When the Stakes Are High, Your Communication Should Reflect Your Leadership
Something changes in your voice, your breath, your words, when the moment matters most. Most people are told to manage it. We start by asking what it's actually telling you.
When Your Voice Stops Reflecting Your Leadership
Your voice carries authority, decisions, and influence.
Under pressure, it can change.
Breath shortens. Words speed up. Tone sharpens.
Sometimes language narrows altogether.
You push harder, or you freeze.
And the moment changes how your leadership is experienced.
This is not a preparation issue.
It is not a confidence issue.
You cannot think your way out of what happens in those stressful moments.
When this capacity is in place, your tone stays steadier, you do not rush, and you recover more quickly.
The conversation may still be challenging, but you remain connected and able to respond in real time.
We treat it as evidence.
Start here
Where do you recognize yourself?
My communication changes under pressure.
Hi I'm Martha Rice, Speech Language Pathologist
For more than 20 years, I’ve worked at the intersection of voice, communication, and human physiology.
Through clinical practice and training in nervous system regulation and somatic approaches, I came to recognize something important: when communication changes under pressure, it isn’t always a communication-skills problem. Pressure can change the physiology you rely on to speak, think, and connect.
That insight led me to develop BRAVE – Communication Under Pressure, an approach that brings together voice science, nervous system regulation, and embodied practice—so the voice you already have is more available when you need it most.
Wonder why your communication changes under pressure?