I recently gave a workshop on “Speaking to Be Heard” to a group of Hunter College and City College freshman women who are aspiring toward a career in medicine. They mentioned that they often sound too young and this prevents people from taking them seriously. As they introduced themselves to the group, I heard an upward sounding inflection; the young women I was working with consistently spoke with this inflection at the end of their statements (we call this uptalk). To me, uptalk sounds unprofessional and uncertain even when the speaker ought to be confident. These students explained to me that in their collaborative groups, they all want to be part of the whole. They speak with uptalk because nothing has been decided yet, and they don't want to risk sounding too confident. These students were afraid of others not liking them or getting defensive.
It's true that every job requires some sort of team effort, or at the very least, interaction with others. But has our need to be accepted and understood gone too far? Is there a way to sound confident and accepted?
Jessica Grose, a journalist, was running into the same issue when delivering podcasts and interviewing sources. Sounding like someone’s granddaughter was slowing down her career. She sought help. Check out her process here http://goo.gl/nD1yDW In the end, she decided to go for a compromise of her original manner of speaking and a more professional sounding one. Jessica managed to find a way to engage professionally without losing herself. This is the challenge of the up and coming professional -- keep your identity, lose your uncertainty.
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