THE TOOLKIT
Answering Questions

One of the more stressful situations seems to be when we are put on the spot to answer questions. Perhaps it is because we’re not sure the question we’ll be asked or that we’re nervous what the answer will bring, but there are two common pieces of feedback we hear when it comes to people answering questions ineffectively:

• “That’s not the question I asked.”
• “The answer is long-winded and rambling.”

 

“Be Direct!”
We hear about professionals not answering the question all the time. As such, when this occurs, we come across as indirect or trying to pull a fast one. Therefore, the first challenge is to figure out the question that’s being asked and be direct and be direct when answering the question. Many times we try and provide answers to questions that were never presented. When this happens, we hear the feedback, “He gives an essay response to a simple yes/no question.” As such, there are really only FIVE TYPES OF QUESTIONS to identify and answer the question that’s asked.

 

“Get to the point!”
Time and time again, we hear feedback around being more concise. However, we learned long-windedness back in school. We were conditioned to think, “The more I tell you, the smarter you will think I am.” However, in business, just the opposite is true. Shorter sounds confident. Shorter sounds competent.  Therefore, think about telling people what they ask for or what they need to hear.  In order to do this, think about your conversations like a tennis match or game of catch where you want to see the ball go back and forth.  If you are long-winded and taking up a lot of talk time, then you’re not allowing others to hit the ball back or throw it back to you.  Therefore, KEEP THE LENGTH OF YOUR ANSWER ABOUT THE SAME LENGTH AS THE QUESTION.