Archive for the ‘Q & A’ Category

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Interview Preparation: Focus on Answers, Not Questions

Thursday, February 8th, 2007

The first thing the average embattled politician or corporate executive does to prepare for a media interview or press conference is to brainstorm with their staff of all of the possible questions reporters might ask. This process might take hours or even days.

And it is a complete waste of time!

I’m not saying that questions don’t matter; they do. People think that media consultants like me tell our clients to ignore the questions completely and just to say whatever the prepared message is. No, that’s not the strategy either.

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Posted in Q & A, communication, speaking | No Comments »

Controlling Interviews with Your Message

Friday, January 19th, 2007

Here is a strategy that doesn’t work well on live TV or radio interviews, but does work when you are returning a reporter’s call by telephone and you already know what the topic of the interview is:

Call up the reporter and say something like “Sally, before we get started, I just want to point out that when it comes to (the topic at hand), I really think that … (Your first message point)… (Your second message point)…and… (Your third message point).”

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Reporters and Image Control

Friday, January 12th, 2007

Nobody likes to feel manipulated, especially reporters. And yet everyone likes to have control over their messages and quotes in the media.

So what do newsmakers, sources, government officials, and others sought out by reporters do? They will say something like this to a reporter, “I will let you interview me on background and then you can read back to me what you would like to quote me on, but you can’t quote me unless I give you the OK.”

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Posted in Q & A, media skills | 1 Comment »

Pitfalls of Being an Audience Control Freak

Tuesday, January 9th, 2007

Home Depot CEO Robert Nardelli was fired from his post in January 2007, but it wasn’t because the stock of his company had dropped that much. In fact, the stock for Home Depot had stayed about the same during his tenure. Many analysts credited Nardelli for making major substantive changes.

So what was the root of his downfall?

Of course there was his well-publicized huge salary and his $200 million Golden Parachute. But what many analysts cite as his downfall was the arrogant way he tried to talk to people. At the 2006 Home Depot annual meeting, Nardelli created legions of enemies by severely limiting who could ask questions and the length of each question. Worse, he specifically told his directors not to come to the meeting so that investors couldn’t ask them questions.

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Posted in Audiences, Career Advice, Q & A | No Comments »

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