Difficulty: Easy

Are you a soft spoken person? If so, chances are you know it. Being soft spoken is usually associated with shyness and lack of confidence. This attribute is easy to fix, and can have quite an impact on how seriously people take you.

Think about people who are managers, leaders, your boss, or public speakers. Those in leadership roles tend to deliver their message with a  louder and more powerful tone. Would you feel as confident in them, or what they had to say, if they were soft spoken?

You know this is a problem when people tell you to repeat what you said, or when they ask you to speak louder. There is another benefit of projecting your voice; speaking louder also forces you to speak a bit slower. In turn, this makes your speech  clearer and easier to understand. If you don’t believe me, try speaking faster while speaking louder and you will see that it becomes quite difficult.

This is an easy habit to adapt. The benefits of having a strong delivery in your voice will increase your confidence, and the confidence those have in you.

Exercise: Simply raise your voice a bit louder than you usually do. Every now and then, consciously monitor your voice level. How do you know when you are speaking too loud? Easy, people will start to tell you =) Find your appropriate volume. It is better to speak a little bit louder than too softly.