According to Voice Empowerment, Mumbling is one of the top 5 annoying vocal habits- and if people are constantly asking you to repeat yourself, you may be a mumbler.
Mumbling gives your listeners the impression that you don't really believe in what you are saying. And therefore it's probably not worth listening to.
In this video Emma explains why mumbling affects your communication in the workplace.
Even if you don't mumble on purpose: maybe your mouth is lazy with pronunciation or your mind is elsewhere - it is still something you want to avoid.
Clarity is key
The purpose of communication is to get an idea across or to motivate somebody to do something. If you don't get the words out with clarity you can't have an impact. Check our previous blog post for great tips on how to stop mumbling.
Talk with purpose
When we speak, we use words. And words have a lot of potential power. Each word is a crisp little nugget of potential, that as the speaker you can either release or not. Firstly, some words are more important than others.
Back seat words and front seat words
Back seat words are all those boring little in between words. The grammatical noises that neaten up our conversation, give it context, but don’t offer much new meaning. Then you have the front seat words, these are the words that hold your meaning and your intention. They are the words with potential. So, put your attention onto the front seat words, and enunciate properly!
This means there is no room for mumbling. No chewed up little morsels of words being dropped at the end of the sentences. Make sure you pick your words that are essential to your point or request, and say them with crisp consonants and clear vowels filled with intention and you will be half way there.
Mumbling is part of elocution - to find out more about how we can help, book a FREE Discovery Call.
