For a professional image: Say good-bye to filler words and hello to eye contact

Do you strive to look, sound, and perform your best when you present?

Say good-by to filler words

When you’re at an event where several people speak, you’ll notice that some people sprinkle their talk with filler words, especially “uh.” By contrast, those who speak without filler words sound polished and eloquent. I’ve noticed that educators seem to think that they don’t do public speaking, but they do! Perhaps they think public speaking is commercial, but it doesn’t have to be.

Even people who do internal presentations should banish uh’s and um’s.Social psychologists say that one way to be viewed as a leader in a group is simply to speak up, speak well and offer lots of ideas. Notice the middle item, “speak well.”

Besides filler words like “uh” and “um,” people use others words that are unnecessary and therefore sound sloppy. I hear this on the radio often, when a person who is not a professional speaker is being interviewed. Here’s my list:

• Really: “I really want to say how important this is.”
• Actually: “I was actually flabbergasted!”
• Literally: “I literally sank through the floor.” (Don’t you mean “figuratively,” which is the opposite?)
• I mean: “I mean, I think it’s OK to say no.”
• Definitely: “I’m definitely a supporter of environmental awareness.”
• Basically: “Basically, I’m fine with that.”
• Overall: “Overall, I don’t see how we can pay back the debt.”
• Just: “I’m just so upset about the situation.”
• Kind of: “I’m kind of (kinda) ambivalent about him.”
• Sort of: “I’m sort of (sorta) ambivalent about him.”
• Like: “I, like, don’t know how it’s going to turn out.”

Perhaps you’ve heard others.

Some people are naturally good speakers. Even without practice, their speech comes out smoothly from their thoughts, no filler words needed. Others, like me, are not so lucky. Our brains get stuck and we don’t know what to say next. So we get in the habit of using filler words.

Here’s the technique that has worked for me:

1. Write out your speech.
2. Record your speech as you practice. Practice as you would speak, without actually reading the script word for word. You can use a simple tape recorder or Audacity (http://audacity.sourceforge.net/).
3. Listen to your speech. For each uh, um, you know, or other unnecessary word, write it down on your speech.
4. Repeat steps 2 & 3 again. You’ll hear fewer filler words.
5. Repeat until they’re gone!

I find that it takes only 3 tries to banish filler words from my talk. Does that mean they’re gone forever, even from my daily conversation? Uh, no. But when I speak, they are almost completely absent, because I’ve practiced and focused on this issue.

Try it. Let me know the results! Do you have another technique?

Say hello to eye contact

One problem some speakers have is lack of eye contact. They speak to the air over the audience’s head. I tend to do this. My attention is so internal, trying to remember what I have to say, that I’m not focused on the audience. I’d be perfectly happy speaking with my eyes closed!

However, the audience responds better if you speak to them, not over them. To do this, you establish eye contact with one person at a time, for a sentence or two (or a complete thought). Then go on to the other.

I practice this, too. Here’s my technique:

I place some animals on the back of an armchair, stand up, and talk to them. I look them in the eye, one after another. When I spoke, this exercise helped me to remember to focus on members of the audience.

Try it. Let me know the results! Do you have another technique?