The Leader’s Voice has a huge personal effect on those who take part. One of our recent delegates commented: “ I can’t tell you how many useful things I’ve found out about myself.”

This makes it difficult to describe.

We therefore asked an experienced manager, consultant, coach and journalist to sit in for part of the first session of The Leader’s Voice and describe what he saw. Here is an excerpt from his description.

“ The delegates stood in front of their microphones on the historic recording floor of Studio 2. Each one read out a short piece of prose and was given constant feedback on their performance from Paul Page in the control booth and from Ken Ideus who stood with them. A lot of the feedback was about technical issues: not least how and where they breathed as they spoke. The recording technology picked up minute aspects of their speech.

So, this could have been a PR course, the recording of a soundtrack or the rehearsal for a spoken word album. But something more was happening.

The delegates had written their pieces themselves, about an issue or subject mattered to them. Gradually their delivery changed. They began not only to change pitch and speed of delivery but to interact with the meaning of what they were saying. Applause regularly broke out as people made breakthroughs to readings which used their voices and began to reflect their personalities. This was unexpectedly moving.

They weren’t drilled until they were word perfect. The session stopped when they understood the issues they had to address in their speech. As they came back into the control booth they started talking about what they’d learnt : about themselves and about each other.

This session was individualistic but earlier they had discussed each others’ first recordings and after lunch in the Abbey Road canteen, they worked together to hone the piece they were delivering.

Paul and Ken commented. ‘At this stage we’re concentrating on voice –skills. Earlier for instance we looked at each person’s breath control; this feeds into how they structure their delivery. But, as you can see, the issue of how we’re saying things leads inevitably to what we’re saying.’

Two things stuck me.

The first was that the event concentrated on developing individuals; not applying a theory or teaching general skills to a group. The event helps leaders find their own solutions, not ones imposed on them. As the session went on, their deliveries became more different rather than following a template

The second was that the studio was a great environment for self-exploration as well as more traditional skills learning. It’s a far cry from a training centre or seminar room; this very difference encourages new thinking. The delegates had started quietly but were interacting and helping each other half way through the first morning. And it was clear that they were reflecting on more than just their voice. In particular, one delegate wanted to discuss a tendency to be quiet and withdrawn at meetings. While main sessions went on on the studio floor, individual coaching and discussion carried on in the control booth.