The No. 1 biggest communication mistake most people make, says public speaking expert who's coached billionaire CEOs

CNBC

3 days ago

Most people make the same communication mistake at work, says author and public speaking consultant Bill McGowan: They lean too much into corporate jargon, using "bland, boring" words and phrases in an attempt to seem smart and memorable.
Saying you want to "socialize an idea with your colleagues to strengthen cross-functional collaboration," instead of just saying you want to work together to solve a problem, confuses people and sounds really inauthentic, says McGowan, who's coached a variety of celebrities, CEOs and politicians including Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos and Kim Kardashian.
"Typically, people who are jargony and speak in a very corporate way, because that's what they have learned through osmosis, aren't going to connect with [others]," says McGowan, author of the book "Speak, Memorably: The Art of Captivating an Audience."The same goes for when you're giving a speech or presentation: Big words and corporate phrases don't enhance what you're saying, McGowan says. They actually make it more difficult for your audience to follow along, he adds.
"One of the biggest mistakes people make is when they go to create their content for a speech or a presentation, they [sit] down at a laptop first and write it out," he says. "Unless you work in TV or radio, stylistically, you're probably writing for the eye. You're not writing for the ear. And there's a big difference between the two."
Writing for the eye tends to include "longer, flowier, prosier" phrases and parenthetical clauses, says McGowan. "And it's not really how we talk. It's not how we talk across the dinner table."
In your day-to-day speech at work, focus on using active voice instead of passive voice, communications experts Kathy and Ross Petras wrote for CNBC Make It on April 2: "Instead of saying: 'Sales have continued to maintain their upward trajectory in the current quarter,' say, 'Sales increased this quarter.'"
If you ever feel the need to fill a conversational lull by contributing a thought, think twice: Tactful silence can sometimes make other people think you're smarter, according to 2019 research conducted by Erik Schleef, an English linguistics professor at the University of Salzburg.
Just choose your moments of silence wisely, the Petrases wrote: Telling a joke during an important meeting can make you look silly or unserious, but having no questions or thoughts to add during a team brainstorm can make you appear uninterested.
And for your next presentation, instead of spending hours writing specific talking points, prepare a more bare-bones outline, McGowan recommends.
"It can be as minimal or as extensive as you like," he says. Then, record yourself giving a speech on the fly, using only your outline for guidance. "Don't worry if it's full of starts and stops and mistakes. What you're going for is recording the natural way you would say it."
Afterward, transcribe your recording. Clean up your mistakes, but keep the style and tone. This helps you sound more casual and conversational, reflecting how you instinctively express yourself, says McGowan.