While speaking coaches often focus on formal presentations, many people struggle with being put on the spot at work. Simple techniques can help you quickly overcome anxiety it creates.
My last article, Improv and the Art of Conversation, focused on how to direct a conversation to where you wanted it to go. Another common challenge people have in the workplace is the cold call. The term “cold call” is often associated with business school case studies when in the classroom the professor picks at random a student to answer a question. It is also an everyday part of the workplace for many. In a meeting your boss may ask, “oh, can you give us all a quick update on your project status?” Since it wasn’t on the agenda you didn’t prepare anything. A colleague may drop by and ask your thoughts on a topic. You might even get ambushed in the break room as you get coffee. While these can be opportunities to shine, for many they are landmines to avoid. Fortunately, there are simple techniques to help you improve these unplanned responses.
The most famous example is the (now hackneyed) elevator pitch. (Fear not, I’m not teaching you how to do elevator pitches—there are thousands of other articles which can do that—we’re merely using it as a starting point.) There are differing versions of the origin of this concept, but the concept is always the same. Imagine you find yourself stepping into the elevator with the CEO or other senior leader at your organization, someone who you otherwise never see. You have the length of the elevator ride to pitch your idea. (In other instances, to respond to a question about your project and use the time to convince this leader that your project is one they should invest in further.) It’s taught to would-be-entrepreneurs on the basis that they need to be able to pitch their idea in thirty seconds or less.
Importantly, with an elevator pitch you don’t memorize it word for word but have the flow and key points rehearsed enough that you can give a natural, spontaneous utterance, while still following the pre-planned path. The same holds for our speeches, in which we teach people to not memorize it word for word, but to have the structure memorized.
I’ve encouraged people to use the same technique with interviews. That’s another area many people struggle with. In reality, you probably know eighty percent of the questions you’ll be asked. What's your biggest weakness? Tell me about this project. Talk about a conflict at work and how you overcame it. What’s the proper way to put a cover on a TPS report? It may not be the exact question, but we know the general categories and topics. As with a speech, you can practice, but not memorize verbatim, your answers so when you get the question you’ll have the verbal muscle memory you can rely on for an answer.
The same is true for questions and conversations at work. There is a fairly limited range of types of questions you might be asked. The key word here is “types.” But first let’s consider that some questions themselves may be very common, e.g., “Can you give us a status report on your project?” If this is a question you know your boss likes to surprise people with, practice answering it. Take five minutes each week and practice an answer. What elements of the status should you report? Maybe you want to update what each person is doing, or the status of each component of the project. Perhaps you just want to list the top three points. Maybe you feel it’s best to list what’s going well and what is at risk. Or maybe just give a summary of what’s happened since your last status update. All can be valid and you can choose the structure that works for you. Practice giving a status update using the structure that feels right to you. You can even ask your boss for input on what format she prefers.
Ideally record yourself and play it back; better yet ask a coworker to listen and give feedback. In just a few weeks you’ll be ready. Obviously, the actual status will be different each time, including the time when your boss actually asks you at the meeting, but you’ll know what points to bring up when answering. You have the structure down and can simply fill in the blanks. This means that you can focus your mental energy on, say, the milestones and current risks, instead of trying to decide if you should talk about risks first, or milestones, or if you should even mention the last email from a vendor about the status of his delivery or if that’s too inconsequential. It will be far less stressful in the same way an athlete may never have played this exact instance of the game before, but he can rely on his training and practiced plays as the base muscle memory and now can focus on his mental energy not on crafting a new play, but rather making minor adjustments to a play he knows well.
Broadening to “types” we recognize that you may not always know the questions, but you can use certain answer patterns. One pattern is: here the current status and this is what is coming up next. Another pattern would be: this is the cost (which can be money, time, and/or risk) but we’re investing because of these specific benefits. A history pattern could be: the original goal, the initial plan, how things evolved, and where we are today. These are generic patterns. They can be used for an answer consisting of a single sentence or two, or they can be the structure of an hour long talk. This article isn’t about formal public speaking but I mention it because you can take any structure you might have learned in public speaking and apply that same structure to your impromptu answer that may be only thirty seconds long.
Here’s a larger, but certainly not comprehensive, list.
Break the project down into smaller parts. These could be by people, by subcomponents, by project stream, or any other way that makes sense for your project. Run through each one with the status and what is planned between now and the next status update.
This is what we must invest in terms of time, people, money, or other resources; here’s why it will be worthwhile.
This is a common interview technique. Describe the Situation. Next cover you, or your team’s Task, such as the objective you’re trying to achieve. Then comes the Action being taken, how you’re trying to achieve the task. Finally give the Results. Depending on where you are in the process you may not yet have results, or are still working through what the action is. In such a case you can give a shortened version.
Describe the starting point, for example, an executive having an idea for the project, or a customer question. Then briefly talk about the original plan. Describe what has been done, and possibly how the original plan has changed (e.g., deadlines changed, objectives modified) and the current state. Optionally talk about what comes next.
Imagine the project is successful. Describe what it looks like. Then talk about where you are today and what is needed to get to that future (e.g., resources, time, support).
You offer an opinion and give the reason why. Then you explain why the first why is important; then why the second why is important. Keep going as long as you need. For example: we should choose the first vendor. While their product isn’t as good, we know they can deliver on time. If we go with the second vendor they are likely to be late. That will cause us to miss the end of quarter deadline needed by our sales partner. Missing that deadline pushes us back a quarter and we won’t hit our revenue target.
Again, this is not a comprehensive list. Take a current project and try giving a sixty second overview using one or more of the structures above. Now try a different project, possibly from your past, but use the same structure. Importantly, don’t mumble your way through your answer. Don’t think “um, I’ll talk about Sarah’s work, and then what Chris is doing.” Actually describe Sarah’s work and then describe what Chris is doing. State your answer using full words and complete sentences just as if you were answering in the meeting. Try it over and over. Try it again in a week or so when the answers may be different. Practice, practice, practice.
You can find other applicable business storytelling patterns on the internet. Some patterns may feel more natural than others. Certainly have two or three which you're comfortable with since one pattern isn’t always right for every question. Ideally practice your weaker ones until they become stronger.
While a fear of formal public speaking is well known and often discussed, trepidation of impromptu speaking is also quite common, but addressed less frequently. Fortunately, we can use similar techniques to overcome that anxiety and build speaking skills applicable to those types of speaking. Practicing a pattern of a response, while not memorizing it word for word will help build an answer muscle memory that will make responding to such questions easier. As with public speaking, it’s best when the practice is done in pairs or groups, where you can give each other feedback.
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