Filler words ('Uhhmmm') when presenting

1. Awareness.  The trouble with filler words is that we are completely unaware that we’re using them.  My filler word when I first started training was, “okay.”  I probably said “okay” fifteen times every ten minutes.  During my first week with ExecuTrain, I was video taped and told to watch for the “okay’s.”  I was dumbfounded!  I couldn’t believe how many times I used that word. 
2. Practice and persistence.  Once I became aware of the problem, I started hearing it myself while it was happening.  For the next few weeks, when I was teaching a class, I would make a mark on a sheet of paper every time I heard myself say, “okay.”  Just doing that immediately reduced the number of times I used it and eventually eliminated it all together.  Then I started marking other filler words until I had them all eliminated.
3. Silence.  Instead of saying Um, say nothing.  It’s okay to take a moment to stop and think.  What you don’t realize is how little time it takes your brain to process all the information it needs and come back with an intelligent response.  When I was video taped in college during a teaching presentation, I had what I thought were several long pauses.  I was embarrassed and thought my professor would take points off for them.  When I watched the video, I was amazed at how little time actually passed while I was thinking of an appropriate answer to a question posed by someone from my audience. 
4. Substitution.  If you need to look something up, say so.  If you don’t know the answer to a question off the top of your head, instead of saying, “Uh,” say, “I’m not sure; let me look that up for you.”  No one expects you to know everything about everything.  In fact, most of us get annoyed with people who pretend to know everything!

Video tape yourself!