The use of the speaking voice, and "affect display" (what you look like, face and posture) were the focus of a two-lecture series that I gave to 4th yr engineering students last week at the University of Waikato. This was at the invitation of the Dean, Professor Janis Swan, subsequent to the presentation I gave on this topic at a Women in Leadership day just a few weeks before I left the University last October. Informal feedback on the interactive lectures has been positive, but I came to post here because I recevied this interesting information in an email this morning, which emphasises why this work is important for anybody who is going to be presenting and wants to be seen and heard as the best authentic self that they can be.
Back in the 1970s, Psychologist Albert Mehrabian discovered that there were three ways that listeners measured communication from others - words, voice and nonverbal behaviour (affect display).
He updated this in the 1980s to the following equation:
Total Liking =
7% Verbal Liking +
38% Vocal Liking +
55% Facial Liking
Or to put it another way, the content of your communication is only 7% of what you communicate!!!
