Voice

‘I have a right to be heard! I have a voice!’ - George VI

The above line comes at a defining moment in the award winning film ‘King’s Speech’. The King has the attitude, the aptitude and all it takes to be a monarch. But he has a severe speech impediment. After trying many options, he goes to an unorthodox speech therapist, Lionel Hogue.

Hogue’s highly effective methods are based on getting his learners to believe they have a voice. He gets his learner to unlearn negative strokes from the formative years of childhood. After all, technique would be in vain in the absence of an empowered temperament. Attempts at speech therapy fail until the teacher prods his student to declare his ‘right to be heard’.

Look around and you will notice little children speak their mind out as they have no doubts about their right to be heard. But as they grow older, they are conditioned to question that very right. ‘Don’t speak’ is a very influencing statement that many get used to hearing and believing! Other negative strokes further compound the problem.

Surely, it is a tragic when persons who have a voice, find it difficult to speak. Besides, hurting their ability to communicate effectively, it cripples their self-esteem and makes them more vulnerable when faced with leadership opportunities. James Humes put it pertinently when he said that ‘every time you speak, you are auditioning for leadership’.

Competence can be harnessed only when we choose to be better at confidence. In fact, in my Voice-vocabulary Optimisation Workshop (VOW), the primary focus is on helping people reclaim the right to be heard and thus find their voice. Once this is achieved, the subsequent empowerment, of voice and vocabulary skills, is child’s play.

To BE BETTER at finding, within ourselves, our liberated voice...
reclaim the right to be heard and escape the impediment vice!

- Pravin K. Sabnis

Goa, India.