Confessions of an Interviewer

I spent years on the other side of the desk, and I’ll confess: I had a few tricks up my sleeve. Most journalists do. The good news is that once you know them, you can see them coming.

Broadly, interviewers come in three types: the charmer, the silent type and the attack dog.

The best defence against all three is the Scout motto: be prepared. That means come to an interview armed with a message house: your three key points, plus the evidence and anecdotes that back them up. Whatever the question, you’ll then have a clear route back to what you want to say.

More on that later. First let’s meet the interviewers.

The Charmer

Their style:

The charmer is warm, chatty, easy to like. The kind of person you’d easily open up to over a coffee or beer, which is exactly the risk.

This was my style. I’d start with a soft question to get my interviewee talking. Then, once they were nice and relaxed, I’d slip in tougher ones.

Bloomberg TV anchor Haslinda Amin is brilliant at this. She’s smart, well-researched and friendly, and manages to ask the toughest of questions in the nicest way – whether on TV or on stage at a conference.

How to handle them:

Enjoy the conversation, but remember it’s an interview from start to finish, including the chat before the interview starts and after it stops. Don’t let your guard down. Friendly isn’t the same as off the record.

The Silent Type

Their style:

The silent type asks a probing question, then simply looks at you once you’ve finished, waiting for you to fill the silence.

I did this too. When someone started saying more than they should, I’d stay quiet and hope they’d keep going. They often did.

How to handle them:

When you’ve finished your answer, stop. The silence is the interviewer’s problem, not yours.

If you must say something, go back to one of your planned key messages rather than adding a thought you haven’t prepared.

On live TV or radio, hosts can’t stand more than a few seconds of dead air before jumping in. Print reporters, though, have all the time in the world, so that’s where the silence trap really bites.

One unplanned sentence can cost you dearly. In 2010, weeks after BP’s Deepwater Horizon rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, killing 11 workers, chief executive Tony Hayward apologised to reporters for the disruption to people’s lives.

Then he added: “There’s no one who wants this thing over more than I do. I’d like my life back.” That last line, not the apology, is what everyone remembers.

It’s what I call a seven-second stray: a throwaway line that ends up as the unwanted headline.

The Attack Dog

Their style:

They relish asking difficult questions in the most hostile way possible. It’s hard not to get defensive and give in to their pressing, and that’s exactly what they want.

How to handle them:

Mentally rewrite the question into one you’re comfortable answering.

If asked, “When will you stop wasting people’s money and give up?”, hear “What have you achieved?” Then calmly reject the premise: “I don’t accept that. What we’ve actually delivered is…”

Never repeat their loaded words, and challenge false either/or choices. If the honest answer to a yes/no question is yes or no, then say so and explain.

If it really isn’t black and white, say so briefly and explain why. But use that sparingly, or it starts to sound like a dodge.

The good news? In much of Asia Pacific, this style is less common than in the West. But don’t count on it.

Build your message house

If you’re well prepared, you can lead an interviewer to where you want to go, rather than risk being led astray. If you can’t provide them with a compelling story, or come across as evasive, they’ll go digging for their own angle.

Think of your messages as a house. The roof is the headline you want the journalist to walk away with. It is held up by three pillars: your core supporting messages. Beneath each pillar are the foundations: the data, examples and anecdotes to prove each point and bring it to life.

Whatever the journalist asks, find the nearest material in your house and build your answer from there.

Good messaging requires consistency and repetition. Audiences need to hear a message many times before it sticks.

Of course, no-one wants to hear the same line repeatedly. But by drawing on different parts of your house, you can make the same overall point in many ways.

How to handle questions you dread

To answer difficult questions with relative ease, use the bridging technique. Use this ATM approach to stay on message:

• • Acknowledge the question.
  • Transition using a short bridging phrase.
  • Message – transition to the part of your message house that relates most closely to the question.

For example: “That’s not our experience. What we’ve found is…” or “That’s one viewpoint, but the bigger issue is…”

Acknowledge the question every time, or you’ll sound like you’re avoiding the question.

Save bridging for hot-button or unfair questions. If you use it too often, you’ll come across as evasive.

Research from Harvard has found that audiences often miss a smooth pivot to a related topic, but they notice, and penalise, an answer that clearly ignores the question.

Who wins when it turns hostile?

In my experience, audiences start out on the interviewer’s side. The journalist is their representative, asking the questions they want answered.

But the moment an interviewer is seen to be bullying, interrupting or being unfair, sympathy shifts to the guest.

That’s why being prepared and staying calm under fire is your most powerful weapon.

Lose your temper, and you lose the audience. Keep your cool, and the attack dog can end up doing your job for you.