TJ Walker coaches the Premier of Bermuda on media training after he rejected a tough question's premise. Walker shows why that backfires and demonstrates the better move: reframe the question and answer the fair part in your own terms, or say actually and state your view.
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One day I was conducting a media training session in my New York City studio, and it was with the premier of Bermuda, the top politically elected leader of the country. We were doing a sample press conference. And I do what I always do. I ask tough questions. We record it, we play it back, we critique it. I said, Mr. Prime Minister, what about? And I asked some sort of generic tough question. I'll never forget his answer. He said, I reject the premise of your question. It's a ridiculous question. Next question. With an angry look on his face. Then we went to the next question. We finished out that little segment and I pulled aside his aide once and I said, is that really how he answers the questions? He said, yes. I said, does he ever do interviews? Yeah, he does dozens of interviews every single week. What was his profession before he entered politics? He ran a public relations firm. I was just shocked. Now, I quickly showed him that that isn't in his advantage to answer questions that way. It's confrontational, makes it look like he's hiding something, creates a clash with reporters. And what I coached him to do, what I coach all of my clients to do, is not to dodge questions, but to simply focus on the part of the premise of the question. You can deal with and answer it in your own positive terms. Or if someone says something you think is flatly wrong, you can say actually, and then state what you do believe and let the person deduce you don't agree with their premise. This way, there's no confrontation. You're not saying anything quotable, off message, and it doesn't seem like you're on the defensive. Anytime you're defending with the media, you're basically losing. Showed him that technique. Complete difference, complete sea change of how he came across. It turned press conferences from adversarial, contentious, to smooth, pleasant affairs. So remember, if you hear a question you don't like, that's okay, but rewrite it in your own brain. Don't tell the reporter you think the premise is ridiculous. Just alter the premise to one you think is fair and honest and answer that, okay, what did I do with that story? What I was trying to do is convey that even someone who's really experienced in the media, even someone with a background in public relations, when they get in front of the cameras, can do things horribly. So don't assume just because your boss or your boss's boss has been doing this for 10 or 20 years or has a certain position or title or rank or salary, that they're good at it. In my experience, there are people in all different aspects of the corporate world, government, political world, who simply aren't very good at certain aspects of presenting to the media. They need to learn new skills to do it effectively. That was the message.
