Presentation Skills That Will Take You to the Top (Collection), 2/e

63. Tricky Questions

Be Transparent or Be Trapped

Adam Bryant interviews CEOs for his weekly “Corner Office” column in the New York Times. He distilled a group of the interviews into a bestselling book called The Corner Office, whose subtitle describes its intent: Indispensable and Unexpected Lessons from CEOs on How to Lead and Succeed.

The key word is “lessons.” I follow Mr. Bryant’s excellent column every Sunday and often find valuable lessons for presenters. Two of those columns addressed the same subject: how to handle tricky questions: Mr. Bryant asked two chief executives—Kevin O’Connor of FindTheBest.com and Paul Maritz of VMware—about the tough questions they ask prospective employees. Both men referenced questions that, on the surface, ...