But that <i>isn&#x27;t</i> how it is. Someone who says &quot;um&quot; a lot while speaking <i>doesn&#x27;t</i> sound stupid. They&#x27;re grating, to many in the audience, but that doesn&#x27;t reflect on the speaker&#x27;s ability (except, obviously, their public speaking ability). That means the audience will be focusing on the speaker&#x27;s verbal tics instead of the message that was intended, which is the root problem. The word &quot;stupid&quot; was intended to startle the employee into action by how rude it was.<p>I mean, obviously, in this particular instance with this particular person, it was effective, and for all I know, the manager is a really sharp observer of her reports and knew this was the right approach in this situation. I don&#x27;t think it&#x27;s a good <i>general</i> approach, and I&#x27;m afraid people are going to take away the wrong thing from this article. It&#x27;s not good managerial advice to say, &quot;Tell your employees they sound stupid if they are bad public speakers!&quot; It&#x27;s better managerial advice to say, &quot;Know your employees, and how each individual might be best motivated, and don&#x27;t accept complacency.&quot; You have to be really careful when taking cues from drill sergeants, because for a lot of people, that approach will backfire horribly, and the message will be overshadowed by the delivery style.