The Power Of The Pause

When being interviewed, there are many tools which you can employ to ensure that your communication is seamless and your audience is being clearly communicated with. Especially in a public forum, more specifically the pageant stage, the difference between a few faulty fumbles and a speaker that leaves you speechless can certainly make or break a winner. Here we will explore how a pause can help to serve you as you master the gift of the gab – the MISS way!

1. Less I, More Eye

Looking away while speaking can signal discomfort or a lack of confidence to an audience. Sometimes, however, we often break eye contact and look away when trying to access a memory or put together a phrase, as the brain uses eye contact to help it retrieve words. If you pause before speaking, you will be better able to locate that memory or compute that phrase in advance, and so you can re-engage your eye contact and deliver a more confident response, once you’re ready.

2. Catch The Question

At times, in conversation, if we’re not listening actively we may hear things from a familiar pattern, which may be slightly different from what’s actually being communicated. Also, interviewers sometimes end a question with a deliberate twist or curveball. Taking a pause after the question is asked, will ensure that you’ve caught exactly what’s being thrown at you, so your response can be closer to the point.

3. Quick Pause, Clean Edit

Even when you know where the question is headed, don’t butt in and begin answering before it’s finished being asked. Not only is the cross-talk not cute, when listening to a TV or radio show, but also a quick pause after their question and before your answer, will allow your audience to receive a clear, clean quotable response from you.

4. Think It, Then Speak it

Finally, in case any of the previous examples weren’t clear enough, the main purpose that taking a pause serves, is for you to process. When you take a pause, you can analyze what’s being asked, who’s asking this and how that impacts on your response, what you think a suitable answer should be and a quick edit of that before it leaves your mouth with the confidence that says, “Yes. That is my final answer!”