Have you ever been at an event and someone was invited to speak and the first thing that came out from their mouth was ‘Hmm’, ‘You know’, ‘Hah’ or something like that? Permit me to ask, what was the first thing that came to your mind when you heard those words? Did you think of that person as intelligent or confused? Was it a turn-off or an attractive quality? Did it cause you to lose interest in what they had to say or were you engrossed right from the start?
There are some things you do not want to do when giving your speech and using filler words or vocal crutches is one of them. Without mincing words, filler words certainly make you look less intelligent than you really are and I am sure you do not want people to think you are less intelligent than you really are. When you get to speak for an hour and a large chunk of your time is spent on filler words you can be sure your performance will be anything but five-star and everyone sure wants a five star performance every now and then. Everyone wants to be articulate when they speak but one sure way not to be articulate is to fill your presentation with vocal crutches.
So why do people use filler words in their speeches? Is it that they do not know what they want to say or that perhaps they know what to say but have no idea how to say it? Whatever the answer is filler words will always detract from the beauty of your speech any time so your best bet would be to avoid them as you run the risk of disconnecting from your audience depending on the kind of people they are.
The undeniable fact remains that your speech is better when you do not use vocal crutches. What can help is for you to know your material adequately and practise saying the same thing in different ways such that if you are stuck saying something you can easily switch to another form. Your audience will not begrudge you your right to make a mistake or two but if it becomes a recurring decimal then you just might be shooting yourself in the foot. To quote Cato the Elder, “Grasp the subject the words will follow”.
Another way out is to make a conscious effort not to use vocal crutches during your presentation and to mentally steer your energies in that direction. This mindset shift might just be all you need to eradicate vocal crutches from your presentation. If you can visualise your speech proceeding without vocal crutches then you are well on your way to doing without them.
Vocal crutches are one of the best ways to ruin your speech and disconnect from your audience. In the words of Dorothy Sarnoff, “Make sure you have finished speaking before your audience has finished listening”.
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