Managing people with as someone with a stutter (30F)
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Managing people with as someone with a stutter (30F) Starting this year I got promoted to manager of a team at my job - something I never thought would happen because of my stuttering, but here I am. For a bit of context, I work as a consultant in management of environmental resources. The team I’m managing is composed some tech staff, someone who collects data, someone who process it, someone who writes software, and some external advisors that come and go to give input. I mostly write reports, organise, and manage the team at this point. I still feel anxious when speaking, but overall I’m more confident now, which has improved my fluency. To most people, I pass as someone who just speaks slow and has a weird intonation. I sporadically repeat words or drag syllables, but not often. I’ve heard recordings of my voice and I sound like a drone, never “get the punchline right”, and overall speaks at a low volume. Dragging syllables doesn’t bother me as much as the slowness of my delivery. Oftentimes, conversations go to fast for me to intervene. I’m too slow to jump in before someone else does. My ideas often get overridden before I can even defend them or because I don’t express with enough conviction. Sometimes I need to make so much effort to speak that I just deliver an useless word salad or lose track of the conversation. What can I do to improve and speak faster and clearer in job setting, particularly as the manager? Note: This is not a rant. I doubt my stutter will ever fully fade, but I’m happy that I’ve progressed to the point where it isn’t an impediment to have some responsibilities in life. Any advice is welcomed.