This is a short segment from a TJ Walker live-stream (Dec 13, 2016) in which Walker advises nominees preparing for Senate confirmation hearings, using Rex Tillerson (President-elect Trump’s nominee for Secretary of State) as the example. He emphasizes extensive practice (including on video), preparing for hostile questioning by staff and allies, focusing on a few core messages, projecting calm and poise, avoiding the appearance of being caught off-guard, and proactively presenting a positive agenda for the office.
Chapters
Imagine you had to defend your entire life, and the whole world is watching now. That sounds like a nightmare. Most of us would do anything to avoid that. But believe it or not, some people are actively pursuing that. One of them is Rex Tillerson. He is the nominee of President elect Donald Trump to be the next Secretary of State. Of course, in order to get that position, you have to go through a Senate confirmation hearing. He's going to be asked questions about all of his business dealings with Russia, about conflicts of interest, about potential bribes he may have given in the course of business, his take on the world. It's going to be a thorough scrutiny, not just from Democrats, but from many Republicans who are troubled by elements of his background. So what is he going to do? Well, I want to give you the advice that I give to my clients because I have worked with some clients before. They go before their confirmation battles and their confirmation hearings in front of the Senate. Here's what I do with them and what I advise them to do. For starters, you've got to practice. You need to spend hours and hours being bombarded by questions from friendly sources, but doing it in an unfriendly way. Your staffers, your colleagues, members of the White House staff, they got to bombard you with questions so that there are no surprises when it comes to the confirmation hearing. This is what's different from the media interview. Media interviews, I want you to be prepared for the top handful of questions. But at some point, it's a waste of time to go on and on and on, preparing for every single possible. You need to focus more on your message, your three main messages. A confirmation hearing is different. A senator can talk to you, grill you for hours, and hear one thing that sticks in his crawl. And it's usually a his crawl. But there are women in the Senate, too, obviously, who can be asking questions, and one wrong answer can trip you up. Although it doesn't usually the vast, vast. In excess of 90% of presidential nominees for high office cabinet positions are confirmed. It's still an intense scrutiny. I recommend practicing on video. And you've got to be prepared for the tough questions. Nobody's perfect. You don't have to have a perfect answer for everything. But what you don't want to do is look like, uh, oh, oops, you got me. Ha ha. I am embarrassed. That's what you don't want to do. That's what will be remembered. That's what will make it easier for a senator to vote against you. So you've got to look relaxed. You've got to look calm, comfortable. It's your job not to lie or spin or obfuscate, but it's your job to say what's good about you. Now, if it's the case of a confirmation hearing for a judicial position, you don't want to say what you want to do once in office. But for things like secretary of state and others, fine. To lay out your philosophy. One of the weaknesses many people have is they don't spend enough time really putting forth their own positive agenda for the job they want. They go into it too defensively. Whether you're up for a nomination for secretary of State or you're up for a promotion at the local electric company, it's not just about answering questions. It's not just about having confidence and being comfortable and having poise. It's about telling people what you're going to do in that job to make it better. If I can help you, let me know. There's plenty of videos, tutorials and tips right here on my Facebook page, facebook.com tjwalkerinteractive or go to my main corporate site, mediatrainingworldwide.com and look at some of our online courses.
