches could
last for hours and as they were spoken, not read,
they had to be learned by heart.) From Moses to the
Sermon on the Mount, from Mohammed to Gandhi, from
Adolph Hitler to the fireside chats of Franklin
Delano Roosevelt Voice has changed the world from
the beginning of time.
Deborah: Today’s leaders have somehow lost
the art of vocal empowerment and powerful voice. Why
do you think that is?
Arthur: To truly be in mastery as a
leader, one has to be in mastery in one’s
communication skills. This requires meticulous
preparation, scrupulous attention to detail and as
in any other form that teaches mastery, it requires
the conscious integration of mind/body/spirit. Every
business leader, every political leader, great
athlete, broadcaster, performer, artist that I train
is seeking the same goal—to be the best of
themselves possible—consciously— in the moment of
performance/presentation.
With the advent of the invention of the telephone
over 100 years ago, we began to lose the art of
letter writing. Now, since the computer age, we have
begun to lose the art of communication. Typing is
not chatting. It is typing. And I see every day
wherever I teach in the world, more than ever,
people’s inability to communicate confidently in
public. It is not a lost art, but rather a misplaced
one. It is my professional and artistic goal to
travel the globe showing one and all how to
recapture their innate ability to be themselves
whether speaking one- on-one or to millions.
However, one of the challenges is that voice is the
most intimate art form.
Deborah: We’ve often hear that public
speaking is the world’s greatest fear. Would you
share your views on this?
Arthur: We very often feel exposed—self-
conscious rather than conscious of Self. Carl Jung
even refers to the vocal area as the “ring of fear.”
Sociologists misguidedly consider public speaking
the greatest fear. As you’ll see in a moment,
they’re mistaken. The Latin root for the word
intimate “intimus” means intrinsic or essential. It
is intrinsic to be who we are and essential that we
must. So if public speaking is not the greatest
fear, what is? There are actually two fears—fear of
abandonment and ownership of our power, and nowhere
does this become more glaringly obvious than in the
moment of public presentation. We hold our breath.
Our body language tenses. Our eyes flutter. Our jaw
tightens. We speak too fast. Pitch rises. We wonder
what others might be thinking of us, etc. In these
ways and others in perhaps a most critical
situation, we exhibit inappropriate behaviors that
interfere with the messenger and the successful
communication of the message. Clearly stress-related
evidence. The bottom line is we are not in charge.
Circumstances and an understanding of what it truly
takes to communicate our message and embody
leadership at the highest levels are not understood
and have not been taught.
Arthur Joseph and I will be releasing a new voice
training program together later this year. To read
Arthurs paper titled "A New Paradigm for 21st
Century Leaders" in its entirety
click here.
