Speaking well is so very important. You'd agree, right? Whether you are a Parent, Professional, Senior Executive, Senior Leader, Professional Salesperson, Trainer, Speaker, Author, Consultant, Coach ... you'd be expected to have a great Voice and to use Power Language.

So much for what you'd expect and what you actually hear. Are you one of those people who find it hard to speak up and to persuade others? Do you often find that you run out of the right words to say when under pressure? Or do you use more words than necessary to explain your point ... usually in a round about way and perhaps not get to the point?

It's a paradox.

We spend so many years at school and tertiary studies that although we learn how to speak grammatically correct and to be able to write in an intelligent fashion, we seldom learn are being taught how to demonstrate communicative excellence.

Asked to prepare and execute an important speech or formal presentation, we often struggle to put together the content, make up the slide deck, and spend very little time, if at all, on the presenting of the speech.

No wonder most presentations are so awful! Both for the poor listeners and also for the presenter!

Never fear. The skills of Power Voice, Power Language, and Power Persuasion can be learned. Once learned, you will be able to have that special quality that managers fear, adopt the right to speak and thrill and persuade your audiences.

How did we lose our Voice in the first place? Go back to your young self. In those early days, you were encouraged to speak up and make yourself heard! Then as you grew older and started primary school, your Voice was taken out by your teacher who probably asked you to stay quiet as she rattled on her teaching for the day.

Then as we kept on going through school and then university, we often sat quietly in rows and were asked not to speak up until we were asked to do so.

Heaven help you if you gave the wrong answer! Shouts from the teacher, ridicule from your lecturers and the shame of not having the 'right' answer made you shut your Voice up until you had a perfect answer!

Life isn't like that. Life isn't perfect. Life is made to be messy, and for us to experiment with theories and postulations for open discussion. I really don't think anyone gets it right the first time.

Let's all learn to acquire a liberated Voice - one that expresses who we are and what we think without fear of being judged or criticised.

I'm told that the two greatest fears in life are of being judged and being abandoned. Both states are rather messy to have. No wonder we often keep our traps shut rather than being unfairly judged.

But that's no way to live a life.

Here's one way to solve your reluctance or social anxiety to speak up.

Naturally, I'd expect that you'd have something to say or comment on the topic. That's a given in this example. So here are 3 steps to think fast and speak smart, by using the acronym PET:

1. Pause
Yes, pause. Don't rush into replying or answering the question. It's going to look canned or at worse, you didn't take the time to think about what you're going to say. Take a deliberate pause to think quickly and carefully about how you should approach the other person's concerns. Ask for more information if you're not clear about the question, or ask the other person to give an example of what they mean.

2. Edit
After you understand what is important to say, edit and frame your sentence/s. Make sure you keep to short sentences of around 10-12 words. Do not use any 'uhhms' and 'ahhhs'. Make it a powerful sentence in your mind. Breathe ... and at the peak of that breath ... then...

3. Talk
Talk. Don't ramble. Deliver your thought in an assertive way. Say just enough, don't add any extra explanations or else you'll end up tripping over yourself with too long an explanation. Done. Easy, right?

There you have it ... Pause and think carefully about how you should respond to the question or comment. Edit and frame the sentence, use strong language. Then talk without making further edits.

PET ... Pause, Edit, Talk.