by Gilda Bonanno LLC
Recently I attended a meeting where a senior leader of
the organization offered opening remarks.
He spoke for 2 minutes and said “um” 24 times. Doing the math, that’s an “um” approximately
every 5 seconds.
Here’s how it would read if he wrote it out:
“Welcome
to the um, XYZ meeting. We are happy to, um, have you here today. We will, um, share the goals of, um, the new program
and explain, um, the role you will play in the program. And thank you, um, for being here because,
um, the work you do is crucial to, um, the success of our clients.”
While a few “ums” are okay, this many of them completely distracted
from what he was actually saying. I
started listening for the next “um” rather than trying to follow what his
message. It made him sound less
confident, less definite and less clear.
Imagine that you are speaking in front of the Board of
Directors at your company, the media or a potential client. Do you want to sound confident and in command
of your subject? Or do you want to allow your unconsciously-said filler words
to undermine your credibility?
Filler words like “um,” “ah,” “you know” and “like” fill
in the empty space while your brain thinks of what to say next and catches up
with your tongue and your voice which are still producing sound.
The solution is relatively easy. First, you have to become aware that you
using filler words.
Then replace them
with a short pause instead (the pause will feel like an eternity to you, but
not to your audience) while you think of what to say next. Get used to speaking in complete sentences
and complete thoughts.
One way to practice this is by practicing speaking out
loud and when you hear yourself using a filer word, stop. Then go back to the beginning of the sentence
and try again, without the filler word.
A small investment of your time, energy and focus to fix
your filler problem will have a big pay-off: you will sound more confident and
the audience will be able to focus on you and your message.
Or you can do nothing, and keep allowing your filler
words to obscure your competence and undermine your credibility.
7 STEPS TO CONFIDENT PUBLIC SPEAKING |