Recently I attended a training course in New York City and at the start of the course each of us introduced ourselves.
The senior executive sitting next to me said, and I quote, "I, like, work for a big bank, like, Citibank. I work, um, in technology, and head-up a group of like, 500 people, right. I do, like, technology risk assessment, right, and create, um, processes, to, like, reduce risk, right."
I was shocked.
"Like," "Um," and "Ah" are credibility killers
He was a business professional, a senior director at a major organization, and yet he sounded more like a valley girl. His speech was so infected with "like," "right," and "um" that the message was muddled and he significantly diminished his credibility.
