by Gilda Bonanno LLC
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:
“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 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 voice which is still producing sound.
The negative impact of your filler words also 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/remember what to say next. Get used to speaking in complete sentences
and complete thoughts, rather than stringing multiple thoughts together, with
filler words in between.
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. Do this until you can get through
several sentences without filler words. (You can also record yourself doing
this exercise).
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 overuse of filler
words to obscure your competence and undermine your credibility.
© Gilda Bonanno LLC - Gilda Bonanno serves as a trusted advisor to executives and entrepreneurs to transform their communication, presentation and leadership skills. She has worked with companies on 4 continents, from Chicago to Shanghai and Rio to Rome. The instructional videos on her YouTube channel have received over 1.5 million views and her e-newsletter has reached subscribers in over 45 countries since 2008. For other articles or to receive Gilda's e-newsletter, visit www.gildabonanno.com