‘A Quick Question For You…’ – Use Verbal Communication Skills When Caught on the Spot!
How to respond quickly and build (rather than damage) your credibility when you are asked an unexpected question
You are a young/not so young/mature (delete as appropriate) executive, professional/manager/director (again, delete as appropriate) grabbing a coffee first thing on a Monday morning. Your boss (or boss’s boss or head of another department) spots you, ‘Ah, glad I’ve run into you. I have a quick question for you…’. Or you are in a meeting and having gone through your carefully prepared briefing, someone asks you a question that you really weren’t expecting.
These are the situations that get our heart pumping just that little bit faster; perhaps we start to sweat a little and our equilibrium is threatened. And with good reason. We know intuitively that our credibility is on the line. If we respond to the question with aplomb we will look good; our reputation for ‘knowing our stuff’ and for being ‘on the ball’ is enhanced. Or we fluff it, giving the unavoidable impression that we are incapable of thinking on our feet. Of course, not every such situation is career defining, but we know that over time, the impression built up in these many such interactions will be either positive or negative – and we know which we’d prefer.
What’s going on?
Of course, every situation is different, but in most cases, we need to:
- Make sure we fully understand what is being asked so that we answer the right question.
- Quickly prepare a good response in our head.
- Speak clearly and create a strong positive impression.
And we need to do the first two instantaneously and take no longer on the speaking part than is necessary.
How we go about it
Some people are naturally brilliant in these situations. In my experience, less than 10% of people are at their very best when they are caught on the spot; they shine and never fail to impress whoever it is they are talking to.
There are another 10 to 15% of people who are really pretty good most of the time. They are sincere and succinct, coming across as confident and in control. They recognise that they could be even better, but their occasional lapses are accepted and the overall impression is positive.
And then there is everyone else. Of course everyone deals with these situations differently, but here are three ‘strategies’ that I’ve come across:
1. Hope it doesn’t happen – This is the most common strategy and often develops into a more active set of avoidance tactics which slowly (or quickly) become apparent to everyone else. Naturally this can become rather career limiting; just ‘hoping’ that a situation won’t occur will not make it go away and the fear of being caught in one of these situations is likely to grow - making any nervous response much worse.
And if you do manage to successfully avoid the situations without anyone noticing, whilst you may avoid harming your career, you are hardly likely to be driving it forward at any great pace either!
2. Share all your knowledge – Rather than trying to answer the question directly, make sure you’ve covered all the bases by telling the questioner everything you know about the subject and everything related to the subject too. Let the questioner decide which bits of what you say are of value. Surely you can’t go far wrong by telling them everything they could possibly want to know. And what a great opportunity to show off the breadth and depth of your knowledge!
3. Hope you are getting away with it – Because you have never been explicitly told that your answers aren’t great, you fondly assume (or try to convince yourself) that they are absolutely fine – whilst probably knowing at some level that they really aren’t. Without a deep-seated confidence that these situations show you off in the best possible light, the tendency is to switch between this one and the first strategy!
A Better Way
These situations are first and foremost about thinking before you speak – even though you only have a second or two to formulate an answer. And the ability to think on your feet is a skill you can learn and develop. The following three step approach is taken from the award winning ‘Think on Your Feet®’ programme:
1. Buy yourself time – You want to make sure you have understood what your questioner wants before you start to answer. So ask a question to clarify your understanding of what you have been asked. Whilst this isn’t always going to be possible or appropriate, it will often give you a vital few extra seconds in which to think – and at the same time demonstrate your commitment to giving the questioner exactly what he or she wants.
2. Create a simple structure – If you simply start talking – hoping that you will find a structure as you go and that your questioner will be able to follow your response as it meanders around – you are likely to waffle endlessly. The key to being successful in these situations is to create a simple structure in your head – preferably made up of three parts. You then know exactly where you are going. Share the structure with your listener. You now both have a clear and identical understanding of the shape of your response. You both know the course you are on and how it will provide the information the questioner is looking for.
There are several different ways to create this structure, but ideally you should have a number of flexible templates in your head so that you can quickly select the best one to use for the particular situation you are in. An example of such a template could be to use time as the basis of your response: ‘Let me tell you how the situations is right now, where we will be in two weeks time and where we anticipate being two months from now’. Reassuringly simple – you haven’t actually told your questioner anything of substance yet, but you both know how you are going to go about doing so.
Of course completely different lengths of time can be used to great effect depending on the situation:
- A year ago.
- Six months ago.
- Now.
Or:
- This morning.
- This afternoon.
- This evening.
Time is just one way of structuring your response. Another way could be to use different perspectives. Rather than diving straight in with everything you can think to say, how much more powerful would it be if you answered like this: ‘That’s an interesting question and to some extent it rather depends on how you look at it, so I’m going to tell you how different stakeholders might be feeling right now. Let’s look at it from the point of view of our Accountant, the Sales Manager and the Operations Manager…’
3. Speak – Having created your structure and shared it with your listener, you are now ready to speak – clearly, briefly and with impact. The structure will free you up to express yourself effectively. You can add as much detail as is needed (but no more), giving examples, facts, figures, opinions and anecdotes; secure in the knowledge that you know where you are going – and so does your listener.
Try it
So there you have it:
- Buy yourself a little time.
- Create and share a structure.
- Speak.
Clear thinking leads to clear speaking every time. You just need to practice so that next time you hear ‘I have a quick question for you…’ your only difficulty will be in suppressing the smile that could just betray the confidence you have that you are ready. A nice problem to have!
Clive Lewis is Director of Training at the communication skills specialists, Illumine Training. The approach set out in this article is based on the Think on Your Feet® programme; the globally acclaimed verbal communication skills course which is available in the UK and around the world from Illumine. If you’d like to find out more about Think on Your Feet® and how it can be tailored to your specific needs, visit www.illumine.co.uk/toyf or contact Illumine Training on +44 (0)1753 866633 or email info@illumine.co.uk.
