Trial Day 15 – Use Your Voice
Has anyone every told you to “use your voice”? You know it’s important. You want to use your voice. The why is clear. If you don’t speak up–for yourself, your passions, your family, and your dreams, who will? But the when, the where, and the how are the challenge. Everyone tells you to use your voice, but no one tells you how to use it.
Lawyers are called counselors for a reason. I am privileged to counsel my clients on how to use their voices. When we prep for trial, we spend hours on the different ways a voice can be used. And now, in my consulting work, I work with clients on HOW to use their voices to be better teammates, better leaders, and build better relationships with their clients. The HOW of using your voice takes too long to cover here. But the first step is to be aware.
Before you can use your voice effectively, you have to be aware of what you want to say. Too often we lash out and speak without awareness, and the results of those words can change our jobs, our families and our lives. But when we realize that the first step of using our voices is not opening our mouths but opening our minds, things get better.
It starts with awareness of our words, but we also have to be aware of how we want to say them. Watch your tone, because tone is everything. During Trial Day 9 (the listening challenge), we talked a little bit about the power of your tone of voice. Don’t underestimate that power. The tone of your voice can be a clue to whether your partner is cheating. And if you’re a woman, the tone of your voice can make plants grow faster. As I discuss in my upcoming book, I believe the tone of my voice was the key to some of my victories at trial. Imagine what else your voice could do….
Use your voice. It sounds so easy. We all know that it’s not. But here’s one thing I’d bet my bottom dollar on–if you start with awareness, your voice, and all of the things you speak for, will thank you.
Let us know how you choose to use your voice today. Share below, and I’ll see you tomorrow!
PS–it’s actually only been 21 years as a trial lawyer. I started as a law clerk, so it feels like 25!
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