Embrace the Pause, Defeating Space Fillers

Pause to Sound Professional

Whether you’re starting work today or are an established professional, two speech habits can keep others from seeing you as the intelligent and knowledgeable person you undoubtedly are. This posting addresses one of those habits: the use of space fillers.

Space fillers are the verbal hiccups virtually all of us unconsciously use when we don’t know what to say next. They include “uh,” “um,” “you know,” and “like.” They may also include a string of words. I can always tell when the female co-host of a morning political show doesn’t know what to say next when she says, “I’m just saying . . . .”

Banishing Space Fillers

By themselves, space fillers aren’t evil. When used occasionally, they can make a speaker appear less programmed. However, when they pop up non-stop in the course of a presentation or an interview, they quickly ruin a speaker’s credibility. He or she sounds ill prepared and unknowledgeable.

I’ve worked with lots of professionals to eliminate space fillers from their speech, and I’m always surprised at how easy this can be. For the vast majority of people, once they are aware the extent to which space fillers have invaded their communication, they can quickly stop them.

If you need to accomplish this, I’ve found two techniques to be particularly useful. Ask a close friend or a colleague to audit your speech. Every time they hear a space filler, ask them to make some sound, for example, tap a pen on a desk top. In most cases, after an amazingly few number of taps, you’ll slow your speech and stop yourself before uttering “uh.” Alternatively, the next time you prepare for a presentation or an interview, schedule a practice session and record yourself. Review that recording carefully. If it’s filled with space fillers, you know you need more practice.      

We resort to space fillers when our brains need a split second to catch up with our mouths. So slow down. Embrace the pause. A few nano-seconds of silence will always make you sound more thoughtful than a statement filled with “you knows.”

What Do You Need to Know?

Avoid using space fillers (uhn, uh, you know), which make you sound uncertain. Pause instead.

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This year’s summer hires you will have fewer opportunities than their predecessors had to interact in person with employers and recruiters. Because of social distancing requirements, you’ll need to maximize every Zoom meeting to which you are invited as well as phone calls and emails. Don’t allow an unforced error to keep you from landing a job offer this fall.

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