In life, it can be very hard to simply stop what you are doing because you may feel like it’s wasted time on your personal journey. Instead of stopping, many of us forget that we can take a pause to recollect ourselves. With everything a speaker has to consider in order to deliver a successful talk, oftentimes there is an urge to provide too much information. We develop these ideas and we want to get them out to the public and make an impact as soon as possible. When a time limit come into play, it adds pressure that most speakers become use to, but even they can still say too much. For example, if you are speaking for 45 minutes, you might first think how are you going to make it through. If you speak for 20 minutes, it may look more manageable.  But if you are speaking for 10 minutes or less, you can’t waste one single word. The pressure to make sure you get all your ideas out can build up and that’s where too much information is provided and combined with filler words. The way to combat this from happening is recognize and make use of the Power of the Pause. 

Pausing helps all parties involved. But let’s focus on you as the speaker. According to word counter.net, most people speak at an average of four to five syllables per second. That’s a real specific breakdown, but for generic purposes they also state that the average person speaks approximately 100 to 130 words per minute. Now, this information can vary by source, but for the sake of time, let’s keep those numbers in mind. Now take a second to think about that in combination with all of the pressure that comes with talking in front of people. There has to be some breathing room somewhere, right? When you use the tactic of “pausing” to your advantage, it gives you time to collect yourself when information make get heavy. At the same time, it lowers the likelihood that you will forget information. I’m not saying that you’ll remember everything, but there shouldn’t be too much that you forget. One of the most important things that pausing allows you to do is to read the room…. Feel the energy or lack there of.. which can in return allow you to make in-game adjustments. When you are speaking for long periods of time, it may not go exactly how you planned, so adjusting on the fly is crucial. Not to mention those points that you really want to make evident, if you pause after stating them, it makes it more memorable.

Some of your audience will be in the know and some will be new to the information that you are giving them. You may not be able to ask questions to each individual person in the moment to make sure they aren’t lost, but what you can do is do your best to make sure they are digesting the information. Pausing helps your audience because it gives them time to think on what you are saying. Think about it, if you are constantly talking, then they have to think about what you are saying AND keep up. Some may be able to do that, but there will also be some that aren’t great at multi-tasking like that. Yes, you may be able to follow up with them after the event through and email list or something else.. but while in the moment, pausing will help ensure that you aren’t drilling them with too much information at once.  Ultimately, you want your audience to take in your message and this is one way you can do that. 

From your audience’s perspective, when you incorporate pauses it helps tone down the fact that you may be nervous. It’s ok to be nervous. But often more than not, we try to disguise it through talking fast or using crutch words. It can be awkward at first, but pausing is the best substitute. Every time you end a sentence, most people automatically pause. It may be only a fraction of a second, but it’s there. But we are talking about pauses that may be a little bit longer and the silence that comes with that can spark a speaker’s anxiety. It’s in those moments that you realize that you truly do have everybody’s undivided attention. And sometimes you need to be reminded of that. So to start practicing, the next time you are giving one of your talks and make a crucial point, try pausing after you state it. Check the energy in the room. Look at the various facial expressions in that very moment. It will help you realize if you are on the right path or if you need to change things up in the moment. It ultimately helps you constantly adapt. 

Make your next presentation, your best presentation!

Sincerely,

Julian A. Leonard
(Founder of The JLeonard Group LLC)

Previous Tip