How to talk like an executive
Dressed in a loose black top and trousers, Yvonne Gilan pushes out her elbows and knees, filling the armchair in the sitting-room of her small London flat. "Chaps spread themselves, they sit like this," she says in her warm, stagey voice. "They take up a lot of room. Their voices take up a lot of room."
Then she jumps up and switches into a high-pitched "fluffy-bunny" voice. "Women, when they do my exercises, very often stand with their feet together, like a little girl," she simpers. "They don't take their natural space."
Ms Gilan, actor, writer and voice coach, has been teaching business people presentation skills for 17 years, including more than 10 working with executives attending London Business School. In the past couple of years, she has focused on women, convinced that the wrong kind of voice can hold them back in their career.
Whether it is too strident, too soft or too rushed - and she impersonates them all - a problem voice is usually linked with tension and poor breathing. Problems tend to manifest themselves in meetings for which women generally over- prepare mentally while omitting to prepare physically.
"I've gone to companies in the City [of London], working with young women who have had major problems making themselves heard, being over-anxious and over-prepared - and wearing the wrong clothes," she says. "Tight belts and high heels work against a natural voice. Holding yourself in works against it."
One young woman, referred to her from a big financial company, had gone to a meeting to impart a good idea on which she had been working, only to find she was so tense she could barely make herself heard. The final humiliation came when a male colleague butted in with: "What she's trying to say is . . ."
Women with high speaking voices start with a natural disadvantage. An opinion poll by the Center for Voice Disorders in the US found that people prefer lower-pitched, melodious voices in both men and women. The voices that were voted "worst" by Americans were high-pitched and screechy. They included comediennes Joan Rivers and Roseanne Barr, the latter with a pitch of 377 Hz (frequency of vibrations) compared with a female norm of 200-230 Hz.
There are, of course, examples of successful women with high-pitched, powerful voices, although Margaret Thatcher, the most famous of them all, had voice training to lower hers noticeably.
But many women with lower voices slip into artificially high pitches. Ms Gilan's own voice suddenly becomes so high and sharp that I want to cover my ears. "In business, there's a tremendous amount of taking the voice up here," she strains from her throat. "Because if you want to be heard, and if you're very ambitious, you will be heard. But the sound is deeply unattractive and damaging for the vocal chords."
Women are often unaware of how they talk because they do not experience the significant change in their voices that men go through in adolescence.
Being aware can be "a definite plus", says Gay Haskins, director of external relations at London Business School, who has had coaching from Ms Gilan. She often makes presentations and says she has always been "a little bit dissatisfied" with her voice. "When I'm nervous or angry, my voice will go up an octave and I'll start speaking in a strangled way. You'll see this in quite a number of women. I know you should breathe from the diaphragm, but you tend to forget. But now I will try to do relaxation before I start speaking."
The pace at which women speak can also be a problem, according to Laurel Herman, managing director of Positive Presence, a consultancy on personal style and impact. "There's no doubt that clever women tend to speak too fast," she says. "They tend to speak in paragraphs and expect people to follow them. Men tend to understand better in soundbites. Women should slow down and pause more, and let [the listener] take in what they're saying."
"Men talk over their heads, so women talk quickly to get their words in. If there's a silence, a pause, they've got to fill it, maybe because a pause allows them to talk."
Are unnatural voices necessarily bad for careers? Some women adopt Marilyn Monroe voices, especially with men. It may be irritating to peers but could serve their careers, at least in the short term. Ms Gilan says: "That voice does make men very patronising and very comfortable and not at all worried about competition."
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In case male readers have taken thorough offence, there is some good news. Men are also prone to voice and presentation problems, over-preparing speeches, over-relying on PowerPoint, speaking from the throat rather than the diaphragm, and suffering from dull or inaudible delivery. And many of the solutions apply equally to men as to women.
Use your imagination when speaking, says Ms Gilan. Imagine you are telling a child a story. "Accessing visual imagination is paramount to people letting go of some of their fears. They let go of thinking ahead and they live in the moment. Once you feel something, the voice will inflect naturally. It will go with the feel."
An attractive voice - think Dame Judi Dench or Joanna Lumley - is comfortable and warm and has many notes. "What helps people is reading out loud, humming, and listening to other people. And it's having a voice with intention - that's a very good theatre word," she says.
"A very useful exercise if you're about to go into a challenging meeting is to shut your eyes, so you're cutting off external stimuli, and to take a breath in through the nose and breathe it all the way out so you can feel it, almost as if it's a long, reed flute."
We try it for a few minutes. Tension slips away. Then Ms Gilan switches into another persona, this one hyperactive, loud and breathless. "If I work with a group from a PR company or an advertising agency, they come in and they've probably got a Pret a Manger coffee in one hand and a cigarette in the other and they're chat-chatting away and they sit down in a circle and do this exercise . . ." Her voice falls right away. "And my dear, they're practically asleep."
怎样说话才像个主管
在位于英国伦敦的一间小公寓的客厅里，伊冯娜o吉兰（Yvonne Gilan）身着宽松的黑色上衣和长裤，躺在扶手椅上，膝肘外伸。她以热情而又拿腔作势的声音说："男人们就像这样坐着，四肢伸展。他们占去很多空间，他们的声音也占去很多空间。"
然后，她突然站起，换成"绒毛兔子"的尖叫声。她傻笑着说："女人们，当她们做我这样的动作时候，总是像小女孩一样，两脚并拢站立，她们就不会占据应有的空间。"
吉兰女士是位演员、作家和声音教练。17年来，她一直在向商界人士传授言谈举止的技巧，其中有10多年是给在伦敦商学院（London Business School）就读的高级主管授课。过去几年，女人一直是她关注的重点，因为她相信不当的发声会妨碍其事业发展。
她对太刺耳、太娇嫩以及太急促的声音逐一进行了模仿。所有这些都属于有问题的声音，通常与紧张不安或呼吸困难有关。问题往往会在开会时暴露出来，因为女人通常会为会议做过度的心理准备，而忽略了体内能准备。
她说："我去过（伦敦）金融城的公司，同存在严重问题的年轻女士一起工作。她们要么说话难以引起别人注意、要么太焦虑并准备过度，要么着装不当。腰带太紧、鞋后跟过高，都会影响自然发音。工作中随时都要注意这一点。"
一位就职于大型金融公司的女士曾来找她咨询。这位年轻女士在一次开会时，本打算公布一个自己深思熟虑的好主意，可结果却由于过度紧张，几乎无法让别人听到她的声音。最后，令人丢脸的是，一位男同事插嘴说："她想说什么……"
声调高的女人生来处于劣势。美国声音紊乱研究中心（Center for Voice Disorders）的民意调查显示，人们更喜欢低沉、悦耳的声音，对男女均是如此。刺耳的尖叫被美国人评为"最难听"的声音。这包括喜剧演员琼o里弗斯（Joan Rivers）和罗斯安尼o巴尔（Roseanne Barr）。巴尔的音高达377赫兹（震动的频率），而普通女性为200到230赫兹。
当然，强有力的高嗓音女士也不乏成功者，其中最著名要属玛格丽特o撒切尔了。不过，她曾接受过声音培训，以大幅降低音高。
不过，许多声音低沉的女士却不知不觉在人为地提高音调。吉兰女士自己的声音突然变得如此尖锐，以至于我想捂住耳朵。她声嘶力竭地说："在商界，很多人会把声音提到这么高。因为如果你想让别人听到，而且你还非常雄心勃勃，那么你就会被别人听到。但这种声音非常缺乏吸引力，而且有损于声带。"
女人常常不了解自己是如何讲话的，因为她们不像男人那样在青春期经历过明显的变声。
伦敦商学院对外关系部主任盖伊o哈斯金斯（Gay Haskins）说，如果了解这一点，将是个"非常有力的因素"。哈斯金斯曾听过吉兰女士的课。她说，她经常要做报告，但总是对自己的声音"有点儿不满意。""当我紧张或生气的时候，我的声音就会高八度，说话变得令人窒息。你会发现不少女人都有这个问题。我知道应该从隔膜呼吸，但常常却会忘记。不过现在，我在说话前，总是争取先放松下来。"
个人风格和效果咨询公司--Positive Presence的董事总经理劳雷尔o赫尔曼（Laurel Herman）认为，女人说话的节奏也会出现问题。她说："毋庸置疑，聪明的女人往往说话过快。她们往往一说一大段，并且期望别人能够听懂。男人往往懂得说话时有有所停顿。女人应该放慢语速，增加停顿，让（听众）听懂她们说什么。"
"男人总是夸夸其谈，而女人只要一有机会就插嘴。如果鸦雀无声或者出现停顿，她们就要补上，或许因为停顿使她们有了发言的机会。"
不自然的声音必然会妨碍事业发展吗？一些女人模仿玛丽莲o梦露（Marilyn Monroe）的声音，特别是同男人说话的时候。这或许会激怒其她女同胞，但对其事业却会有帮助，至少短期内是如此。吉兰女士说："那种声音确实让男人神气十足、非常舒服，丝毫不用担心竞争问题。"
如果男性读者觉得被冒犯了，因为通篇讲的都是女性问题，这里有些好消息。男人往往也会遇到声音和表达问题，比如演讲准备的过于充分，过度依赖PowerPoint，用喉咙而非隔膜发音，声音乏味、难以引人注意等。许多解决方法对男女同样适用。
吉兰女士说，说话时要发挥想像力。想像一下你在给小孩讲故事。"对于要消除恐惧的人来说，利用视觉想像非常重要。大胆想像未来，能多远就多远。一旦感觉到异常，声音自然会发生变化。它将跟着感觉走。"
回想一下朱迪o丹奇女爵士或乔安o林莉，那种富有吸引力的声音令人惬意、充满热情、抑扬顿挫。她说："大声朗读、哼唱和倾听别人，都会对人有帮助。这等于拥有一种有目的的声音，非常好的舞台语言。"
"如果你即将参加一次重要会议，那么就闭上眼睛，从而割断外界的刺激因素，用鼻深呼吸，达到能自我感觉的程度，几乎就像是吹奏长芦笛。这是一种非常有用的做法。"
我们试了几分钟。紧张感消失了。然后吉兰女士又转换成另一个角色，一个亢奋、高声、气喘吁吁的人。"如果我同公关公司或广告公司的一些人共事，他们走进来，手里可能拿着"来一客"（Pret a Manger）的咖啡，另一只手叼着烟，不停地聊天。他们围成一圈坐下，做这个练习……"她的声音突然变小。"天啊，他们几乎睡着了。"
