Tag: Communication
Discover how pronunciation and communication coaching supports your global team’s success. Improve clarity, confidence, and collaboration with accent training.
Global teams bring brilliance to the table. But when ideas aren’t delivered with clarity, they often go unheard. Supporting communication skills—especially for multilingual professionals—isn’t a “nice to have.” It’s essential.
In this article, we explore why pronunciation and communication clarity coaching is a smart addition to your employee development and DEI initiatives.
Section 1: What Is Clarity Training? Clarity coaching (sometimes called accent reduction or modification) helps non-native English speakers refine their speech patterns, stress, rhythm, and pronunciation—so their message is easily understood in professional settings.
It’s not about “fixing” someone’s voice. It’s about empowering them to speak with confidence and impact.
Section 2: Why It Matters in the Workplace Poor communication leads to missed ideas, underutilized talent, and hesitancy to contribute. For international professionals, these challenges are often magnified by:
- Fear of being misunderstood
- Avoidance of speaking in meetings or presentations
- Negative self-perception around their accent
Clarity training directly addresses these barriers.
Section 3: The Business Benefits Companies that invest in this type of coaching see:
- More confident speakers across departments
- Greater inclusion in leadership and collaboration spaces
- Improved cross-cultural team performance
And, importantly: retention improves when employees feel truly seen, heard, and supported.
Section 4: What We Offer At AstiNova, we partner with organizations to offer:
- Small-group coaching for teams
- 1:1 sessions for high-potential employees
- On-demand video practice tools (coming soon!)
Want to offer this support to your team? Contact us to explore custom solutions for your organization.
I recently went to a networking event where someone had compared my Accent Reduction or English Pronunciation Training with the article in Inc. “Paul Graham on Building Companies for Fast Growth” by Issie Lapowsky. The part of the interview we chatted about was when Graham noted seeing a correlation with CEO’s of Startups with strong foreign accents being a bad indication of their future success. This apparently ruffled some feathers in the Startup community because it prompted him to write this response.
Many of my clients and future clients fall into this category: Brilliant, ambitious, Startup centered, and foreign accented. The majority of clients come to me because they want to be more successful, be better leaders, sound more professional, improve their communication and many to gain more confidence.
I love P.G’s response when he says:
“Everyone got that? We all agree accents are fine? The problem is when people can’t understand you.”
Clear communication is vital in every position in every company. But if you’re a Founder or CEO you are always talking with customers, investors, employees, and all of us random folks who go to networking events. It’s important to be able to sell your product or services even if it’s someone you met at happy hour. You’ve always got to be on.
Being fluent in English is only part one of being successful in the States. Clear pronunciation is part two. I’m sure there are exceptions to this rule but they’d probably be the first to tell you their success could have come easier if they were understood better. You don’t have to lose your accent entirely, you don’t need to leave behind your culture- I’d prefer if you brought it with you. I bring my Boston attitude with me everywhere I go. From San Francisco to Charleston, SC I’m always my authentic self and you should be too.
If you want at least a 50% increase in your English Pronunciation send me an email at karen@astinova.com and we’ll dive in. I’ll give you fast and effective personal training, provide a web based program for easy practice, and work with you over video conferencing so you don’t even have to leave your office.