Speech Communication Skills: Three Primary Complaints

There are three primary complaints I hear from people who desire to have better speech communication skills

#1 I don't like the way I sound.

Believe it or not, the way you hear yourself on tape is the real you! When you hear yourself speaking from within yourself, you are hearing the vibrations of sound vibrate off of the bony structures of your head. It sounds different when you hear your voice "outside of yourself" on a tape-recorder. Listen to yourself more regularly on tape recorder and you will get used to the sound of your voice.

The second complaint I hear is that People don't take me seriously.

If you don't feel like you are being taken seriously, you may want to adjust a few things in your speech and voice to see if that makes a difference. Your voice may sound child-like, your resonance may be too nasal, your speech may contain non-standard English, you may speak with a regional accent that is perceived negatively. If you are still having problems once you make adjustments, consider the nonverbal cues you send.

Thirdly, People don't seem to understand me.

People who are not understood tend to have problems because they mumble, they don't speak loud enough or they have a foreign accent and don't use American intonation or pronounce sounds correctly. You may need training to help you learn these skills.

If these complaints resound with you, you may need some speech coaching to you overcome these issues.