This routine should take no more than 10 to 15 seconds (including the walk) but it will make you look confident and in control. Take a deep breath and as you do so, imagine that you are drawing the energy of the room in. Walk confidently to the place where you are going to begin speaking, look at the audience and smile. When you take the stage, you get one chance to make a good first impression. Below are seven examples of when a pause will be ‘rightly timed’ and effective. There are several, powerful ways to use the pause to maximum effect. I agree but that begs the question, when should you pause when speaking in public? I mean, you can’t replace all the words with pauses. Mark Twain said, “The right word may be effective, but no word was ever as effective as a rightly timed pause.” You look thoughtful, confident and credible.You reduce unnecessary fillers words like ‘ah’ and ‘um’.Your audience is able to absorb what you are saying.Your audience will also look at you when you speak.The audience cannot feel or hear your heart.They won’t think that you’ve forgotten what to say next. Pauses of a few seconds will feel natural to an audience.While understandable, especially for novice speakers, when we step back and look at these concerns objectively, we see that they do not stand scrutiny: Feeling their heart pounding in their chest.Being afraid that the audience will think that they’ve forgotten something.When I work with clients to help them improve their pubic speaking skills, I always tell them that one of the most important things that they can learn is when to say nothing at all.Īnd yet, many people have a hard time with pausing, even for one or two seconds. The reasons are varied but common ones that I hear include: And if we are struggling to keep up, it doesn’t make you look good.” SILENCE IS GOLDEN … BUT NOT EASY If you don’t pause, it’s difficult for us to follow your thoughts and ideas. Because it’s not about you it’s about the audience. Manuel,” I continued, “I understand that it can feel uncomfortable to pause, but you know what? It doesn’t matter. They were unanimous in saying that the pauses had improved the speech dramatically. I then asked his fellow students what they thought. I could feel my heart beating and everyone was looking at me.” When we were finished with the exercise, I asked him how he felt during the pauses. It wasn’t the most elegant way to speak, but after a while we developed a rhythm. I would then lower my hand and he would continue. Manuel began to talk and every few sentences, I would raise my hand and silently count, “One thousand and one, one thousand and two.” Manuel would stop speaking. And you cannot begin talking until I lower my hand.” Whenever I hold up my hand signaling ‘Stop!’ you must stop talking. “Manuel,” I said, “I want to you to do your speech again. I stood up and walked to the back of the class behind the other students. I kept encouraging Manuel to slow down and pause, but to no avail. At times, I wondered how he could breathe. And there were few pauses between his sentences. He was bright, thoughtful and fully engaged. One of my students was a fellow named Manuel. A few years ago, I was teaching a class at IESE in Barcelona. I teach public speaking and presentation skills at a few Executive MBA Programmes in Switzerland and Spain.
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