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In the Line of Fire: How to Handle Tough Questions...When It Counts Hardcover – January 1, 2006

by Jerry Weissman (Author)

4.2 136 ratings

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Language

English
Publisher

FT Press
Publication date

January 1, 2006
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Garr Reynolds
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Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B005G2WXH0
Publisher ‏ : ‎ FT Press (January 1, 2006)
Language ‏ : ‎ English

Customer Reviews:
4.2 136 ratings

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Jerry Weissman

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Jerry Weissman is the world's number one corporate presentations coach. His private client list reads like a who's who of the world's best companies, including the top brass at Yahoo!, Intel, Intuit, Cisco Systems, Microsoft, Dolby Labs and many others.

Mr. Weissman founded Power Presentations, Ltd. in 1988 and in 2017, changed the name to Suasive, Inc. to reflect clients' goals: to make an impact, to influence, to get results, to persuade.

One of his earliest efforts was the Cisco Systems IPO roadshow. Following its successful launch, Don Valentine, of Sequoia Capital, and then chairman of Cisco's Board of Directors, attributed "at least two to three dollars" of the offering price to Mr. Weissman's coaching. That endorsement led to nearly 500 other IPO roadshow presentations that have raised hundreds of billions of dollars in the stock market. Mr. Weissman's focus widened from coaching IPOs to include public and privately held companies. His techniques have helped another 500 firms develop and deliver their mission-critical business presentations.

Those same techniques form the basis of Jerry's publications. The book, Presenting to Win: The Art of Telling Your Story, covers his concepts of story development and graphics design. His second book, In the Line of Fire: How to Handle Tough Questions...When it Counts, and its companion DVD, In the Line of Fire: An Interactive Guide to Handling Tough Questions, cover his Q&A techniques.

The DVD contains lessons from the book, illustrated by video clips of tough Q&A sessions in the public arena. It includes press conferences, media interviews and presidential debates, featuring the 2004 debates between President George W. Bush and John F. Kerry.

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Scott Stephenson

Fascinating Communication Strategy

Reviewed in the United States on June 28, 2008

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The strategy discussed in this book can be helpful in many situations, including those requiring answers to tough questions. The book relies on examples taken from political debates and then loosely ties the lessons to business settings. There is no political slant for the examples (A bad example from George H. Bush and good example from George W. Bush). I would have preferred business examples rather than political ones; however, I realize the non-disclosure agreements and confidentiality may create roadblocks. The examples make the lessons perfectly clear. This is an insightful and well-written book.

One person found this helpful

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Richard Jurek

Not just for those in the media

Reviewed in the United States on June 29, 2013

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This classic book about controlling interviews and dealing with tough questions covers the subject in a quick and entertaining way that not only educates, but provides instant actionable advice. Whether you serve as a corporate spokesperson, deal with the media, are a manager of people, or present to shareholders and other potentially "hostile" audiences -- you will be well prepared if you've read and put into practice the valuable lessons in this book.

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John Gibbs

How to answer tough questions respectfully

Reviewed in the United States on October 21, 2010

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If there is anything more feared by many people than public speaking, it is taking questions from a hostile audience. Jerry Weissman provides excellent advice on how to handle hostile questions in this book. The book aims to show you how to control question-and-answer session and enable you to win in your exchanges when it counts.

According to the author, defensive, evasive or contentious responses to challenging questions cause loss of credibility. Prompt, assured and pertinent responses avoid such damage. The book provides advice on all aspects of the Question and Answer session, including identifying and vocalising the key issues in questions, how to retake the floor after a question has been asked, how to use a buffer to neutralise a hostile question, and how to apply top spin to your answers.

Numerous different actual Q & A sessions are described and analysed, including several debates between US presidential candidates. I found this to be one of the most useful public-speaking-related books that I have read, as it explains how to answer questions in a way that is respectful to the questioner and convincing to the audience, even when the questions are hostile. I highly recommend the book to anyone who engages in public speaking.

5 people found this helpful

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Rajeev Pokkyarath

The art of honest deflection

Reviewed in the United States on August 29, 2011

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That fact that we need courses and books that helps us "handle questions" is an indication of how complex society has become and how influential mass media is. That's what I feel after reading this book. Instead of putting ourselves through all this newfangled ideas of top spin (after seeing that double-helix like illustration, I was like, do we need to make it sound all this complicated?), roman pillers and so on, we should probably just stick with the basics, the rest will take care of itself. If it doesn't, then so be it.
- Listen to the question well
- Be straightforward
- Be confident
- Make it impersonal (Don't focus on how YOU would end up looking; focus on an answer that best suits the situation)

If Bush Sr's approval rating dropped significantly because he looked at his watch and happened not to understand a question which was not correctly asked in the first place, then, I think, as a society we've bigger problems to deal with than our capability/ability to handle/deflect questions.

Interesting election dramas, though.

2 people found this helpful

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Jose Marval

Excellent Book, highly practical and simple, with great real life examples!

Reviewed in the United States on October 8, 2010

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This book is unique, highly practical, very well written and very entertaining to read. Even if you dont speak for a living, you can find this book very, very helpfull to improve communication skills, be in control when speaking, and when facing tough or hostile questioning, always reach to your own strenghts and capabilities to answer, not focusing in the negativity of the questions.
I HIGHLY, recommend this book to ANYONE, specially those in search to improve their skills in comunication in professional environments.

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n/a

Excellent price/knowledge ration

Reviewed in the United States on October 29, 2006

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Excellent book about dynamics of debating, Q&A sessions and challanging questions.

I'm sure, even a mommy would benefit of knowledge gained by this book... but if you are in a leader position, or contact with audience.. you must simply read and understand this book.

I'm a project manager, and ocassionally the behaviour of my co-workers made me angry. I had at least the wisdom, to not confront, just ingore them (but then, I was unhappy, 'swallowing' their verbal attacks).

Now I have at least have the idea, how to respond: '...those who render others' armies helpless without fighting are the best of all'.

So main point: you have to overcome your instinct and learn the new skills.

Excellent book. Get it.

2 people found this helpful

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Karen Kee

BE PREPARED!

Reviewed in the United States on May 1, 2013

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Tough questions and their answers are practiced by Presidents - of the United States, CEO's of companies, anywhere including your all important job interview. If you are not prepared and you think you will dodge a bullet and not get THE QUESTION, think again. An disaster, tanker blow up, missing 5 years on your resume, and all the remaining tough questions will be asked - what's the point of interviewing you if not to uncover information you've left out and would prefer to avoid? Also, tough questions which will be asked are often done so in front of others, so you can't stumble on the answer and hope you do better next time. Usually there is only This Time. Know the question is coming and have the answer prepared, recorded, practiced, rehearsed with friends or colleagues. You will get all the details behind the references in this review right there in one book. Guaranteed, if you don't buy the book, sometime in your future, someone is going to ask you a tough question and you will immediately think of this review and regret you didn't buy the book!

Reviewed in the United States on May 2, 2013

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We all want the answers to dealing with tough questions and if there is a better book on it, I haven't found it. This author is sharp and knows his topic. You actually want to read it a second time to be sure you didn't miss anything.

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Ladyscar

This is actually very good.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 15, 2013

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I thought that this was going to be lame but it wasn't and I learnt a lot from reading this book.

San Patch

Good guide. Lousy pseudo Karate framework

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 22, 2013

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How does one handle tough questions after a presentation? Jerry Weismann presents a simple, yet effective process for doing so: (1) Listen for the nub of the question; (2) Buffer the answer either by paraphrasing or using key words from the question; (3) Honestly answer the question; and (4) 'Topspin' a.k.a. send you message to the question. What do you want the audience to take away from this exchange? Weismann illustrates the technique using detailed examples from U.S. presidential debates, press briefings and his personal experience. The examples are really good. For instance, Weismann analyses the 1992 U.S. presidential debate between Clinton, Ross Perot and incumbent president George Bush. He shows how Clinton's response to a question from an audience member was an exemplary demonstration of the techniques whereas George Bush's response was a complete failure.

Weismann's advice is not all about technique. He emphasises the need to over-prepare for presentations. Prepare issue statements for ALL the contentious issues. Get a friend to play devil's advocate or even a cantankerous audience member. Weismann then shows how careful preparation helped an average communicator, Al Gore, defeat a formidable opponent, Ross Perot.

'In the Line of Fire' has one weakness: the framework. Instead of sticking to advice based on his experience and on archival material, Weismann wraps it all in a Karate framework (in Japanese). A buffer is supposed to be equivalent to a Karate technique that 'uses the opponent's strength against him'. A topspin is attack etc. Why did he use such Karate metaphor? Why not stick to the process? If readers want Karate, they'll watch a Jackie Chan movie, not buy a book. Despite this weakness (poor editing?), I enjoyed reading 'In the Line of Fire'. I will keep it on my desk as a useful reference material. More importantly, I will practice the techniques championed in the book.

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