Speak With Confidence

As account leaders, we need to instill confidence in our teams, our clients, and other parties. The words you choose go a long way towards effecting your credibility, whether you know a lot about a subject or not.

For example, which of these two sentences instill the most confidence?

A. I think our team has been working pretty hard, so, um, I’m fairly certain that we’ll meet your deadline tomorrow afternoon.

B. Our team has been working hard; we will meet your deadline of tomorrow by 3:00 pm.

Yes, sentence B sounds much more confident. It’s more concise, direct and detailed.

Here are five recommendations to improve you credibility in talking or writing.

Less is more

Be direct and concise in both verbal and written communications. Meandering through a topic or dragging out a response will lower confidence in the listener.

For example, rather than saying “Our team is very experience in this area. James has completed a handful pf projects very similar to this one, and Sara has also completed 3-4 projects that earned her raves from the clients. I’ve also worked on quite a few projects like this one, like for Company A, Company B, and Company C. All of them went very smoothly and the clients were thrilled with the results.”, you could instead say “Yes, our team is very experienced with projects like this and I can follow up with some credentials if you like.”

Wishy-washy words to avoid

Avoid using caveats or modifiers that sound vague or uncertain: Kind of; Sort of; Maybe; I think; I believe; In my opinion; A little bit; Maybe; Usually; Often.

For example, rather than saying “I believe the deliverable is sort of long” you can say “The deliverable is too long".

Avoid filler words

Steer clear of: Like, Um, Uh. Don’t be an Um-Monster.

Details are powerful

Use specifics rather than generalizations to drive confidence.

For example, rather than saying, “Let’s aim for some time tomorrow afternoon.”, say “Let’s aim for tomorrow by 5:00 pm Central Time.” You give the listener more information and alleviated their concern regarding the specific time to expect something to be completed.

More phrases to avoid

“I just wanted…"
”I may be wrong, but…”
”This is just my opinion, but…”
”I’ll try…”
”…you know?”
”Does that make sense?”

Summary

Speaking with confidence instills credibility, and that is a critical element of professionalism and leadership. Think about ways that you can replace the faux pas above with more confident words and phrases. Practice makes perfect.

Feel free to share your thoughts or additions in the Comments section below.