When politicians are freshly elected they can normally rely on a so-called honeymoon period where they revel in the voters’ adulation and goodwill for a while before things get really tough.

But whether you’re a honeymooning member of parliament, a businessperson in the spotlight or anyone on the end of blowtorch-on-the-belly questioning, then running away from the questions doesn’t help anybody – least of all you!
 
Against the odds, in a British by-election in Richmond Park on the outer fringes of London, the Liberal Democrat candidate, Sarah Olney, has just won an amazing victory.
 

 
However she burned up her victory kudos in an instant with an extraordinarily inept radio interview performance where she suddenly stopped answering the pressure questions and brought the interview to an abrupt halt.
 
Admittedly the interview on Talk Radio was on the rugged side.
 
Broadcaster Julia Hartley-Brewer exemplifies the ability of many journalists to oscillate between charming pussycat and ferocious rottweiler.

 

 

 
But saying nothing in the face of tough questions – and then having your press officer take over the call and claim you had to go to another interview – is not the way to do it.
 
It gives new meaning to the term “has to go”.

 

SILENCE IS NOT GOLDEN WHEN YOU NEED TO GIVE GREAT ANSWERS

 
 
Silence may be golden in some circumstances. And when you are seeking to fully understand and connect with someone then it has it has its virtues.
 
But when you’re in the spotlight in an interview or a tough professional conversation, you need to give great answers to the tough questions – not disappear!
 
To give you the context, Julia Hartley-Brewer – after effusively welcoming her guest – asked “When’s the second by-election?”
 
What she was doing here was having a shot at the Liberal Democrats who are calling for a second referendum on Britain leaving the European Union because they didn’t like the way things worked out with the first one.
 
You can listen here to what happened in what’s been accurately labelled a car-crash interview on the political commentary site known as Guido Fawkes.

 
http://order-order.com/2016/12/02/sarah-olney-walks-interview-spin-doctor-intervenes/
 
When you’re in the questioning spotlight – in a media interview or anywhere else – you need to be a saint…. and remain a visible saint.
 
You need to be unflappable.
 
You need to be the best version of yourself.
 
You can do this by answering the questions wherever possible and each time going on to convey a strong message related to those questions – ideally ending with an example to paint a picture in the minds of your audience.
 
If you’re persistently asked the same question, you need to maintain your position but – to avoid sounding like a broken recorded message – vary the example you give at the end of each answer.
 
Sarah Olney failed to do this – and it will be interesting to see if her new political career can survive from here.
 
If you know you will be in the spotlight – or you want to be prepared for anytime in the future when you will be – you need to plan, prepare and practice your communications.
 
I’ve just had the privilege of working with a colleague to help a multinational team plan, prepare and practice at a conference in Madrid.
 
Team members heroically threw themselves into the challenge and came a huge way as a result.
 
The good news is that there is a methodology for giving great answers to tough questions – and there are a couple of golden formulae which will help you if you apply them in the right way.
 
But like professional sportspeople you need to train for it to be consistently great.
 
It’s a learnable and improvable skill.
 

LEARN FROM THE SPORTING GREATS

Retired English rugby player, Johnny Wilkinson, practiced his kicking for long hours, so he was well positioned to boot that famous winning field goal to bring England the World Cup (against Australia as it happened, but the least attention drawn to that the better, so ignore the gold and green outfits in this picture).
 

 
The world’s best ever cricketer (nothing to do with him being Australian, of course), Sir Donald Bradman, practiced batting as a youngster by throwing a golf ball for hours on end against a corrugated iron tank. The ball would bounce off in all directions and would seek to hit it with a cricket stump in order to perfect his game.
 
It helped take The Don from good to great.

 

 

BOOST YOUR COMMUNICATIONS SKILLS

If you want to boost your career and your organisation’s performance by giving great answers to clients, prospects, journalists, suppliers, tribunals, courts and your own team here are some options:
 
+ Schedule a session at your conference so your whole team can focus on becoming more inspirational communicators in the face of tough questions.
 
+ Book two master classes for those who will be in the spotlight. The ideal is to have them a day or two apart to enable the lightbulb to come on regarding the best approach in the first one, and for team members to have thinking and practice time between the two sessions to ensure they will reach a new high by the end of the second one.
 
+ Do a series of one-to-one coaching sessions as part of a bespoke programme on “Become That Inspirational Business Communicator” where you come to grips with giving the best possible answers to the worst possible questions during and after your presentations and beyond
 
+ Read “Great Answers To Tough Questions At Work”. You can get it – and check out the 19 five-star Amazon reviews – at: 
http://amzn.eu/iaRjQ9q
 
Details of the book’s shortlisting for the Management Book of The Year Awards 2017 are here:
https://yearbook.managers.org.uk/book/great-answers-to-tough-questions-at-work/
 

GIVE GREAT ANSWERS IN LONDON ON 18 JANUARY 2017

And to celebrate the short-listing, something special is happen on Wednesday 18 January 2017 to boost your great answers.
 
There will be two open sessions in Central London.
 
The following video, recorded in Madrid, tells you more. But don’t  be fooled by the fact that it was shot on the Spanish mission…even though the overcast weather looks British.
 

 

 

 
The first London session – Great Answers To Tough Questions At Work – THE PRACTICAL” runs from 10am to 1pm. This is the chance to boost your answering skills with prospects, clients, job interview panels, annual appraisers or whoever.
 
The second London session – “Great Answers To Tough MEDIA Questions” runs from 2pm to 5pm. This helps you deal with journalists way way better than the hapless Sarah Olney.

 

 
The investment cost of each session is £167 per place.
 
If you do the two sessions in the day, and you secure a place before 17 December, you can get the discounted rate of £289 to cover both.
 
Investment cost includes VAT and refreshments….and you get a copy of “Great Answers To Tough Questions At Work” signed by the author himself on the day, no less!!!
 
Email michael@michaeldoddcommunications.com for further details and bookings.
 
The benefit of doing the open sessions – or training inside your company for giving great answers – is that you will never have to do a Sarah and shut down an interview or professional conversation under pressure.
 
With guidance and training you’ll be equipped to give great answers to blowtorch-on-the-belly questions every time!
 
Keep smiling,
 
Michael.


Check out the blogs by:

Nicci Roscoe on “Boost Your Relationships – Like A Street Cat Named Bob” at: 

http://www.nicciroscoe.com/fabulous-blog/


Eilidh Milnes on “Persuasive words at work…” at:

http://www.captain-positive.com/confidence-blog/power-words-to-create-an-award-winning-website