Case Study
Tomek: Building a Vocal Landscape
Tomek is a director of technical support at a cyber security company, and a self-described learning enthusiast, always looking for new ways to expand his skills. Confident already in front of an audience, he came to LSW to work on something subtler: making it genuinely easy for people to follow and connect with what he had to say.
The Challenge
Tomek’s challenge wasn’t nerves. He could stand in front of a room and speak with confidence. What he wanted to develop was what his coach, Christine, came to call a vocal landscape: the shape and texture that make it easy for listeners to follow along and stay engaged.
Two things brought him to that realisation. He’d noticed the leaders he admired were doing something more structured, more deliberate, than he was, and he had the self-awareness to see the gap. He also thought about it through a framework of the levels at which we create value, implementation, unification and, highest of all, communication. As someone building a leadership career, he knew that to be effective he needed to communicate well, and he wanted to add the right tools to his toolbox to do it consciously.
Executive presence isn't meant to be performative. It's meant to be showing up as my true self.
The Solution
When Tomek sets out to learn something, he starts with a single question: what’s the most effective way to learn it? Some skills need a feedback loop, another person, an environment that pushes you to do the work. For communication, he knew he wanted to work with someone one-to-one, and after researching reputable coaches with a real track record, LSW came up as one of his top choices.
Working with Christine clicked immediately. Her acting background gave him a reference point he could aim for, someone who could command a room and get an audience hooked, exactly the effect he wanted to learn to create. Together they reached a shared understanding that presence isn’t performance. It’s opening up, physically and vocally, so that the qualities you already have can come through. Christine pointed out that he was naturally funny, and that with a conscious effort to show up fully, those inherent qualities would surface on their own. She unlocked what was already there.
The Result
The change Tomek values most is that he’s addressed the gaps they identified together, the biggest being fillers, which were prominent when he began and are now, by his own estimate, all but gone. Just as importantly, he’s come away with the foundations to keep improving over time, and he’s kept putting in the practice, feeling empowered to close the remaining gaps gradually.
One tool stayed with him. To keep his thoughts clear and separate, he imagines each one as a piece of paper he lays down as he speaks, reaching for a new sheet with each new thought. The deliberate, over-the-top movement opens up his body and his voice, and quietly does away with the awkward fillers that used to connect one idea to the next.
He describes the coaching as arriving at exactly the right moment in his career, with an impact he expects to carry into the rest of his working life, and into his conversations at home too.
LSW gave me exactly what I needed at the right time in my career. There’s something special about working on such a critical area with a dedicated coach, one-to-one. Christine gave me exactly what I needed, and I couldn’t recommend it more.
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