Q&A
July 8, 2010 by Jerry
Cole Porter’s 1934 song, “Miss Otis Regrets,” a wry blues tale about a society lady indisposed to answer questions, had its modern variation last week during the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings on President Obama’s nominee for the Supreme Court, Elena Kagan. In the prior post, you read how thoroughly the president’s staff prepared Ms. Kagan for the hearings by subjecting her to Murder Boards, intense practice sessions in which tough questions were fired at her repeatedly and she gave her answers to those questions repeatedly. Apparently, part of the preparation also included not answering some questions. Jon Stewart seized
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June 28, 2010 by Jerry
The Senate Judiciary Committee begins hearings today on President Obama’s second nominee for the Supreme Court, Elena Kagan. Just as the first nominee, Sonia Sotomayor, and both of President George W. Bush’s nominees, John G. Roberts and Samuel Alito, and all the previous nominees of all the previous presidents, Ms. Kagan will be grilled mercilessly by the senators, particularly those of the opposition. All’s fair in politics and the party out of power wants to do everything it can to make the sitting president—and that president’s choices—look bad. In preparation for the grilling, Ms. Kagan spent long hours in
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June 2, 2010 by Jerry
In the previous post you read about how Richard Blumenthal, the attorney general of Connecticut, who is running for Christopher Dodd’s Democratic seat in the Senate and Rand Paul, the winner of the Republican Senatorial Primary in Kentucky, both had to walk back on controversial statements they had made. In politics, this is known as “spin,” or “putting lipstick on a pig.” The most egregious example of political spin I have ever seen arrived in my mailbox via an email blast that indicated that it had been forwarded many times. If you receive as many such missives as I
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May 26, 2010 by Jerry
Last week, Richard Blumenthal, the attorney general of Connecticut, who is running for Christopher Dodd’s Democratic seat in the Senate and Rand Paul, the winner of the Republican Senatorial Primary in Kentucky, found themselves having to explain controversial statements they had made in public: Mr. Blumenthal on the subject of whether or not he had seen active duty in Vietnam, and Mr. Paul on whether or not he would support the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Each man’s original statement raised a firestorm in the media and on the web and each man had to make new statements to
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April 9, 2010 by Nichole
Power Presentations is proud to announce a new workshop to The Power Presenter Workshop Series. Q&A: How to Handle Tough Questions This all-day workshop is based on Jerry Weissman’s book and DVD, In the Line of Fire: How to Handle Tough Questions. Monday, June 14, 2010 9:00AM to 5:00PM San Francisco Airport Marriott 1800 Old Bayshore Highway Burlingame, CA 94010 Please visit our Workshop page for more information and registration details. “Have you ever been faced with a tough question? Jerry Weissman shows how it’s not necessarily what the answer is. It’s how you answer that will allow you to prevail and win!” Tim Koogle, Founding CEO, Yahoo!
February 10, 2010 by Jerry
Congratulations to the New Orleans Saints on their Super Bowl victory and to Marques Colston, their talented wide receiver. Mr. Colston, who was the Saints’ leading receiver in the game with 7 receptions for 83 yards, is a four-year veteran who helped his team reach the Super Bowl with 70 catches for 1,074 yards over the season. What makes for a successful wide receiver is a statistic called “Yards After Catch,” or its acronym, “YAC.” It refers to a play in which a receiver catches a pass for a gain of yards and then runs for additional yards.
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December 21, 2009 by Jerry
“Brevity is the soul of wit,” said Polonius, the sage royal advisor in Hamlet, in response to the king’s request for his opinion. William Shakespeare had his 17th Century character use “wit” to mean intelligence rather than its current usage to mean clever humor. But just as the definition of wit has shifted over time, so has the definition of brevity. There are far too many presentations—and even more conversations—that go on and on and on, warranting the impatient accusation, “Tell me the time, not how to build a clock!” In presentations, nowhere is verbosity more frequently perpetrated than
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September 9, 2009 by Pearl
In his first television interview since his arrest last February for assaulting his former girlfriend, Rihanna, pop star Chris Brown told Larry King that he didn’t remember abusing her and that he is still shocked that the incident happened. When King asked Brown about his reactions upon seeing police reports, Brown replied, “I — I don’t — like, I’ll just look at it and like, wow, like, I’m in shock. Because, first of all, that’s not who I am as a person and that’s not who I promise I want to be. And so I — I just —
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August 5, 2009 by Jerry
When you don’t know the answer to a question, just say you don’t know—as simple as that. It’s perfectly permissible to admit that you are not the repository of every minute fact known to humankind. No one expects you to be a walking encyclopedia. But also say that you’ll find the answer and get it to your questioner. If only President Obama had followed this advice in this most recent press conference. You read about his control—and loss of control—of his “ums” and “ahs” in that event in two separate posts last week, but I let the dust settle
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June 26, 2009 by Jerry
Sooner or later every human being on the face of this planet is confronted with tough questions. One of the toughest and most common is the infamous loaded question, “When did you stop beating your wife?” which implies that you have indeed been beating your wife. How do you answer without agreeing with the implication? How do you not answer without appearing evasive? Courtroom dramas often include a scene where an antagonistic prosecutor points his finger at a defendant and asks accusatorially, “Why did you kill your partner?” implying that the person—who has pleaded not guilty—did kill the partner.
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