Do verbal fillers affect a leader's credibility?
You're watching tv and there's a prominent politician on screen being interviewed. Their replies to the interviewer's questions are littered with "erms" "ahs" and "you knows"... The first one or two slip past your attention, but as the interview goes on its the main thing you notice...
Does it matter?
It depends who you are? If you're chatting to your friends, teaching in a classroom, speaking to your colleagues or family, probably not. After all, they will probably just accept that its how you speak, and be fine with it. But if you're a leader the stakes change...
Lack of clarity = lack of credibility
How you speak is an outward reflection of how you think. And lots of verbal fillers indicates unclear thinking. That you're not sure of what you're saying, and where you're going. Worse, that you're working it out as you go along. We don't need our parents, colleagues, teachers, friends to have 100% clarity and conviction in their thinking. But we expect it in our leaders.
Are you the person with the solutions?
Your ability to diagnose and fix real world problems inspires confidence in you. Take Hugh Laurie's Dr House character, or Sherlock Holmes, our belief in these people to see to the heart of an issue and resolve it is second to none. We have complete confidence in their ability to apply their wisdom.
But, imagine Dr House, or Sherlock Holmes scratching their head and "erming", "ahing" and "you know"-ing their way through trying to work out what's going on. It'd definitely diminish their infallibility in our eyes. Verbal fillers make you sound unsure.
Maybe following you is a risk...
Imagine if Tom Cruise's Maverick character in Top Gun was less self-assured, and spoke with verbal fillers? Put yourself in the back of his plane when he's returning to base in his F-14 Tomcat, and he's denied a flyby of the control tower, but does it anyway. "Erm, Goose, I'm eh, you know, gonna try an um flyby, erm, you know, erm, lets see what happens..." Goose would have hit the ejector seat!
Speaking clearly indicates decisiveness
We want to be led by those decisive in thought and deed, not those who deliberate under pressure. Verbal fillers sound like deliberation. Not what you want in high stakes moments. We want to feel that those leading us will make the right decisions in moments that matter.
How to stop using fillers
I started attending the public speaking group Toastmasters International back in 2012. I was so nervous, I spoke at a pace that was almost incomprehensible to the audience. But in my head it was ok. That was until I was persuaded to go through the painful ordeal of watching a video of one of my speeches. Painful but game changing.
Awareness is the first step in change. I realised this as a sports coach too. You can shout all the instructions you want, but if the athlete has no awareness of what you can see it wont change. It feels too abstract. A video makes all the difference. Now they can see what you see.
What should I put in the gaps?
For now, just focus on watching yourself and weeding out those fillers. Pauses will naturally begin to populate those gaps, especially as watching yourself will result in finding a comfortable speed to speak at. We'll talk about pauses another day, or as I prefer to call them, 'audience digestion moments'...
