Great Answers to Tough Questions at Work E-Book

Michael Dodd

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 389

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2016

Beschreibung

SHORTLISTED FOR THE CMI MANAGEMENT BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD

The essential guide to turning tough questions into positive opportunities

Difficult questions can be thrown at you from your first job interview through to challenges you get when you’ve made it to the top. If you find yourself on the firing line on a regular or occasional basis this is the perfect go-to guide to help you turn tough questions into positive opportunities.

Great Answers to Tough Questions at Work promotes a confident 'win-win-win' mindset for questioner, answerer and wider audiences beyond. Author Michael Dodd provides golden formulae and proven strategies for constructing inspirational answers—however challenging, vicious, tricky or stupid the question. He outlines simple but successful techniques for dealing with the kind of nightmare questions which all ambitious people in the workplace have to face along their journey, whatever stage of their career.

• Contains critical communication skills for executives, managers, leaders and those aspiring to fill these roles
• Covers a wide range of work place scenarios such as job interviews, performance reviews, negotiations, customer relations, parliamentary inquiries and cross-examination
• Discusses how to see the issues underlying tough questions that you face in a different, more positive, solution-oriented way
• Includes case study examinations of key moments where people in the public spotlight have done something particularly well or particularly badly while answering questions and draws out the lessons for readers.

Leseprobe

Contents

Cover

Series Page

Title Page

Copyright

Introduction: Helping You Thrive On “Blowtorch-On-The-Belly” Questioning

Part One: The Tools You Need

Chapter 1: Winning Answers Every Time

Scoring a Goal with Every Answer

Taking Inspiration from a Master

Learning What Not to Do

Winning Answers in the Right Spirit

Observing How Not to Do It

Chapter 2: Crafting the Right Message to Underpin Every Answer

Crafting That Message Your Questioners Need

Determine Your Message First, Then Formulate Your Answer

What Is the Message?

Formulating Your Key Message

Crafting That Great Message

Combining Fact and Emotion in Your Message

Chapter 3: Harnessing the Power of Stories

Using Stories to Enhance Your Answers

Doing It Like the Presidents Do

Great Stories Prompt Change

Painting Pictures in the Minds of Your Audience

Collecting Illustrations for Your Treasure Chest

Using Stories to Grab and Wow Your Audience

The Story That Hits All Factors

Make Your Stories Pass the “So What?” Test

Chapter 4: Finding Out in Advance – Then Planning For It

Getting It Right in That Set-Up Discussion

Asking the Right Questions, So You Can Prepare the Right Answers

Having a Pro-Active and Reactive Plan

Getting Your Preparation Right

Turning a Negative Mindset to a Positive One

Chapter 5: The First Golden Formula – Simple As ABCDE

How you Structure Your Answer is Critical

Deal with the Bad – Then Gravitate to the Positive

Making the Formula Work for You

Phrasing Answers with Your Positive Words

How to Avoid Echoing Negatives

Moving from the Specific to the General

Moving from the General to the Specific

Dictating that Next Question

Chapter 6: The Second Golden Formula – What to Say When Something Goes Seriously Wrong

Talk to the Heart before the Head

Show Your Concern Right at the Start

Using the Care Approach in Action

How the Care Approach Helps

Switching Formula As You Need to

Chapter 7: Maximizing the Impact of Your Examples and Stories

Story Telling Is a Learnable Skill

Shape Your Example to Give That Great Finish

Preparing Stories That Stick

Applying the Rules to Your Example or Story

Chapter 8: Getting Your Performance Right

Watch Yourself Back and Adjust

Project the Best Version of You

Be a Great Performer

Move with a Purpose

Liberate Your Arms

Study Those Weather Forecasters

Get It Right with Your Face

Be Careful When Listening

Use But Minimize Notes – Where Necessary

Rehearse, Relax and Succeed

Wisdom from a Vocal Master

Visualize Your Success

Chapter 9: Conveying Your Answers to Different Personality Types

Crafting Answers to Persuade Specific Individuals

Connecting With Four Different Personalitytypes

Giving the Right Stuff to the Right Person

Part Two: Using Your New Tools

Chapter 10: Great Answers for Prospects

Be Ready for That “What Do You Do?” Question

Selling Digital Music To Cave Dwellers

Asking Great Questions Paves the Way for Giving Great Answers

Guidance on That “What Do You Do?” Question

Discover What's Fascinating About Your Field

Answering the Elevator Question

Structuring Your Self-Introduction

Dealing With Those Tough Sales Questions

Chapter 11: Great Answers During Price Negotiations

Be Ready for Questions Like These. . .

Plan Your Approach for Great Outcomes

Key Negotiation Principles to Underpin Your Great Answers

Making Gold, Silver and Bronze Offerings

What to Prepare in Advance

Putting It Into Action

Putting Your Preparation Into Action

Chapter 12: Great Answers for Clients

Great Answers That Help Build High-Level Client Partnerships

Positive Responses To Client Worries

Dealing With Tough Client Questions When Something's Gone Badly Wrong

Keeping Your Clients on Board Through Your Great Answers

Chapter 13: Great Answers in Those Nerve-Wracking Job Interviews

Find Out All You Can in Advance

Think Through Why You Should Have the Job

Despite the Pressure, They Usually Want You to Succeed

Projecting the Right Attitude

Preparing for Questions At a New Full-Time Job Interview

Dealing With Pressure Questions in Interviews for Senior Posts

Prepare for All Those Predictable Job Interview Questions

Chapter 14: Great Answers for Your Boss

Use Your Boss's Questions to “Manage Upwards”

Utilize Critical Questions to Springboard Onto What You Require

When Things Go Wrong, Establish Your Position Before the Questions Start

A look at other tricky boss questions

Chapter 15: Great Answers in Presentations, at Events and in Meetings

Ensuring Your Presentation Inspires Those Questions

Integrating Your Presentation and the Q&A Session

Set Out the Question Guidelines Early

Guidance on Answers in Meetings

Answers for Your Entire Audience

Chapter 16: Shining Out Through the Media and at Public Grillings

Under Sustained Questioning, Always Go Back to ABCDE

Getting It Right in that Interview Request Call

Asking the Right Questions, So You can Prepare the Right Answers

Tapping into the Power of Asking Questions

Being Prepared for Tough Questions in an Unfolding Crisis

In the Inquiry Spotlight, Say what Needs to be Said

Your Role in Conveying the Wider Picture

Ongoing Enhancement: Great Answers for Your Inspirational Future

About the Author

Acknowledgements

Index

End User License Agreement

Guide

Cover

Table of Contents

Begin Reading

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“The great thing about this book, and the excellent insights of the writer Michael Dodd, is that it covers a lot more than just ‘dealing with' difficult questions. The practical tips, tools and advice help to turn difficult questions into great opportunities!”

Phil Jesson, Managing Partner at KAMguru – The UK's leading Key Account Management consultancy

“This book is the ultimate handbook for the modern leader for whom inspiring communication, conversation and story-telling skills are must-haves. Inside are two Golden Formulae that you can use to plan, prepare and practice and be ready to not just answer any tough questions well, but to be a standout communicator in all situations.”

Ian Berry, Mentor for Business Leaders and International Speaker on Leadership and Change

“Should I recommend Great Answers to Tough Questions at Work? That is an easy question – Yes. Why? As a CEO (also, husband, father, son) I have been asked tough questions that have stopped me in my tracks. Now, give me tough questions, I'm ready. Thanks Michael.”

Tony Meyer, CEO at Now Managed Learning Services

“Entertaining, insightful and packed full of practical tips, this book is a ‘must-have' for anyone in the public eye.”

Susan Cousin, Headteacher and Multi-Academy Trust Director

“If you are a leader in a high profile position, you must expect to be interviewed and challenged on a regular basis. Michael Dodd's book will be a great help to anyone finding themselves in such a position. This book emphasises the importance of carefully planning the messages you want to get across with well-prepared responses to the questions, thereby enabling you to remain in control of the situation.”

Sir Mike Hodgkinson, Chairman of Keolis (UK) Ltd, Deputy Chairman TUI AG

“If you want to out-communicate your competitors, out-smart everyone in your strategic communications and build competitive advantage this is a must read. It also comes with the additional benefit of enabling you to hugely improve your internal communications, resulting in higher levels of engagement and inspiring greater innovation and creativity amongst your team.”

Sir Eric Peacock, Chairman of Just Loans PLC; Non-Executive Director at United Kingdom Export Finance

“Michael Dodd has quizzed the best on six continents and all his experience, knowledge and stories are distilled in this brilliant book. He gives you his formulae for planning, preparation and practice so you're always ready for the toughest questions with answers that satisfy the questioner and place you in the driving seat.”

Barry Graham, Founder and CEO Speakers' Corner

“Employing well-crafted messages and powerful, amusing stories throughout his book, Michael Dodd practises what he preaches. Covering a wide spectrum of business situations from client relations to media crisis, Great Answers to Tough Questions at Work is immensely readable, highly practical and might just save your career and reputation.”

Jem Thomas, Director of Training and Innovation at Albany Associates

Great Answers toTough Questions at Work

Michael Dodd

This edition first published 2016© 2016 Michael Dodd

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Dodd, Michael, author.Title: Great answers to tough questions at work / Michael Dodd.Description: Hoboken : Capstone, 2016. | Includes index.Identifiers: LCCN 2016004492 (print) | LCCN 2016022538 (ebook) | ISBN 9780857086396 (paperback) | ISBN 9780857086419 (ebk) | ISBN 9780857086402 (ebk) | ISBN 9780857086419 (pdf) | ISBN 9780857086402 (epub)Subjects: LCSH: Business communication. | Interpersonal relations. | Leadership–Psychological aspects. | BISAC: BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Small Business.Classification: LCC HF5718 .D636 2016 (print) | LCC HF5718 (ebook) | DDC 650.1–dc23LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016004492

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 978-0-857-08639-6 (paperback) ISBN 978-0-857-08641-9 (ebk)ISBN 978-0-857-08640-2 (ebk)

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Introduction: Helping You Thrive On “Blowtorch-On-The-Belly” Questioning

At some stage it happens to nearly all of us.

We're asked a question by the boss, a job selection board or a potential client – and we say something really stupid.

Or wrong.

Or self-defeating.

Maybe, on a bad day, it can even be a combination of all three.

And then you realize a short time afterwards what you should have said.

This human experience is so common, the French have an expression for it.

They talk about the annoying phenomenon of thinking up the perfect thing that should have come out of your lips all too late – while you're on the stairs leaving after that bruising verbal encounter: “L'espirit d'escalier”, otherwise known as “the spirit of the stairs” or “staircase wit”.

This book contains solutions to this and related problems.

It guides you on what you should say and how best to say it in challenging situations throughout your working life.

Whether you're asked “Why should you be promoted?”, “Why aren't there any pens in the stationery cabinet when I asked you to get some last month?” or “Why should I invest in your billion-dollar project?”, this book helps you formulate answers that are set to be more impressive, more reassuring and more inspiring than the ones you're giving now.

It gives you the techniques and the amazingly effective golden formulae for dealing with hard questions, nasty questions and stupid questions.

Drawing on my background as a broadcast interviewer, with training by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in the art of putting business leaders, politicians, officials and others under pressure, this book will show you how to stand up to what have been described as “blowtorch-on-the-belly” questions.

This is a technical term from the world of Australian politics – reputedly the place where dialogue is the most vicious in the democratic world.

It applies to situations where interrogators subject you to sustained, rugged, painful questioning – the kind you could expect in the most ferocious of media interviews for instance.

“Blowtorch-on-the-belly” questioning can also be deployed against you in the boardroom, in a career appraisal and anytime something's gone wrong and the finger of blame is pointing at you.

Doing badly when subjected to this kind of questioning can damage your career and even lose you your job.

Doing well through decisive, positive and uplifting answers can help propel you towards outcomes you want in the workplace and beyond.

As a media interviewer, I've watched some business leaders, officials and politicians set fire to their careers and public image by losing their tempers, their nerve and their dignity when put under pressure by myself and others.

I've also seen some of them do what the front cover of this book suggests and successfully put the fire out – sometimes seemingly with very little effort – and then inject powerful, positive ideas and visions into the conversation to move things in the direction they want.

One particularly memorable incident was when Britain's highly controversial Margaret Thatcher came to Sydney in the earlier years of her prime ministership. At the time she was administering harsh and unpopular cost-cutting medicine to the struggling economy of the UK. Our star tough-guy interviewer at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation couldn't land a glove on her as she gave him and our audience a stern lecture about the importance of the principle she called “sound money”.

There was much to throw at her about the initial negative side-effects of the medicine – and the tough-guy interviewer didn't hold back from this. Yet the aptly named Iron Lady steamed through the interview as if a battle ship were being harried by the smallest of mosquitos.

I noticed the same phenomenon – of some politicians, business leaders and officials doing remarkably well in challenging interviews and some doing remarkably badly – when I became a foreign correspondent.

Shortly before the fall of the Iron Curtain in Europe, I got to subject the Polish Vice-Minister for Nuclear Energy in Warsaw to blowtorch-style questions about the dangers of communist-designed Chernobyl-era nuclear power stations in his country and the risk of another nuclear catastrophe in what was then the Soviet-dominated “Eastern Bloc”. These questions resulted in a string of nervous, bumbling answers that were put to air on the BBC World Service, making him and his reactors appear dangerously inept.

In contrast, amidst the anti-communist “Velvet Revolution” in 1989 in Prague, I and other foreign correspondents got to ask the leading revolutionary Václav Havel about whether he would seek the presidency of what was then Czechoslovakia. We were swept away by the smoothness and power of his impressively thoughtful and eloquent – though sometimes artfully non-committal – answers, which raised his standing and made it all the more likely that he would become president. He swiftly did.

When planning this book I have looked back analytically over all the interviews that I've been privileged to do around the world. It became clear that there was a massive difference between the way various people reacted to “blowtorch-on-the-belly” questioning.

Some would metaphorically collapse in a quivering heap under blowtorch-style questioning.

Others would sail through the interrogation as they might steer a yacht in a gentle breeze.

Eventually I discovered what made the difference.

It was largely down to planning, preparation and practice.

With the benefit of hindsight it was clear that some politicians, business leaders and officials had been successfully trained to deal with tough interview questions and had worked at perfecting their replies and their delivery style in advance.

Those who shone out in rigorous interviews had typically done some training or had effectively trained themselves.

It eventually became public knowledge that Margaret Thatcher had had intense coaching – on the recommendation of the Hamlet-playing acting maestro Lord Laurence Olivier no less. This was most evident in the way Mrs Thatcher lowered her voice to sound more authoritative as her career progressed. In fact, one coaching session was – embarrassingly – recorded, leaked and publicly broadcast in Australia, Britain and elsewhere. But it showed what a dedicated communications student she became.

As a playwright and one-time stage hand, Václav Havel was surrounded by actors and clearly appreciated the value of rehearsing for those big moments in the spotlight. No wonder he was so impressive when I and my fellow foreign correspondents sought to test him out while he was holding a press conference on the stage at one of the Czechoslovakian theatres that became a focal point during his theatrically choreographed revolution.

The more I looked at it, the more I discovered that the art and science behind giving great answers is a learnable skill – and that those who shone out worked in advance on their content, their structure and their delivery style.

There are ways of combatting the hottest of blowtorch-on-the-belly questions and turning them to your advantage. The methods for successfully dealing with challenging questions from media interviewers can also be adapted to the tough questions you can get in the workplace from all kinds of sources – prospects, clients, colleagues, shareholders and financiers.

And if world leaders can train to improve their answers, then so can everyone else in the workforce.

When I started working as a lecturer in broadcast journalism in British colleges and universities on my pathway to being an international professional speaker, I was invited into the fascinating world of media and communications training.

Public Relations (PR) firms and training companies would ask me to come in and rough up their clients in mock blowtorch-on-the-belly media interviews and other challenging professional conversations to see how they coped – and then work with me to help their clients perform more confidently at a higher level.

I got to witness how the PR experts equipped their clients to answer emotionally-charged questions, horrible questions and tricky questions. And I could utilise my own particular area of expertise coming from Down Under – really ignorant questions . . . the kind that can cause some people to explode with rage.

I began teaching and developing the methods and golden formulae myself in one-to-one coaching sessions, master classes and conference speeches – sometimes even to audiences of PR people themselves.

The techniques work with apprentices seeking to change jobs, sports professionals being interviewed ahead of their next match, and sales teams and business leaders wanting to grow their empires across a vast range of industries.

And I found the techniques highly useful when facing questioning myself, as I increasingly did in my role as an international broadcasting commentator and newspaper critic.

Having been interviewed hundreds of times as a newspaper reviewer and commentator on Sky TV, the BBC and Al Jazeera, I have found the techniques to be especially useful when I have been asked questions on subjects where the information I had was limited or non-existent. They were particularly helpful, for example, when the newspapers for reviewing arrived late in the studio and I would be asked to comment on an article that I hadn't had the chance to look at. At this point I would need to utilize the golden formulae in order to (hopefully) gracefully manoeuvre the conversation onto an article that I had actually had the chance to read.

These methods proved particularly useful during the years I appeared weekly on BBC Radio 5 Live's Nicky Campbell Show with fellow London-based foreign correspondents from Russia and America. Our role was to answer questions about what we were reporting on and to explain what was happening in our own countries to the British audience. The golden formulae helped with responding to the unpredictable queries we would sometimes field from callers to the programme – and also with questions from Nicky himself, who is a master at blowtorch-wielding and putting interviewees on the spot.

But blowtorch-style questions aren't the only ones that put interviewees under pressure. People can also fall apart when asked softer questions too, and this book will help with that as well.

When I was recruiting potential students for university places in London, some highly intelligent candidates would self-destruct on the most simple and obvious question: “Why do you want to do this course?”

And as when the law-bending US President Richard Nixon was famously being interviewed by Britain's charming David Frost – often more a gentle tickler than a blowtorcher – it was sometimes the less forceful questions that brought the most damaging, self-incriminating responses. For example, it was a relatively understated question that prompted Nixon to give his infamous answer: “When the president does it, that means it's not illegal.”

Tough questions are tough if they're tough for you. They can come to you in all sorts of forms.

Whether they lead you to drop the ball – or whether you hit them out of the park like a great cricketer or baseball player – is ultimately up to you.

What I hope you will find gratifying about using the techniques set out in this book is that they are based entirely on telling exact truths and nothing but truths.

Yes really!

It is true that some (not all) politicians abuse the formulae and misuse them in order to seek to avoid answering questions. But this is easily spotted by observant and discerning members of the viewing public (that probably includes you!).

Of course no one wants to resemble a question-evading politician when taking part in important conversations in the workplace, so this book will show you how to come across in a far more positive and helpful way.

When you know how to apply the techniques properly, you will be in a position to use truth as a highly effective weapon.

It will enhance your effectiveness, your confidence and your image.

The techniques will help you come up with the best possible answers to the worst possible questions.

If you know your stuff, you have a credible case and you can develop your ability to convey it, then the golden formulae will help you face up to challenging questions in all kinds of workplace situations – in meetings, job interviews, career appraisals, presentations, pitches to potential clients, price negotiations, as well as any form of public grilling.

This book will also help you know what to say when you don't know the answers, or when there is very little you can realistically say in particular circumstances – something I'm constantly asked about when helping those working in the world's growing number of call centres.

Part One contains easy-to-understand techniques and the golden formulae to help you with tactics, strategy and developing a winning approach to the tough questions you face now and will face in the future at work.

Part Two then shows how the learning can be applied to deal with the range of challenges and situations that commonly arise in various aspects of your working life, and where you need to be properly prepared and focused.

There are anecdotes and examples throughout, so you can picture in your mind how the techniques have succeeded and how you can make them work for you.

I've been blessed to have the opportunity to teach communications skills on six continents (Antarctica is still to come!). While minor adjustments to the approach may be needed in some parts of the world, I've developed and tested the techniques covered here across political and cultural boundaries – and for people at all levels in the workplace.

Giving great answers to tough questions at work is a learnable skill – for everybody everywhere.

The success of the methods explains why business leaders invite me to work with their people across hierarchies – from top teams, to sales and marketing teams, to technical operators and groups of emerging young stars.

The techniques enable those with an excellent case to get off the back foot onto the front foot. And they help those who have a less-than-excellent case to make the best of it – and to take action to enhance their case as well.

When you put the guidance from this book into practice, you will find yourself thinking less about the clever answers you should have given as you descend the stairs after losing verbal encounters, and starting to work out in advance the great winning answers to the tough questions you can often readily predict.

By boosting your answers, this book will make your life in the workplace more enjoyable, more effective and more successful. It will help enhance and protect your reputation.

It will be useful for anyone with ambition, who wants to be better equipped to make a difference at work and through their work.

And it will help you move closer to becoming what today's world of work needs more of – a game-changing inspirational communicator!

Part OneThe Tools You Need

Here you'll find the tools you need in general terms in order to formulate and deliver great answers to those tough questions that can be fired at you at various times during your working life.

Part One introduces you to the play-to-win approach, which underpins the thinking throughout this book. Play-to-win here means, wherever possible, winning for you AND for the person asking you the tough questions – as well as for any additional audience in or outside the room.

This approach enables you to achieve a win/win or a win/win/win outcome, where you give answers that help you achieve your aims. At the same time, you'll provide your conversation partners and wider audience with the most useful, reassuring and inspiring things they need to know.

This part will equip you with, among other things, the two golden formulae for giving great answers to tough questions. These and other revelations can transform the way you view and take part in professional conversations now and in the future.

This is what routinely happens to participants who learn about the golden formulae in my communications-boosting master classes. When you understand the formulae, you tend to view verbal interactions involving you and those around you – and exchanges between others – in a different way.

You can see how those who are practiced in using the formulae – and those who have an instinct to act in line with them – come out better than others do time after time when they are verbally under scrutiny or under fire.

Knowing the formulae will help you become a better analyser of the conversational ecosystem around you. Putting the formulae into action in the workplace will propel you towards being a more successful player within it.

By the end of Part One you'll be set for what follows, where you'll be able to put these tools into action in a wide range of specific workplace situations both tomorrow and throughout your career.

So let's kick off now – and enjoy the first half of this two-part game that will empower you to operate more effectively, more wisely and more profitably in the vital world of workplace conversations by helping you and others achieve the outcomes you desire.

Chapter 1Winning Answers Every Time

Imagine you suddenly find yourself in charge of a bunch of four-year-olds about to play their first game of football.

The youngsters are revved up, have short attention spans and are under pressure to perform from their pushy parents. Amidst the excitement they could easily lose sight of what they're really meant to do.

Reduced to its simplest, your initial pre-match job as manager is to get across one clear over-riding message to the team members: “If you're going to win the game you have to score at least one goal – and more if you can.”

Sure they'll need to keep the ball out of their own goalmouth. But even if they defend perfectly, they won't actually win the game unless they get the ball into their opponent's net at least once, and ideally more.

This may seem obvious. But in a broadly similar situation, when it comes to answering tough questions in the workplace, many people don't score any goals – and don't even try to.

Their approach is to go into that job interview, phone call with a hesitant prospect or potentially angry shareholder meeting and just hope that somehow they will scrape through to get an acceptable outcome without totally shredding their reputation.

Scoring a Goal with Every Answer

A typical comment they make beforehand is: “I hope they ask me the right questions.”

Or, more negatively, their plea is: “I hope they don't ask me THAT.”

Alas, when it comes to situations such as these, the interview panel members, your prospect or the shareholders will often see it as their job to ask you the WRONG questions. They will often fire questions that are designed to score a goal against you. If you just defend without actually kicking any goals you will come out a loser, as will the four-year-old footballers.

Worse still, if you don't seek to kick goals then you're letting down the very people you ought to be convincing about your case – as well as yourself.

To come out as a winner you need to have the right winning mindset before the challenging conversation starts. This will help guide you towards the winning outcomes for you and others in the conversation.

Fundamental to this winning mindset is to realize that when you're being asked tough questions, there are always positive and helpful things you can say that will benefit the others involved.

However dire a situation is – even, tragically, if it involves injuries or deaths that could be seen as your organization's fault – in a tough professional conversation there are still goals you can and need to score and objectives you can achieve for the benefit of all those touched by what's happened.

And surprisingly to some, part of the art of scoring those goals includes actually answering those tough questions.

At the very least, your responses should involve explaining why you can't answer a particular question and then adding something extra that's useful and to the point. It always requires telling exact truths and nothing other than the truth. But it necessitates telling these exact truths in the best possible way. And it involves getting across a message – effectively scoring that goal – at every opportunity.

This means you should be seeking to score a goal every time a question comes to you.

I've found there are proven strategies involving highly effective techniques for giving great answers to all tough workplace questions. You will learn these secrets as the book progresses, but first we need to ensure the right mental approach – a win/win outlook – or when there is an audience beyond your questioner, a win/win/win outlook.

Let's go back to the football. Just suppose you did so well in getting the right message across to those four-year-olds that they won their first game as a result – and many more besides.

Eventually you come to be regarded as a football managing genius. You go on to manage older teams in bigger leagues. Ultimately you get put in charge of trying to win the next football World Cup – for the country of your choice.

Given the significance of the mission, there's one thing you certainly would not do. You wouldn't just turn up on the pitch with your players on the day of the first World Cup match and merely hope for the best.

You would pick your squad with great care and plan, prepare and practice for victory.

This may sound like a no-brainer. But when going into situations where they're facing tough questions, it's amazing how many otherwise intelligent people just “wing it”.

Fascinatingly, this is not what most of the same people would do with their household spending, and not what business leaders would do with their company finances.

What you should do is implement the “3 Ps” of the verbal communications world – Plan, Prepare and Practice.

Instead, what too many people rely on is what pops into their head at the moment a tough – and often predictable – question is asked.

When explaining their lack of preparation, they sometimes reveal that they believe it's all about “thinking fast on your feet”.

Now while being able to think quickly under pressure is a useful trait, in vital situations involving potentially career-killing questions you don't want to leave things to the whim of the moment. It's pretty hard for the most skilled of us to do this well with absolute consistency.

But it is possible for everyone in the workplace to consider in advance the questions they might face – and plan, prepare and practice in order to achieve the best possible result.

This plan, prepare and practice approach is effective for questions in everyday situations, which determine whether you end up having a good or a bad day at work. And it's effective in high-level cases at big moments that shape your long-term career prospects and potentially the outlook for your whole organization.

Taking Inspiration from a Master

Let's look at an instructive situation involving the head of Virgin, Sir Richard Branson.

In 2007 he suddenly faced questions over a fatal crash involving one of his company's trains in the Lake District of northern England.

The tragedy caused the death of an elderly woman, while the driver and dozens of passengers were injured. This is an awful situation for anyone to be interviewed about – all the more so when the reporters are asking you questions at the scene with the mangled wreckage of your company's colourfully branded train in the background.

Nonetheless, Sir Richard wisely cut short a family holiday in Italy to return to Britain to be questioned by the media swarm that had gathered at the scene of the crash.

He rightly declared it a very sad day – but he also made a series of positive points as well, all of which were hugely advantageous to Virgin, but also helpful to others.

Sir Richard hailed the company driver as “a hero” for the way he handled the situation when the train got into trouble.

He proclaimed the Virgin train to be “magnificent”. It was “built like a tank”, he declared, before adding: “If it had been any of the old trains the injuries and the mortalities would have been horrendous.”

Sir Richard cleverly used one of his answers to put the crash in a vastly broader context, in order to highlight Virgin's historically good safety record. “I've been in the transportation business for nearly twenty-five years”, he said, “and we've transported nearly half-a-billion people. Fortunately we've never had to be in this situation before”.

Sir Richard had thoughts of condolence for the bereaved and of comfort for the injured. There was a Branson accolade for those who had the onerous task of helping the injured – the emergency services and Royal Air Force personnel – whom he praised for their “wonderful” response.

Finally, in a masterly worded answer that subtly shifted the focus away from Virgin, Sir Richard addressed the really tough question of who was responsible for the crash: “If it is the fault of the line then we've got to make sure it never happens again.”

Taking proper care of the tracks was not Virgin's responsibility, so this answer seemed to hint that the responsibility might lay with the body in charge of track maintenance. This was something a court vindicated five years later, when Network Rail was fined £4 million after admitting health and safety breaches.

Off the back of a disaster, Sir Richard came across in a humane, concerned and dignified way while making Virgin look as good as it possibly could in adverse circumstances. Clearly he and his team planned and prepared before he stepped in front of the cameras. And his performance was so impressive that he had clearly benefited from previous practice in training (not with me) to face questions in tough media situations.

Admittedly Sir Richard sounded a touch hesitant at times. But that seemed right for the graveness of the situation. In fact, sounding too slick would have backfired terribly.

The result in terms of media coverage and brand protection was far better for Virgin than anyone could reasonably have expected. Sir Richard succeeded in turning the crisis of tough media questioning into an opportunity to convey positive messages of comfort, praise, reassurance and inspiration to those affected in various ways by the dreadful circumstances.

Sir Richard kicks goals and creates win/win/win when it counts – for his questioners, for himself and for his wider audience.

So can you.

Learning What Not to Do

Let's have a look at what can happen when someone does the opposite of what the Virgin leader did – without planning, preparation or practice and without inspiration.

This is a situation that I have had played out in front of me in master classes all too often. I ask for participants to write the worst question they could be asked and then demonstrate how they characteristically respond. In these days of ongoing pressure to reduce headcounts, it is often a question from employees to a boss like: “Are our jobs at risk?”

A typical and quite chilling answer from the boss is: “Yes, your jobs are at risk.” Full stop. End of conversation!

Now you could say this answer is to be admired for its honesty and brevity. But there's not much else that's good about it.

An answer like this will have a demoralizing effect on the listener. It will have the same effect on their co-workers when they pass it on to others, as they surely will.

And bad news travels fast – even faster than the speed of light – as that embodiment of wisdom The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy observed. In fact, bad news travels faster still since the invention of the mobile phone and social media.

The boss's answer does nothing helpful for the workers or the company. It will probably result in a dramatic downturn in morale and productivity.

Workers will be more inclined to throw their energy into finding alternative employment rather than doing their best in a company that they think is about to get rid of them. And if the answer finds its way into the local media, as a result of a tip-off or a tweet, then the company will be in deeper trouble still.

So what should the boss have said?

Depending on the details of the situation, there are any number of things he could have stated that would still have been accurate, but far more inspiring.

We can't entirely quibble with his first word, “Yes”. If the jobs are at risk then saying this is the right thing to do. However, it would be more empathetic and positive, while still honest, to say: “Regrettably, they're not as safe as we'd like them to be.”

His next words – “your jobs are at risk” – constitute an own goal. What the boss is doing is repeating back a negative proposition. As he's already answered the question directly, he doesn't need to do this. Reinforcing the negative by regurgitating the downbeat language put to him is unnecessary and counterproductive.

Yet people do this all too frequently. Listen for it. What inspirational communicators do is choose their own words rather than repeat back the negatives of those questioning them. The key is to say what you want to say in your own words – and choose positive words wherever possible. Words have power, so keeping control of the vocabulary you deploy in the workplace is vital.

What then can the boss say to follow his initial negative admission?

Here's an uplifting option:

“But we're doing everything possible to make your jobs as safe as they can be. The management team has put together a plan which involves. . .”

Or alternatively:

“However we will do whatever we can to keep the entire team employed if at all possible. We plan to hold a meeting of all staff to look at everyone's suggestions for boosting productivity, cutting waste and increasing sales to put us in a stronger position. . .”

But let's suppose, despite all the noble efforts, that some of the jobs still have to go. This is not something the business leader should announce casually on the run when confronted in the workplace. At the same time, he shouldn't say anything other than an exact truth.

Whatever the situation, there will be positives he can point to that will be far better than what was originally said.

So his answer could include something like: “In the current economic downturn we will, very sadly, have to lose a few positions – but this will help protect the company and the rest of the workforce. We have had to do this in the past and it helped the firm to survive and then to later revive to become stronger than ever. In fact, some of the people working here today such as Mary and George had to go in the last recession. But we were able to ask them to rejoin as soon as things improved. Based on projected sales to newly emerging markets, we're expecting that if everyone puts in a big effort, in two years' time we'll be in a much better position than we are now – and that the overall size of our workforce will actually be larger.”