Read can provide you with personalized coaching recommendations to help you become a better speaker. To get coaching, simply add Read to your meetings, and then view the report after. Coaching is one of the main sections found in a meeting report:
These recommendations are always completely private to you, regardless of who else shares access to your meeting reports.
You can also find an aggregate report of all your coaching results over a specified time period, on your Coaching page:
If you're not receiving coaching results on your reports, please see this article.
Coaching results breakdown
Read's coaching results are broken down into three different categories, each with multiple metrics and other details. The categories are:
- Clarity, which measures how coherent your speech is
- Inclusion, which measures how equitable and appropriate your speech is
- Impact, which measures how you are perceived, and how others perceive you
Clarity
Clarity is measured based on your talking pace and the number of filler words you used.
Talking pace
This is your average rate of speech, measured in words per minute (WPM). Read recommends keeping your talking pace between 130 and 175 WPM for optimal clarity and comprehension.
In your coaching report, you'll see a list of times when your pace was outside the target range. If you have the Enterprise plan and have video playback on your report, you can also jump to play that moment in the video by clicking on each.
Filler words
This section lists all of the different filler words that you spoke during the meeting. Filler words are words such as "um," "you know," "like," and so on that a person may use when they're taking time to think, to avoid silences, or even to convey uncertainty.
Read recommends that you keep your total number of filler words to less than 4% of your speech for maximum clarity. Read will list out all of the moments when you used filler words throughout the meeting. Clicking on each word lets you look through all of the places they appeared in your transcript. You can also click on the timestamped moments to jump to that time in the video (assuming you have video on your report).
Inclusion
Inclusion is measured based on your usage of non-inclusive terms and number of interruptions.
Non-inclusive terms
Read tracks your usage of terms that are potentially offensive or harmful to people, and should generally be avoided in a work environment. The target for non-inclusive terms is less than 1 per meeting on average.
Just like the sections above, you can click on the different moments to jump to them in the transcript/video (if playback is available). It's worth noting that sometimes, non-inclusive terms can be context-dependent, and may have different connotations in different cultures or geographic regions. So keep this in mind when reviewing your results, and don't get too worried if you disagree with Read's assessment - remember that these results are only visible to you. The list of non-inclusive terms is not customizable.
Interruptions
Read will detect when you interrupt someone else while they were speaking. Read recommends keeping your interruptions to fewer than 1 out of every 10 times that you start speaking (called a "turn").
If Read detects that you had any interruptions, they'll be listed here, and you can click on them to jump to that portion in the transcript/video (if playback is available). While interruptions can sometimes be unavoidable, especially when on a video call where there may be a lag between participants, we believe you should strive for zero interruptions to help create a welcoming environment that encourages all meeting participants to have their voices heard.
Impact
Read measures impact through the use of two different scores, called bias and charisma, as well as by tracking your questions asked.
Bias
Read computes a bias score, which measures how positively or negatively you respond while others are speaking. The recommended target for bias is 80 and above.
This methodology is based entirely on Read's visual analysis of you while others are talking, which is looking for signs of positive reactions based on things like your eye contact, head nodding, and facial expression.
The overall score at the top is simply an average of your bias across all of the participants who spoke during the meeting. This number is also shown on the "Deep Dive" section of your report.
Charisma
The charisma score is essentially the inverse of bias - this score tells you what other people's bias was towards you. The recommended target for charisma is 80 and above.
Just like the bias score, your overall score here is an average of your score for each participant, and this number also appears on your "Deep Dive" tab. Our general recommendation to improve your charisma is to focus on improving your clarity and inclusion. As these improve, the way that people respond to your speaking should also improve. Other tips include trying to vary your inflection and speak with a positive tone.
Questions asked
The last section in your coaching report are your questions asked. This is just a list of the different (non-trivial) questions that you asked during the meeting.
While there is no set target for the number of questions you should ask during a meeting, Read generally recommends that you ask questions as a way of encouraging participation from others and creating a more collaborative environment.
Coaching overview page
Read compiles your coaching results across all of your meetings into a single report, which you can find by clicking on Coaching in the side navigation menu:
On this page, Read will show your averages across each of the different metrics. By default, these are aggregated over the past 30 days, however you can adjust the lookback window using the drop-down menus at the top right of the page.
As you click through each section, you'll see a list of meetings where your coaching results were outside of the target range, as well as some high level trends like your most common filler words or non-inclusive terms, or the people you have highest bias or lowest charisma with. If you have a video-enabled plan (Enterprise or Enterprise+), you'll also be able to see clips from the particular relevant moments in those meetings.
Related articles
- Why is coaching not available on my report?
- Methodology | About Sentiment, Engagement, and the Read Score