In my recent article about learning to deal with feedback, I talked about how I’ve been told by many different people that I talk too fast. Today, I’ll be sharing how I’ve learned to cope with that.
The first thing to mention is that while there are people who want me to slow down, there are others who see my speed as one of my greatest strengths. It really depends upon the way that you look at things.
And so today’s article is for people like me who talk a hundred miles a minute, especially when they’re doing it at interview.
Talking Fast and Slow
The first thing to note is that it’s okay to talk quickly, but that it can go either way. You’ll overwhelm some interviewers, while others will turn around and tell you that they love your energy. That’s because we all have our own biases and preferences.
Interviewers: you’ll need to be on the lookout for this too, because it goes both ways. Some interviewers let their own biases mean that they turn away a qualified candidate, and some interviewers speak too much themselves and don’t give their interviewees enough time to talk.
I recommend learning to interview with the STARR method, which follows a five-step process: Situation, Task, Action, Result, and Reflection. I’ll be talking about this some more in another one of my articles, so keep your eyes peeled for that.
In the meantime, let’s go ahead and take a look at the options for when you want to manage talking too fast to try to find yourself a happy medium.
Managing the Temptation to Talk Too Quickly
The tips I’m about to share with you are ones that I’ve shared with other people and which I’ve put to work myself. That makes about fifty years of practice, because I’m sure I started talking at birth.
Tip #1: Listen twice as much as you talk
This will give you an opportunity to process what the other person has to say and acts as a pretty good general rule in any situation.
Tip #2: Don’t talk for more than 30 seconds at a time
Most of the circumstances you find yourself in will benefit from you not talking for more than 30 seconds at a time, though this can be increased to two minutes or so depending upon the topic, situation and audience. After your 30 seconds have elapsed, pause, ask a question and give other people an opportunity to contribute to the conversation.
Tip #3: Get a feel for timings
Building on from that last point, you’ll need to start paying attention to how long you speak and to get a feel for how long 30 seconds is. You can practice this at home with a timer on your phone, and once you’ve got enough practice at it, it starts to become second nature. By doing this, you’ll become a more engaging speaker and be able to deliver a more succinct message.
Tip #4: Remember that some people need more processing time than others
I used to work with a lot of engineers, and I had to continually remind myself that they needed more time than most to process what I was saying. That’s because they were generally logical thinkers who wanted to think about every possible scenario. CEOs and executives are often the opposite, perhaps because they’re so used to making rapid decisions.
The Bottom Line
As with most things, practice makes perfect. If you’re worried that you talk too quickly, the best way to fight that is to practice talking more slowly, but bear in mind that you might also be blunting your best weapon.
Sometimes, you’ll just need to accept that not everyone will appreciate your communication style, and that’s okay. It’s all about playing to your strengths and aiming to work with the people who appreciate your faster way of thinking, talking and working.
That’s about it for me today, but be sure to keep your eyes peeled for more articles and I look forward to seeing you soon.
