Wherever your toughest questions come from, it’s always desirable to be well-trained, well-planned and well-practised for them in advance.
This applies to tough questions from clients, would-be customers, inspectors, lawyers, the media, job selection panels and beyond.
The alternative to being well-prepared is to say whatever pops into your head at the time.
Being guided by whatever happens to pop in is not a great option – however pretty your head.
Now, it’s statistically unlikely you will end up getting tough questions from a parliamentary committee – known for asking those who appear before them some of the toughest of tough questions.
But there’s much we can learn from those who do get called before parliamentary committees.
Sometimes it’s because those who get placed in front of these committees do sooooo badly!
In this issue we’re looking at two examples of British government ministers who’ve given especially appalling in answers in parliamentary committee interrogations in recent times.
One example comes from a guy called Boris Johnson.
He’s something of an expert in saying the wrong thing in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Boris Johnson does have the advantage of sometimes being incredibly funny.
The problem is that he’s employed, not as a comedian, but as The British Foreign Secretary.
This means that lives are sometimes at stake based on what he says.
Alas this is not so encouraging when you’re locked up in a prison abroad – in a country, like Iran, which is not know for sparklingly fair justice – and you’re dependent on the British Foreign Secretary to get you out.
More about bumblng Boris later.
Give Better Answers Than Downbeat David
Let’s first look at another government minister with great international responsibilities.
He’s David Davis, the Secretary of State responsible for taking Britain out of the European Union.
He has the disadvantage of sometimes sounding incredibly grumpy and fed-up when asked tough questions.
Mr Davis demonstrated this when he gave a series of stumblebum answers to the Parliamentary Select Committee looking at Brexit.
Given that it is precisely Mr Davis’s job to sort out Brexit you might think he’d relish answering the committee’s questions.
But when it came to answering questions about whether any economic impact assessments had been done into the effect of Brexit on various sectors of the economy, Mr Davis sounded as though he would rather be somewhere else…even, perhaps, in an Iranian prison.
His series of responses saying there were no such assessments demonstrated exactly how not to give great answers.
Mr Davis’s early answers consisted of saying “no” and very little else – which may be commendable for their brevity but not for their enthusiasm or inspiration.
If he were to be really helpful to the committee members – and all those watching his performance on television – he needed to jump in much earlier than he did to explain WHY there were no such assessments.
And given that so many were gobsmacked by the early answers – including the committee chairman, Hilary Benn (watch his facial reactions in the video!!!) – it would have helped if the more detailed response, when it eventually came, was fantastically convincing.
However, it wasn’t.
You can judge for yourself here:
Give Better Answers Than Bumbling Boris
Meanwhile if you want an example of the dangers of not being prepared and saying something that seems to just pop into your head, Boris Johnson is the man to watch.
He’s just back from a trip to Iran where he sought to undo the damage caused through an earlier answer he gave to the Parliamentary Select Committee on Foreign Affairs.
For some reason, which still remains a mystery, Mr Johnson surprised the committee by saying that a dual nationality British-Iranian citizen being held in prison in Iran had been there teaching journalism.
That may seem a pretty innocent activity in most places.
I have taught journalism in neighbouring Iraq on behalf of a United Nations organisation and that’s exactly what I was doing. No one seemed to mind.
But in Iran the authorities seem to equate teaching journalism with inciting propaganda against their regime.
The problem with Boris Johnson’s answer was that it didn’t take this into account.
Also it was very different from the government’s previously stated official position which was that the prisoner, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, was in Iran on a holiday.
The Johnson answer was also completely at odds with the position of Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe herself, and her family who is campaigning for her release without having to go on trial by Iran’s revolutionary courts.
You can check out the bad Boris Johnson answer and more on Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s plight here:
The family and the British Government are now expressing hope that Iran will overlook the bad answer and allow Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe home in time for Christmas.
Here’s hoping this hope turns into reality.
Amazing Offer For Boris and David
This might give Boris Johnson, David Davis and other members of the government a more restful Christmas – and time to read “Great Answers To Tough Questions At Work” over their holidays so they can find out how to keep themselves out of unnecessary hot water in 2018.
If they make contact and ask for it, I will send them their own author-signed copy.
They can read the first chapter free on-line at:
Or they can get it straight from Amazon at:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Great-Answers-Tough-Questions-Work-x/dp/0857086391
You might think that making contact with big names like Boris Johnson are unlikely to happen.
But sometimes the universe works in strange ways – creating photo opportunities like this in the centre of London:
It would also be nice to be photographed with a free Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe on the streets of London over Christmas.
Here’s hoping no further bad answers get in the way of her swift return!!!