How to Speak On Your Feet at a Moment’s Notice

Learning how to speak on your feet with little or no warning can be a skill that can help you land your next job. What happens for most people, when they are asked a surprise question during a job interview, is they get flustered. They stumble over their words and they usually say something they wished they hadn’t. Being able to answer surprise questions during a job interview, can be the difference between being offered that job or not.

Here is an exercise that you can use to sharpen your skill of answering questions at a moment’s notice. You will need an additional one to four other people to make this exercise most productive. Collect approximately thirty to forty topics. For example, some topics could include things like: shoes, bosses, new cars, Amazon.com or reality shows. Once you have the list of topics, write one topic on the front of a three by five card, and continue doing this until all the topics have been written out on a separate card.

Next, place the stack of index cards on the table, face down, in front of the group of participants. Appoint one person to go first. When that person picks up a card, he repeats it out loud, and then has ten seconds to think of something to say. Something that will help him get his mind on track to think of something to say are the words, “that reminds me of…” or “when I think of (topic chosen), I think of … He then has thirty to sixty seconds to expound on that topic. When he is finished, he gets to choose who will go next. The person chosen then selects the next card, reads the topic out loud and repeats the process.

This exercise not only is an excellent way to improve your impromptu speaking skills during an interview, it is also a lot of fun. From my experience of being a trainer, when you can combine learning with fun, you will have a winning combination every time.



Tom Borg is president of Tom Borg Consulting, LLC. He is a business consultant, speaker, trainer and author. He helps companies and organization become more profitable by increasing their value and lowering their costs through the professional development of their managers and employees. Please see more of his blogs at CommunicationsJobs.net and view additional job postings on Nexxt.