In the Line of Fire How to Handle Tough Questions...When It Counts.pdf

First phrase from the book:


"INTRODUCTION-
Agility Versus Force-


During my 40 years in the communications trade ranging from the
control rooms of the CBS Broadcast Center in Manhattan to the
boardrooms of some of America’s most prestigious corporations,
I have heard…and have asked…some highly challenging
questions. One of the most challenging I ever heard came during
Bill Clinton’s presidency when he was engulfed in the firestorm
ignited by the revelation of his extramarital affair with Monica
Lewinsky, a White House intern.
Despite intense public and media pressure, Clinton continued to
fulfill his presidential obligations, among them hosting a state visit
by the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Tony Blair. On the
afternoon of February 6, 1998, after the two heads of state made
their customary prepared statements to the press, President
Clinton opened the floor to questions from an audience packed
with reporters. At that point, he became fair game for nonstate
questions on the subject that was uppermost in the minds of the
media and the public. One question in particular came from Wolf
Blitzer, the senior CNN political correspondent:
Mr. President, Monica Lewinsky’s life has been changed
forever, her family’s life has been changed forever. I
wonder how you feel about that and what, if anything,
you’d like to say to Monica Lewinsky at this minute?
The stinging question brought a few scattered titters from the
other reporters. Looking straight ahead, right at Blitzer, Clinton
smiled and bit his lower lip, an expression that had become his
trademark

Then he said,
That’s good!
The crowded room erupted in laughter. After it subsided, Clinton
continued:
That’s good…but at this minute, I am going to stick with
my position and not comment. [I.1]
Blitzer had nailed the acknowledged charismatic master of
communication skills at his own game, and the master
acknowledged it publicly for all to hear. Fortunately for Clinton,
he was able to default to his legal situation and not answer.
Very few people on the face of this planet have the expertise,
charm, the quickness of wit, or the legal circumstances to respond Bill Clinton reacts to a question about Monica Lewinsky.
so deftly to challenging questions. Yet very few people on the
face of this planet sail through life without being confronted with
tough questions. The purpose of this book and its many real-life
examples is to provide you with the skills to handle such
questions, and only such questions. If all the questions you are
ever faced with were of the “Where do I sign?” variety, you could
spend your time with a good mystery novel instead. Forewarned
is forearmed.
One other forewarning: All the techniques you are about to learn
require absolute truth. The operative word in the paragraph
above, as well as on the cover of this book, is “handle,” meaning
how to deal with tough questions. While providing an answer is
an integral part of that “handling,” every answer you give to every
question you get must be honest and straightforward. If not, all
the other techniques will be for naught. With a truthful answer as
your foundation, all those techniques will enable you to survive,
if not prevail, in the line of fire."





About the Author:


JERRY WEISMANN, the world’s #1 corporate presentations coach,
founded and leads Power Presentations, Ltd. in Foster City, CA.
His private clients include executives at hundreds of the world’s
top companies, including Yahoo!, Intel, Cisco Systems, Intuit,
Dolby Laboratories, and Microsoft.
Weissman coached Cisco’s executives before their immensely
successful IPO roadshow; afterward, the firm’s chairman
attributed at least two to three dollars of Cisco’s offering price to
his work. Since then, he has prepared executives for nearly 500
IPO roadshows, helping them raise hundreds of billions of
dollars.
Weissman is author of the global best-seller Presenting to Win:
The Art of Telling Your Story (Financial Times Prentice Hall, 2003).





please seed if you like the book...