Interview

Planning for an interview may sound self-defeating. After all, isn’t conversation about the unexpected? Still preparation isn’t just possible, it’s essential. First off, get information about who is coming to talk to you and what he or she probably wants to find out. Most importantly, however, decide what you are going to tell the other person, and in what order. Picture an interview as if it were a tour of your company.

First the showroom with the finished wares, then the production facilities, perhaps including research and development or a product that is especially prestigious. Formulate key messages that tell the story of each station on the tour, and make them brief, consistent, positive and credible. That way, if your guests decides we would like to go a different route, you’ll have no trouble rearranging your story, because it’s the key messages that tell it. And who knows, you might actually begin to enjoy these things, because you find you can actually do them well. And because you enjoy them, you’ll do them even better.