He was the executive director of a nonprofit agency. A board member asked a question and the response from him was one a politician might use, i.e., he never answered the question. He “danced” around the question, rambling on with a bunch of buzz words that didn’t relate to the question. Another board member saw it and asked a follow-up question, looking for more specifics and the response he provided was more “dancing around.” This continued for a while, until the board stopped asking questions. I suspect in the Executive Director’s own mind; he believed everyone accepted his responses and was satisfied because they stopped asking. Far from it. To most of the board members, it was clear the Executive Director didn’t know the answers, ones he should have, and his credibility dropped. In addition to a loss of credibility, he started having more questions asked, not less questions, because the board didn’t trust him.

No doubt you’ll be asked questions by a board member sometime in your career, or someone in senior leadership within your organization. How will you respond? Your response will either enhance your credibility and along with it their confidence in you, or it will go the opposite way, lack of trust and confidence, as well as more questions.

Throughout my career, I’ve been on both sides of those questions, as someone responding to them, as well as being the person asking questions. Let me share some wisdom learned through successes and failures in my career.

Anticipate the questions – If you get invited to a board meeting to talk about something, or you’re in a meeting with senior leaders related to work you are doing, take time to anticipate the questions they will ask you. It isn’t hard, just put yourself in their shoes, and ask yourself what you believe they want to know. Then be prepared to answer the question clearly and concisely. Your preparation should include anticipating follow-up questions to your responses. It is better to be prepared and never asked, than to be asked and not prepared.

Board members are typically businesspeople from the community with experience and expertise. Sometimes they are familiar with your industry and organization, sometimes they are not. When they lack familiarity, you have an opportunity to educate them when responding to questions. I’ve found most board members, as well as the senior leaders in an organization, are good at realizing quickly if the response they receive to their question is something AI wrote, a line of bulls#%t, or a straight answer. Don’t try to fool them, you won’t.

There are some who are intimidated by board members and senior leaders, praying they don’t get asked anything. I’ve always been the opposite. I like their questions and encourage them. I’ve always told board members their questions help me, and I should be able to respond to each question with one of three responses.

1. The answer – If I’m prepared, it’s easy, I’ll have the answer to their question. When I’m able to respond clearly and concisely their trust and confidence in me increases. They are also pleased they have received an answer because whatever they asked was important to them.
2. The answer, but not now – Many times the question asked is about whether we are doing XYZ, and if not, why not? Whether it’s a question from a board member, or a senior leader, this type of question provides an opportunity for education about priorities and resources. Again, I shouldn’t have been surprised by the question and have anticipated it. My response might be something like, “We’re aware of that and studied it but we aren’t moving forward at this time. Based on the resources available for this year, our priority is a focus on ABC. But we agree XYZ is important, and it’s included in our plans for the next fiscal year.” I might then continue to talk about why ABC is more important this year.
3. I don’t have an answer but will get one. Yes, sometimes you get a question you are unprepared for or don’t know the answer to. It’s far better to be honest and say, “I don’t have an answer but will look into and get back to you within X period of time”, than to dance around it. It’s not a problem to be surprised occasionally, but it is a problem if it’s a regular occurrence.

Remember, if you try to dance around a question, you’ll only get more questions not just that day, but in days to come. Why? Because if you’ve lost credibility, the additional questions help the person asking those questions to know they’re getting the real answer.

 A man has joy in giving an appropriate answer, And how good and delightful is a word spoken at the right moment—how good it is! Proverbs 15:23 (AMP)