I once 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:
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 he was
saying. 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.
And as you’ve observed over the past few months, the
negative impact of your filler words gets exacerbated when you are presenting virtually,
either over the phone or video.
The good news is that the solution is relatively easy. First, you have to become aware that you are 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 filler 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 word 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.