Feeling Sick In Your Gut When You're Asked Tough Questions At Work?

Licensed image from formofficeco

Original Article Published in Medium. 14 August 2024

Here’s the 2 exact strategies I use to take the heat out of them.

Have you ever been sitting in a meeting, quietly waiting for it to end,

So you can get a nice, hot cappuccino at the café downstairs.

When someone, across the table from you, asks you a direct question?

A tough one.

One that you don’t particularly want to talk about in public.

Or that you don’t know all the facts about.

Have you been that person?

It feels awful, doesn’t it?

To squirm in your seat,

Like you’ve wet your pants and you are too scared to move,

In case everyone finds out.

And laughs at you.

I’ve had this happen to me.

Tough questions at work are the absolute worst.

Even CEOs and Government Department Heads can get called to answer tricky questions.

It’s an unfortunate part of life.

That’s why I worked out how to deal with them,

And I’m sharing them with you, so you can be prepared.

THE SOLUTION

Being confident in meetings doesn’t mean that you have to know the answer to every question. Far from it! 

In fact, nobody in the meeting usually knows the answer either!

The strategy I’ve found that works the best is:

Get used to answering:

“Thanks for your question [Their Name – if you know it]. 

I’ll have to get back to you with an answer, if that’s OK?”

And 9 times out of 10, it’s perfectly OK.

You look and sound professional and confident.

Not looking panicked, like a deer in headlights.

You’ve allayed everyone in the meeting’s fears that this meeting is going to ramble on for another ten minutes!

They all want to get to the café too!

It’s a win/win.

BUT, the one time that the person really wants to know the answer now.

What can you do?

I suggest that you say:

“Let’s take this question offline, after the meeting, where we can talk about it further”.

The relief in the room will be palpable.

It’s so much easier to talk privately to a person about a tricky topic.

You can admit that you don’t know much about it.

You can offer to ask someone more knowledgeable,

Or to introduce the two of them,

So they can chat about the details together.

By taking the initiative you have avoided embarrassment,

And maintained your professional reputation,

And get their question properly answered.

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