I had been told I should consider lower my voice register during public speaking just like Elizabeth Holms did

Back in 2019, I was fortunate to have given the opportunity to teach new joiners training session in a classroom setting to share and teach about our company ways of workings as well as corporate culture. Given all the instructors are not in any way seasoned corporate training deliverer, company assigned a professional public speaker and offered all the instructors prep sessions before the actual new joiner training sessions on public speaking before the actual session.

During the 2 days prep sessions, all the instructors would meet with the professional public speaker to talk about dos and don’ts during the actual sessions.

One of the assignment of the day was each take turn to teach an assigned topic for 20 minutes, and each instructors would have the opportunity to hear the feedback from other instructors.

Each instructor were given few practice rounds of speaking, receive feedback from everyone right after our practice round.

Some of the feedback I received was: “You are doing great, but considering maybe rehearse your points but don’t make it sound too scripted or rehearsed.”; “It’s okay to pause in between slides, don’t rush through your points.” etc. Some good practical feedback I can make some changes to my delivery.

Then out of nowhere, this other instructor, just blurted out : “Maybe you should lower your voice register during your delivery.”

When I received this feedback, I was a little bit dumbfounded, including the professional trained speaker who was supposed to guide us. My immediate response was to play it lightly, proceeded to lower my voice, jokingly said: “You want me to speak in lower register?”. We all laughed.

I did not heed his advice to lower my voice register during the actual 2 weeks long training session to a group of 20 people. As far as I can tell, those 20 people enjoyed the training session.

I thought that piece of advice was ridiculous, and I seriously thought the instructor was joking when he offered the advice at the time. Considering my company/corporate culture is pretty progressive, I didn’t think too much of it. Until….fast forward couple years later, when we first heard the story Elizabeth Holms lowered her voice for most (if not all) her public speaking gigs.

I paused, and I think what if that instructor meant it?

Looking back and thinking about Elizabeth Holms situation. I can now sympathize, and maybe, just a tad bit maybe understand why she felt the need to do so.

Like many analysts and critics who observed the fallout of Theranos, I think Theranos is not a single occurrence, it’s a symptom of the system. The issue with Silicon Valley Tech bro culture, women leaders often have to compensate for something they shouldn’t have, fake it till you make it.

I don’t agree with what Elizabeth Holms did with Theranos at all, but I sympathize her as being a women in a high position in the corporate world. At least to a point that she felt the need to lower her voice register.

Ultimately, no one should decide whether someone is trustworthy, or being able to command the audience based on their voice register. Because it’s 2022.