Communication Skills Tip: Punctuating Your Speech Through Pausing

In Lanartco's tip of the week March 11, 2009, I talked briefly about pausing as a way of accentuating the punctuation in your speech. I want to say more about this because many of you may never have thought of pausing in quite this way. Think about all the times you have heard someone speak ineffectively (a presentation from your colleague, a long-winded voicemail from your direct report, or even a conversation with your best friend) because they used fillers, ran one sentence into the next, or never brought their pitch down at the end of their sentence to indicate they were done talking. Have you ever felt frustrated listening to these types of speakers? Now think about a well-written piece of writing you have recently read. You probably didn’t notice the punctuation because the writing flowed so well. It is precisely this type of experience that we want our audience to have when they are listening to us speak. We don’t want them to focus on the way we are speaking. We simply want them to receive a great communication. And in order for this to happen, we have to put the commas, semi-colons, dashes and periods into our speech so that our readers can follow our messages fluently. And the best way I know how to tell you to practice this is to take a good piece of writing and read it aloud. Ask yourself the value of a comma, semi-colon and period and allow each pause to vary in length based on the value you give it. Sometimes, just having this idea in your head can change the way you use pauses and eliminate all those awkward fillers and inappropriate pacing you might use when you talk. If you’ve never listened to Suze Orman, our modern day financial guru, take a couple of minutes to indulge her because she is one of the masters of this skill (personally I like her earlier speeches because they are a little less intense.) Using pauses in your speech is one of the easiest ways a person can increase their vocal effectiveness. Try it. I think you’ll like it. To be added to Lanartco's Communication Performance Tip of the Week, please connect to this link or send your email address to info@lanartco.com