Many leaders pay close attention to their body language and their words when communicating, but few realize the power of their voice and breathing in building trust with employees – or, in this case, voters.
Using human evolutionary behavior, I use three parameters to assess executives for vocal leadership: their breathing coordination, their voice coordination, and their neuro-emotional coordination. Neither Donald Trump nor Kamala Harris are particularly good at aligning breathing, voice, and the neuro-emotional, which might partly explain why the US presidential race is so tight. But before assessing the candidates in more detail according to these parameters, let’s see how this relates to human evolutionary behavior.
As humans, we tend to go into fight-or-flight mode in stress situations. We may no longer need to flee hungry lions when threatened, but our body language and breathing patterns respond to a stress signal in the same way as they have for millennia. And, because we are social animals, such behavior is highly contagious – those around us pick up on the stress signal and respond, just as a herd of antelopes is prompted to move as one when an individual sees a lion approach and starts running. 
Let’s take a look at how the presidential candidates compare when it comes to exhibiting this behavior.
We react to perceived threats with a short, sharp inhale. This instinctive reaction serves a useful purpose in an emergency, but it may also cause us to lose the ability to think critically – we cannot assess options well and tend to make poor decisions because we are busy “fleeing.”
By contrast, when we are not stressed or in danger, our breathing is calmer: we inhale silently and exhale slowly. When leaders breathe in this way when speaking, they are perceived as not being in fight-or-flight; hence the audience also perceives itself as not under threat.
When it comes to body language, the best way to assess leadership presence, in my experience, is not by looking at the face and limbs, which is what we tend to focus on, but rather by observing the ribs. Our breathing muscles are a huge “tell” regarding whether we are in fight-or-mode, and this determines the type of response we get. In fight-or-flight mode, our ribs move less as they express the “freeze” aspect of feeling threatened.
Whenever you lose some rib movement, through sometimes unrelated physical tensions, your audience may detect it in your breathing patterns and your sound, perceiving you to be in fight-or-flight mode – even when you’re not.
Let’s take a look at how the presidential candidates compare when it comes to exhibiting this behavior.
Trump’s performance in the presidential candidate debate reveals many fight-or-flight symptoms. In terms of breathing, he inhales sharply and uses very short syllables. He also grimaces when he’s displeased by pinching his lips in a rictus grin, reminiscent of the Joker smile in the Batman films.
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Harris’s outflow of air is calmer, so she’s less in fight-or-flight mode in terms of breathing, but she seems almost two-dimensional to me. We see a backward press from her face that makes her smile look flat, creating a sense of tension that could make her appear to lack perspective – or even seem somewhat inauthentic.
The vocal cords or folds are in the larynx and produce sound vibrations for speaking when air from the lungs passes through. When they receive a slower stream of air, it encourages resonance (actually, a microsystem of echoes in the throat). This resonance is also greater if the throat muscles are supple and available for movement.
When it comes to Trump’s voice coordination, we see an issue in the relationship between his head and his neck. His head is pressed down onto his neck, which creates some under-compression in the vocal cords, causing him to lack resonance, and he tends to tilt his head forward and sideways when he speaks, with protruding lips.
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For Harris, the backward press from the face also creates a lot of tension in the throat, which gives her voice a slight shakiness and nasality, adding to the sense of inauthenticity.
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The third parameter I use to assess vocal performance is neuro-emotional coordination. When leaders communicate with employees, it’s usually because they want to motivate them to get desired behaviors from them. They want a certain level of arousal from their listeners’ nervous systems; not by triggering the fight-or-flight response (unless the building is on fire!) but by communicating purpose – getting across what is truly meaningful and important to them. When you want to convince someone, you need to connect to your purpose.
There’s also a three-dimensional aspect to leadership presence that is paramount to vocal leadership: you want to create the feeling of space and availability in the breath, the voice, and the mind. They are then available for expression, which triggers interest in your audience.
In terms of the neuro-emotional parameter, Trump’s whole nervous system is pretty much in perpetual fight-or-flight mode. This perfectly matches his narrative of imminent disaster, which doubtless plays to his most loyal followers – fine if his aim is to boost his popularity amongst them.
In contrast, when Harris looks at the camera and connects to her emotion and purpose, she is powerful and convincing (which I think is why many people believe she won the debate).
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But there are other moments, such as when she pulls her head back and raises her hands as Trump is speaking when her gesturing makes her seem superficial.
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Given the above assessments, how can the US presidential candidates maximize their chances in November’s election by improving their vocal coordination?
On a purely vocal aspect, he needs to do some neck work, especially in the upper part of the neck, to free up his head movement.
The former president needs to consider what his goal is. Does he just want his die-hard fans to like him more? If so, his approach is spot on. But if his objective is to convince undecided voters to vote for him, the fight-or-flight approach could play against him.
In terms of purpose, Trump needs to realize the limits of his “I’m-up-you’re-down” strategy. He should instead focus on drawing power from his purpose, communicating it with passion and resonance to his audience. If he does so, he may become the inspiring leader he aspires to be.
On a purely vocal aspect, he needs to do some neck work, especially in the upper part of the neck, to free up his head movement. He needs to exhale less, make slightly longer vowel sounds, and work on his vocal cord compression to allow resonance.
The first thing Harris needs to do is work on eliminating the backward press that causes tension in her throat. She should then focus on being more three-dimensional and express her core purpose through resonance. For instance, instead of just laughing at Trump when he talks about “pet eating”, throwing her hands in the air and calling him weird, she could try to connect with voters by saying clearly, “It saddens me that you say these things because you have no proof and you are igniting hatred towards people who already don’t have much. Are you sure this is wise?”
If Harris adopted these behaviors, it would enable her to own who she is and openly share her truth, ideas, and purpose – and in this way become an inspiration to many women around the world. 
Ultimately, both candidates would be well advised to cultivate this three-dimensional presence and figure out their core purpose and how to reflect it in their speech and breathing if they want to attract undecided voters and win this election.
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