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Is being tongue-tied at work holding you back from opportunities?
Like in many professions, communicating and interacting with other employees, consumers or members of management is an essential part of the workday.
So how can you improve your speech to avoid the misfortune of becoming tongue-tied? The answer is simple, practicing the following tips in your everyday speech and soon these tips will show great improvement to your tongue-tied misfortunes.
Confidence is a key virtue to avoid becoming tongue-tied and learning how to speak clearly. Developing a source of confidence in your speech will enable you to speak your mind without hesitation or second-guessing.
The solution: identify your weaknesses.
Some suggestions could be that you are speaking too fast, you don't know enough about your topic, or you lack a bit of self-confidence. But, you can fix all of these issues. For example, if you find that you are talking too fast and your co-workers cannot understand you, take a breathe and focus on slowing down your speech.
Whatever the issue is, just remember, there is always a way to overcome your weakness and gain confidence.
Whether you are conducting a meeting, performing a presentation or simply talking business to a client, organizing your material and thoughts is essential. Not only will this method allow you to obtain a clear and focused mindset, but it will help you gain consciousness.
So, how do you organize your thoughts?
First, you can clearly articulate your topic, your general purpose, central ideas and main points you want to touch upon. Next, you will need to create a framework for your speech. This is the process of outlining your points in order of how you would like to discuss them.
Let's use this method in an example. John is preparing for a meeting with his employees to discuss implementing a new work procedure. Before John goes into the meeting, he needs to identify his topic and the meeting's general purpose. He has already identified that the topic and general purpose is to inform his employees about the new work procedure. Next, John has to recognize his key points he would like to touch upon. This may include new benefits, new risks, new operational activities, and etc. Finally, John will create a framework for his meeting. John will develop points for each section of his meeting (introduction, body and conclusion) and then organize them into chronological order to help him stay on track and avoid getting tongue-tied.
The problem that arises when you read word for word is the process of fixation. The term fixation can be defined by the process of your eyes stopping on each word as you read. To eliminate the probability of getting tongue-tied, many people will read their speeches word for word. By doing so, you are actually enabling yourself to the risk of confusion, which leads to becoming tongue-tied. Because you are so reliant on reading your speech, you can easily lose your position and become distraught.
Additionally, when you become so focused on looking down at your paper, you eliminate the possibility of constantly reading your audience and connecting to them in real-time. And when there is no personal connection, you won't understand their needs or wants, making your speech impersonal dull.
Practicing your speech is a great method to overcoming the fear of becoming tongue-tied. If you are presenting a speech in front of an audience, it is very important to practice your speech to not only become familiar with the words and concepts but to instil a bit of confidence in your work.
So how many times should I practice my speech?
It is said that if you are addressing an audience with a 20-45 minute speech, you should aim to practice every slide and paragraph at least 10 times, from start to finish.
Pronouncing your words truly makes a difference and helps eliminate the possibility of becoming tongue-tied when you are speaking to someone. When you practice your pronunciation, you will sound clearer, speak fluently and sound professional.
Here are some exercises you can do at home to practice pronouncing your words:
Do you want to learn how to avoid being tongue-tied during a zoom call? Visit our other blog to learn how to improve speech clarity in your professional zoom call.