| | Everett Collection The Whisperer: Marilyn Monroe was known for a breathy voice, but it is risky at the office. Ways to Improve Your Voice Good habits and vocal awareness can make a difference. Record your voice on your phone and listen to how you actually sound. Ask a friend or co-worker to signal to you discreetly if you lapse into bad habits such as using 'um' or 'you know.' Increase your fluid intake and avoid frequent throat-clearing to keep the vocal cords healthy. Ask a voice coach for breathing and vocal exercises to make your voice more resonant and relaxed. See a speech pathologist or physician for persistent problems such as vocal fatigue or hoarseness. Learn to warm up and rest your voice before and after intense use, such as teaching or coaching. Have your hearing checked if your voice is too loud. Work teams can sometimes help raise an employee's awareness, says Gillian Florentine, a human-resource consultant with Howland Peterson Consulting in Pit Coach Factory Outlet Online tsburgh. A publishing-company sales team she worked with two years ago was disrupted by a rep whose voice boomed so loudly that co- Coach Outlet Store workers couldn't hear clients on the phone, Ms. Florentine says. Co-workers in team meetings shared recordings of their calls, so the rep could hear himself in the background. He toned it down a bit, and agreed to a plan to rearrange their desks and place soundproof panels near his desk, she says. The problem was solved and the team has since been able to work smoothly together.Ms. Florentine advises employers to screen job seekers based partly on their voices. Hiring managers typically focus on other fac Coach Factory Online tors, such as skills and experience, only to realize later than a new hire's speech patterns are annoying to co #file_ floyd May weather puts on show at Washington news conference #ljj08 links<D>\keywords15.txt,1,S] -workers or customers, she says.When Jim Roddy interviewed Jon Dudenhoeffer five years ago for a recruiting job, he liked everything about him but his voice, says Mr. Roddy, president of Jameson Publishing, an Erie, Pa., publisher of trade magazines and websites. "After the first half-hour, I had to put down my pen and say to him, 'We have a lot of high-energy, engaging people here, and I don't think they're going to like working with you because I can hardly hear you,' " says Mr. Roddy, author of "Hire Like You Just Beat Cancer." He added, "How about loosening up? People are going to think you have no pulse." Mr. Dudenhoeffer says he learned to speak in a low-key, deliberate tone during his 20-year stint as an investigator and trainer in the Air Force. He is also naturally reserved and has a calm, controlled manner. He was surprised that Mr. Roddy made an issue of his voice, but promised, "Sure, I'll give it a try." He had to make an effort at first to put more energy into his voice, but "after I got more comfortable, my personality just came out," he says. He has since been promoted to senior director of sales.
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