Strengthening the credibility of your message through your voice

In this month's newsletter, we are joined by Dr Branka Zei Pollerman (PhD), an expert in Speech Communication.

Dr Pollerman's work has been published across a number of reputable journals and media.

Voice is a key component in the success of negotiations and influencing and I am extremely excited to share her expertise with you.?

Giuseppe Conti [GC]: Branka, you have authored a number of scientific publications, your work has been featured by leading media such as New Scientist, BBC and RTS, and you are a renowned expert in Europe on speech communication. What was it about speech communication that made you pursue a career in the field?

Dr Branka Zei Pollerman (PhD)?[BZP]:?Scientific curiosity. Speech communication is a multidisciplinary field. It covers individual and social aspects of human relations. It reveals not only what we think (the content of the message) but also how we feel. Our voices convey emotional meanings:? joy, sarcasm, anger, affection, or confidence and have a huge impact on the quality of professional relationships. The way you communicate affects how others see you, how well they like and respect you, and whether or not they trust you.? It is not just what you say; it is how you say it. ?

[GC]:?The topic of our last newsletter centered around “Negotiating in a digital world”, why does the use of our voice become even more important in the current context of remote working?

[BZP]:?Remote working includes 2 types of communication:

1) one-to-one and

2) one-to-many.

It can be only audio (phone) or audio-visual (video conference). The main difference between direct and remote communication is that in remote communication we are deprived of back-channelling - which means that while speaking we do not get normal audio visual feedback from our conversation partners (e.g. head movements, brief vocalizations, glances, and facial expressions, often in combination) showing that they are following – paying attention, agreeing or disagreeing.?

[GC]:When speaking in negotiations and influencing, it is fundamental to appear credible and this can largely depend on how your voice sounds. Can you share three pieces of advice for our readers to increase the credibility of their message through their voice?

[BZP]:?These could be: chunking, emphasis and falling intonations.

1) Chunking means dividing speech into groups of words when we talk. These groups of words, (known as chunks), are usually separated by pauses. Chunks package information for the listener in phrasal or thought groups.

Without chunking, it can be hard for people to follow our message as they may be overwhelmed with too much information.

Pauses also give the impression of composure and thoughtfulness. The length of chunks should not exceed 5-9 units of information because it is related to our short-term memory span (G. Miller’s magic number 7+/- 2 ). View: TedX Chamonix: Tim Smith (physicist at CERN): “How Open Science Protects Us”?(14:04-15:50) with the example that can be found?here . ?

2) Emphasis is the second important feature by which we highlight the words on which we want to focuses the hearer's attention. This is usually done by changing pitch and/or loudness of the stressed syllables. Sir David Attenborough’s speech at COP24, ?"The world is in our hands:" (Katowice, Poland? 3rd December 2018) is an example of emphasis by raising the pitch on the most important words: “greatest threat in thousands of years”.

3) Intonation Intonation is the variation of pitch. Falling intonation (the pitch falls at the end of the sentence) is used in public situations demonstrating a display of social power or status. The meaning of a tone depends to some extent on the power relationship between the speaker and hearer.

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Linkedin Live: Ask what you want to know about Influencing - a Q&A with Oxford Professor Owen Darbishire and Giuseppe Conti

Masterclass: Influence & Persuasion