Have you heard they're working with a Voice Coach

It seems that every time the press has it in for someone they dig about in their personal development profile to come up with a story that they have at some point in the past or are presently working with one of those masters of the dark arts, the voice coach. This evidence is then used in one of two ways:  Either to say it hasn’t made much difference to them!

• George Osborne - sounds ‘posh and dull’.
• John Major  - strangled and monotone
• David Beckham – high pitched and squeaky

 Or to say that they are trying to manipulate us!

• All of the above
• Any politician you care to mention except Margaret Thatcher!

 Why is it Margaret Thatcher is always the exception to this rule? Everyone knows she worked with a voice coach to bring the pitch of her voice down and also learnt to speak in a manner that made it almost impossible for Robin Day, the Paxman of his time, to interrupt her. This though is held up as admirable, maybe because you really can hear a marked difference and maybe, because we all know what she is up to, we don’t feel so manipulated.

Once again the issues surrounding Osborne’s ‘posh’ voice have highlighted a suspicion about people improving or developing themselves. Especially when it is connected to the voice which seems to me to be the really interesting thing about the whole fuss as it shows how much we connect someone’s voice to their identity. You’d think that he was changing his face, though maybe in this age of plastic surgery taking the cosmetic knife to your face or body parts is more acceptable than modulating your tonal range or shifting the placement of a few vowel sounds.  

Working on the voice is no dark art, but it can be very profound. Not because you are changing someone into someone else but rather you are helping them to be more fully themselves. The common issues, especially in business but also for people like politicians, are around nervousness and authenticity. What I mean by that is that when someone is communicating in a professional environment, be it a meeting, presentation or a sales pitch what happens is that they can feel that their voice lets them down or they don’t express themselves in the relaxed confidant manner that they would with say their friends. Often the voice coach is helping them to be their relaxed expressive self, but in a professional environment. I have lost count of the number of people I have come across who, in public, hang up their personalities to speak and go into dull professional mode.

So please don’t kick the voice coach for helping others to be themselves in public. And don’t kick the Osborne’s of this world who may really have a message that they feel passionately about and are willing to put the work in to get that message over to as many people as they can. Having spent my time at many conferences I wish more people would take the time and effort to do that.

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