Read This: It’s, kind of, Important.

.

As a thought experiment, consider this — if I had entitled this piece

Read This: It’s Important.

Would that have had an impact on you?

One of the most important things I coach people on these days is fillers…the awareness and removal of extraneous and unnecessary sounds, words, and phrases.

Phrases, like, you guessed it: kind of.

Um, ah, like, sort of, maybe, absolutely, 100%, right? These words and sounds, more often than not, are fillers. Fluff. What I call content killers. Even the phrase “I think” has the potential to undermine you — because, by the very virtue that you are speaking, listeners will rightly assume that you also think it. And if literally is a go-to in your vocabulary, you literally need to stop saying it unless it is literally applicable.

Just the other day, I watched a brilliant artist deliver a pitch intended to reach a $10,000 funding goal. It was a pitch peppered with the phrase kind of, and the words like and, right? I couldn’t help but think about how much more potent the pitch would be if they considered and amended their opening statements.

(I also wondered, and I am very curious about this, am I the dinosaur here? Do various generations even hear those words and phrases? Are they immune to this — does clear language still have the impact I believe it does?)

During the pitch, this artist was tremendously careful about the other language used, using pronouns and non-gender-conforming language. It struck me as incongruous not to care about the addition of fillers.

The first statement was, “I kind of got this idea from a couple of things” translation: “The idea for this project stemmed from two things….”

Another statement made was: “My partner was, like, we should do this project together, and she was kind of like, “We should do this together, right?” as a coach, I would suggest trying instead: “My partner approached me, with great enthusiasm (or fill in some other type of adjective of how they approached you) and said, “Let’s do this!”

By the way…the intonation of this new phrasing can still be casual and easy-going. It can and should retain your personal style. The addition of assertive, direct language gets to the heart of the matter — quicker. In this case, it could be worth up to $10,000.

The New York Times just posted a terrific article on languishing a few weeks ago, and that is how language filled with fillers strikes me — it’s languid, it’s “blah,” and in some ways…yes, I am really going say this: It’s lazy. I believe the language we chose to use in our daily lives has a powerful impact on our mental and physical health. It also impacts how people receive what we say…and how seriously we are taken.

We need to pump up the jam and filter our awareness all the way down to the barest essential words we use or chose not to use.

This is a call to become poets in motion—distill your messages down to their barest and most beautiful essence.

And, to answer my earlier query: Yes. Language matters.

So listen to those insidious little fillers that take up space in your everyday speech, phrases like you know — which if every time you said it someone actually said, “Yes, I do know,” or “No, I don’t know to tell me more“ — imagine how much more you’d truly have to qualify what you are saying. (Once, when I was coaching a CEO in Chicago, every time he said, ‘you know,’ my partner and I responded by saying ‘banana.’ It was hilarious and unnerving, and the perfect way to get the point across that the filler words of you know have as much meaning as the word banana. The CEO then had his team do the same thing, and within two weeks, he eradicated the phrase “you know” from his vocabulary.)

All this is to Say:

Say what you mean and mean what you say.

Say it clearly.

Say it succinctly.

Say it with the emotion you are feeling.

Say it with the intention with which you want it to land.

Words are a luxurious gift, regardless of what language you speak. Make your speech matter. Move the world forward by speaking with dignity and distinction. See what it is like to make declarations. If afterward, you find you are wrong in your assertion. Try a simple apology or the magnificent and powerful statement of, “I was wrong.” Then move ahead to make it right.

Observe and Experience the power that comes from an assertive language punctuated with emotion and modulations rather than words that (probably) undermine you.

Slow down enough to hear what you are saying. Then say it in the most precise and wonderful way that you can.

I guarantee you people will receive your message and you in a whole new way.

Catherine Glynn is the CEO and Lead Executive Coach at Voce Veritas, The Founder of A.R.T. (Audacious Raw Theater). She’s in the process of becoming a more disciplined writer. Look for her upcoming book Leadership Distilled in the Late Spring of 2021.