Before a recorded interview most interviewees like to ask for the questions to be sent over.  The theory is that it gives you the interviewee a chance to prepare, making for a richer set of answers.  This makes a lot of sense.

However it can fall down when the interviewee comes across as too prepared, or “canned”. 

This is indicated by a scripted sounding response where the interviewee is clearly reading.  Or in the case of the interview I’m about to show you, when the interviewee jumps in too quickly without a natural pause.

Take a listen to this 20 second interview excerpt from a recent podcast I was listening to:  Natural_Training_Canned_Answers_To_Questions

Note that at around the 10 second mark the interviewer asks a question – without a pause, the interviewee jumps straight in with his two part answer.

This is a prime example of the “canned” effect.  If the interviewee didn’t have a prepared answer, then they would still be wise to leave a pause, because it certainly comes across that way.  Or the interview might have been poorly edited, reducing the natural pause in the conversation.

The point is, even if you have prepared answers to questions the interview must come across as natural as possible, and that means pausing, natural thinking time and points in front of you, but not scripts.

In our presentation skills workshops we help you with the art of handling questions from the audience.  I am also available to do a 1-1 session where I prepare you for the toughest questions being thrown at you from audiences, customers and of course the media!   Give me a call if you would like to improve your ability to handle questions.

Full podcast interview here:  http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/fivelive/pods/rss.xml