Letting You Stutter
Posted on: February 16, 2012
- In: Posts
- 4 Comments
This was very interesting to me. In a very succinct way, this quick comment by a friend sums up the covert stuttering experience for some people.
A friend asked how my new job was going. I started a new position in mid November, something that is quite different for me and out of my area of expertise. Part of my responsibilities include providing resources and support to 15 adult education teachers.
In an email, my friend commented, “Wow Pam, you are amazing. You have to manage 15 staff and they let you stutter the way that you do. That is very inspirational.”
To me, this spoke volumes about how we hide our true selves, and how we feel about exposing our differences at work and in professional environments.
What do you think?
4 Responses to "Letting You Stutter"
February 16, 2012 at 11:16 AM
I remember being in a management team meeting and as it came my turn to give a report for the team manage (hospitality), I found myself saying, please bear with me while I stutter through my report. The chairperson responded, that’s all right.
This did not make me feel any better however, I stuttered so badly throughout the report. I was merely feeling out my audience to see if they were comfortable with me being myself. They were, it was me who was not comfortable in being my authentic self.
What I am saying really is that we need to let ourselves stutter the way we do, because we would be so surprised to see how many people accept us the way we are and we have such a hard time accepting ourselves.
Hope my comment makes sense.
February 16, 2012 at 5:54 PM
I read this before I went to work today and was thinking about it all day.
It seems that as you have made more room for your stuttering so to have other people in your life. It is on your terms and this is good. Because today I kept feeling something snippety like, “Oh, thank you for letting me stutter because that is part of who I am on this planet.” But really, I am letting myself stutter and so, too, are you letting yourself.
Your skills shine straight on through your stuttering.
Make Room For The Stuttering 
February 16, 2012 at 7:27 AM
Pam – I think your friends comment shows great insight. Whenever I refer to my stammer, my friends and colleagues tend to say “oh, but you don’t stammer!” which really illustrates how hard I have worked to keep it hidden. Yet you know, as a fellow Careers Guidance Counsellor, just how much we rely on our speaking skills to do our job. Now, whenever I give a presentation on stammering to any audience, I nearly always start by saying something like “For those of you who are thinking to yourself “this guy doesn’t stammer!” let me tell you that I do, have always done and always will !” With any luck, my speech then breaks up completely, thereby demonstrating the point that I am trying to make!