This blog is the sixth in a series of blogs on people that have added something important to the world of communications.  Today, my gratitude is for Patsy Rodenburg. The series is personal and partial, but I welcome nominations for those you think I’ve missed.  I’m grateful to these people because understanding how we communicate is desperately important to bettering our humanity in both business and life.  Miscommunications are sometimes merely irritating, but sometimes fatal.  Business communications are usually banal and boring and only occasionally riveting.  Leadership is tougher than ever – and more than ever about communicating well.  The great business communicators can turn little companies into dominant ones and truly change the world.

Which brings me to Patsy.  If Paul Ekman is the god of Lies and Lying, Patsy Rodenburg is the goddess of Voice.  She’s worked with many great actors and directors, including Judi Dench, Ian McKellen, Antony Sher, Richard Eyre, and Mike Nichols.  She was the voice coach for the Royal Shakespeare Company for a decade.  And she’s figured out a couple of essential things about your voice that will help you become charismatic and change the world. 

She’s written a number of books on the subject of charisma and the voice, and of those I particularly recommend The Right to Speak and Presence.  You can watch her talking about charisma in her own inimitable way here.  But most of all, if you need to communicate as part of your job, or your life, you should begin doing her vocal exercises and breathing work every day. 

Patsy’s work involves helping people bring out their full voices, in order to increase their presence and charisma.  Until you’ve done the work, it’s a little hard to understand, but most people don’t speak with their full voices.  Because of shyness, attitude, emotional scars – you name it – what comes out is only a partial representation of their full personality.  I’ve worked with clients using Rodenburg techniques, and it’s powerfully moving to hear the full voice come out after years of repression. 

Patsy’s other big idea is also connected with charisma.  She describes three kinds of presence:  first circle, second circle, and third circle, to use her terminology.  First circle people are introverted or self-absorbed, and when they are talking to others they focus their energy inward.  Third circle people are bombastic or bullies, and they focus their energy outward in order to dominate.  Second circle people (hint – this is where you want to be) have the right balance between self-awareness and presence for others.

It’s a compelling concept when it’s applied, and a great way to understand charisma and presence.  Patsy Rodenburg is indeed the goddess of Voice.

Thanks, Patsy.