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How many of the conversations you have or the voice mail messages you leave every day are full of what voice experts call "verbal viruses"? Verbal viruses are meaningless fillers that speckle our speech, distract from our message, drain our impact and annoy listeners.
"I call them verbal viruses because they seem to be contagious and we pick them up without being aware of it," explains Susan Berkley, a communications expert and author of Speak to Influence: How to Unlock the Hidden Power of Your Own Voice.
The most common verbal viruses are "uhh," "um," "like," "you know," "well," "OK" and "sort of."...