How can you remain composed when responding to difficult questions?

I used to prepare an answer for every question that someone could ask me, but then I realized the power of asking your own question. For example, I was interviewing a lady and she asked, "Why are you qualified to interview me?" I was a bit offended. My immediate response was to share my pedigree of interviewing millionaires and writing international best-selling books. instead, I took a deep breath and asked, "What do you mean by that?" She continued to explain. "that didn't sound good. I simply wanted to know what magazine you work for.." easy answer. The lesson? When you are faced with a tough question: 1. Ask your own question first then respond based on the person's explanation.

What helps me remain composed when faced with a difficult question is to take a deep breath and then repeat the question back. I have found this helpful because is gives me a moment to calm down and ensure I heard the question correctly. I also am able to admit/be honest when I do not know an answer or explain that the information may be beyond my scope of training.

It's important to understand your audience, be honest, humble and curious. Open ended and close ended questions are to be treated differently. A truly difficult question will challenge you if not make redundant your preparation. 1) Understand that questions can come from a place of stress, and often from an echo chamber. 2) Immediate answers to open ended questions are less trustworthy than more patient answers. 3) Seek context to the questions and perhaps ask clarifying questions of your own "When I've been asked similar questions in the past its been because of a wider business challenge is that the case here?" Hope this helps, Robert

Ensure that you fully understand the question by actively listening to the speaker. Paraphrasing the question before responding can help clarify any ambiguity.

The best thing about being asked difficult questions is that it exposes the weaknesses in your armor. I quickly take these moment to humble myself and say that is a great question that I don't have the answer to, but quickly showcase my resourcefulness by directing them to someone or something that does have the answer. Understanding that you are not perfect and you won't be able to know everything is key to this. Mastering your craft is great but a true salesman knows learning is apart of the game.

How many of us are really active listeners? Most of us when someone is talking don’t listen really but we are thinking about what we want to say. The first step to active listening is remove all distractions and NO multitasking, take notes, write your thoughts down and focus in on how you can respond to build trust. Validate what they are feeling and offer ideas, don’t diminish or belittle what their concerns are, don’t let your communication end continue building rapport, check in with them periodically. My best advice “wear their shoes” be empathetic…exhibiting empathy is not a weakness but a leadership strength.

It is the truth that being an active listener in a situation where you are being challenged is not very easy. An important aspect that must come into play is the emotional intelligence. One should always strive to improve their emotional intelligence because only an emotionally sound person can have a hold on his nerves in such a situation and listen without acting abruptly. This usually solves half of the problem.

How many of us are really active listeners? Most of us when someone is talking don’t listen really but we are thinking about what we want to say. The first step to active listening is remove all distractions and NO multitasking, take notes, write your thoughts down and focus in on how you can respond to build trust. Validate what they are feeling and offer ideas, don’t diminish or belittle what their concerns are, don’t let your communication end continue building rapport, check in with them periodically. My best advice “wear their shoes” be empathetic…exhibiting empathy is not a weakness but a leadership strength.

Listening is Learning and as well living in the present. Listening is a key skill one should possess when thrown at a problem. Listening allows time to assess and work around it before proposing a solution. Most great leaders are often active listeners. Acknowledging the presenter with a summary at the end of each presentation can only be possible by active listening.

It is always better to have multiple stories ready in your head following the STAR method before any interview. You can make a list of questions and for every behavioral question you have, prepare a story from your experiences. The cool thing about this is one story may fit a number of questions. Such as: your STAR response to the question "Tell me a situation where you had to resolve a conflict in your team" would be similar to "tell me one example when you had managed a difficult situation in a collaborative environment".

Be truthful, take your time. And always bring from your own experiences. Every little thing that happened to you brought you many lessons! Use this in your favor!

This might be of use to all sales colleagues in the beginning of their journey. The entire (almost) industry of objection-handling courses is built upon the premise of overpromising to begin with. It goes without saying that knowing your product insideout is a must, however you won't know everything... but here you are: you've just delivered a smashing presentation, you even got an applause, you handled a few very difficult questions like a boss, and here's one you're not quite sure about... chance it? DON'T! Admit you don't know, take their details, and DO follow up with the an accurate answer as soon as possible. You've learned something new about your product, and you have avoided a difficult conversation in the future. Win!

Embrace Lifelong Learning: A priceless piece of advice I received early in my career was to always remain a student. I'm deeply grateful for this guidance. Adopting a student's mindset means acknowledging that there's always more to learn. Even when you reach a high level of expertise, there's room to grow and new perspectives to consider. Can you push your knowledge further? Is it possible to anticipate future trends and changes? Being open to new information, rather than dismissing it, has been crucial in keeping me agile and relevant in my professional field. It's about staying curious, adaptable, and always ready to integrate new insights into my expertise.

Fake it till you make it ! 😅 joking. Serious answer: - take your time, no need to rush - silence and breaks give weight to your words, so take advantage of it - feel free to share your thought process. Often you don’t need to be right, but to show how you think through certain challenges - invite someone else in your side to fill in your knowledge gaps - be open that you may not know everything and someone can add some more nuance to your answer - worst case scenario: say you don’t know and need to check (research or ask your team). Make sure you do it and follow up after though

Pause, take a deep breath. The human brain is wired to be emotional and negative. Once we move past the emotional reaction, we can answer the difficult question in a rational way.

I interview a broad range of subjects and topics. in one day, I may interview a real estate investor, a space technology startup and a life coach. There are many times when I don't know what they are saying to me. Rather than play smart, I ask them to explain it to me. and they are happy to do it. The same goes for questions. "Josh, do you know about this?" "No, please explain." Following the explanation, i repeat the concepts and they gain an appreciation. Wow, you understood what I was saying. We make a connection and the conversation tends to go a bit smoother. plus, I build a lasting connection.

The most important thing that you can practically do (because the advice to say remain "calm" is usually hard to implement) in those situations, is to pause. Pausing might feel uncomfortable in the beginning, but it's a real sign of professionalism and confidence. You should practice pausing in general in presentations. It's important to use as little "filling words" as possible in your response, and the easiest way to do this, is to pause before you speak and after you finish a sentence. It helps you to gather your thoughts, deliver a concise answer and change the "power" in that conversation to your advantage.

It's often easier said than done, as anyone who has been in this position before will attest to. However, if you go into the conversation with the mindset and intention of adding value and thinking of the other party wholeheartedly, you won't give yourself the room to take anything personally. We typically respond with quips or aggressive language in response when we feel personally attacked. If we remove that from the equation, we're freed up to respond with a true confidence that not only defuse the situation, but bring the conversation back to the heart of the matter, how you can help.

Here’s the biggest thing to consider when faced with difficult questions. Try to understand the other person. Most people don't want to be disrespectful. If they are, they typically have a misunderstanding of who you are or what you do. or they have placed you in a box based on interaction with similar people. Break out of the box. Don't be afraid to ask questions and find clarity before jumping right into a response.

If you are unclear or want to have more context, you can respond with a question to get more insight into where the question is coming from and what the asker is looking for. You likely have more than one way to answer the question and they likely have more than one way to ask it.

The most important lesson which I learned during my corporate years is to first understand the question Also if not able to answer it Try to break questions in parts for easy understanding Always look for easy answers, it's not necessary that difficult questions have a difficult answer as well.