The Leader’s and the Spokesperson’s Greatest Vulnerabilities
The activist, the agitator and reporter often intentionally use verbal agitation tools to provoke or inflict consternation, fear, doubt, terror, errors, confusion, and uncertainty. Learn to accommodate, absorb, ignore, or deflect to avoid that crashing and burning feeling. Respond with positive declarative words. These are only words until you succumb. If you take them personally you will crash or be crushed.
Gleaned from hundreds of crashed and burned interviews or confrontations by leaders and spokespersons who failed to prepare for these totally predictable tactics. Be prepared to instantly bridge away from these provocations with simple, sensible, appropriate, empathetic responses, usually beginning with, “Here’s how I would describe that…,” or, ”My view is different . . . ,” or, “A more accurate, helpful view is . . . ,”
Remain calm, Practice, practice, practice.
| Afraid Agitated Aggravate Alarmed Alleged Anger Angry Anguish Antagonize Anxious Apathetic Appalled Apprehensive Argue Arrogant Ashamed Assassinate Attack Awful Bad Betrayed Blame Blasted Bored Botched Brainwashed Bungled Buried Capitulate Catastrophic Collusion Conceal Confused Conspire Contempt Corrosive Cover-up Cringe Critical Crooked Curious Damaging Danger Deadly Deceitful Defeated Defective Defensive | Delinquent Demean Deny Despair Desperation Despicable Destroy Destructive Deteriorate Disappointed Disarray Discontented Discouraged Discriminate Disdain Disgusted Dismiss Disrespect Distorted Distraught Disturbed Dopey Doubtful Dumb Duplicity Ecotage Embarrassed Embattled Endanger Enraged Evil Eviscerate Excessive Exaggerate Exposed Face-saving Fat Fearful Fight Foolish Frightened Frustrating Furious Goofy Gratuitous Greedy Guilty Harassed | Harmful Hateful Hopeless Hostile Humiliated Hurt Icky Idiot Ignorant Immature Incompetent Inept Inappropriate Irritated Lies Litigate Lousy Mad Mangled Mangy Manipulate Mean Meek Messy Minimize Miserable Monopoly Nag Negligent Out-of-touch Overwhelmed Overzealous Outrageous Painful Panicky Petrified Pitiful Poisonous Profiteering Questionable Racist Regret Repudiate Resentful Resigned Rip-off Rotten Sabotage | Sad Sarcastic Scared Scum Self-pity Selfish Sellout Sham Shame Shameful Shatter Sick Silly Sissy Skunk Slander Slash Sloppy Stinky Struggle Stupid Surrender Tampering Tarnish Tense Terrible Terrified Terror-stricken Terrorized Threatened Toxic Tragic Traitor Tumultuous Ugly Unbelievable Uncomfortable Underhanded Undermine Uneasy Unhappy Unimportant Unlucky Unnecessary Unreal Unsure Weird Worried |
Reporters learn that the toughest truths may only come through upsetting, irritating, and provocative questioning techniques. I have never understood how using a technique that is upsetting, insulting, and usually only partially truthful helps get to the truth. The resulting confusion or anger allows the antagonist to use these spontaneous outburst responses as validation of whatever insinuations or conclusions are created, supposed, or proposed.
Be ready. Tough questions and questioning comes with the leadership
territory these days.
