No more tentative suggestions

Tentative language undermines persuasion.

When phrases like "I think," "maybe," and "sort of" creep into your speech, powerful ideas dissolve into tepid suggestions. These verbal crutches don't protect us from criticism; they signal to our audience that we lack confidence in our own ideas.

"I think we might want to consider implementing this strategy, if that makes sense?"

“This new strategy will increase our productivity by 30%."

The first drowns in uncertainty, while the second commands attention.

In practice:

Copy three unanswered emails into a doc and circle every hedge word ("just," "maybe," "wondering if"). Rewrite them with identical content but zero hedging - so "Just wondering if you had a chance to look at that proposal?" becomes "What are your thoughts on the proposal?"

The secret power of this exercise is that it reveals how hedging contaminates our casual, low-stakes communication without us realizing it. We save our "confident voice" for big presentations, not realizing that daily micro-communications shape our habitual speaking patterns more powerfully.

The world doesn't need more tentative suggestions. It needs bold ideas, clearly expressed.