Answer Business Questions Directly
Ever been in a situation where in some kind of a Q and A panel or a presentation someone asks a question and you listen to minutes of excruciating commentary before getting eventually to an answer, and by which time you have lost the plot or moved on to checking your phone?
For sure!
There is a simple business technique that many professionals, especially top-level people in the organization chart, still haven’t figured out.
Give the answer FIRST, and then follow with all the other supporting background information.
There is this excruciating habit some have of giving all the background and eventually leading to the conclusion. This is sort on an inductive method – but it is painful if used in business.
When someone asks a question in business, the answer should be “Yes” or “No” or “I don’t know” or “Yes we can” or “No we cannot” – THEN YOU SAY: "AND here’s why”. Once you give the answer the person to whom you are speaking will signal you to go ahead with all your justifications, background information, qualifying remarks, etc., and of course be able to signal you to stop whenever they’ve heard enough.
A simple skill but maybe forgotten by many!
Our great team assists clients daily with this and other communications challenges. We help principled leaders excel!