The Nonstop Talker, How Do They Get This Way?
By Michael Stelzner
I was recently interviewing a CEO as part of a new white paper project. I was warned that this guy “likes to talk.”
Man was that an understatement. There were a number of us on this call and it was VERY challenging to get a word in, let alone lead the call. It forced me to reflect.
- How do talkaholics get this way?
- How do they lead businesses?
- How can they lead when they can’t listen?
- Have you been challenged to conduct an interview with someone who can’t stop talking?
- Has it ever been so bad that you were deterred from asking a question because of the resulting dissertation?
Answer the following survey to help me understand how often this occurs:
Tell me about your “talker” experience.
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September 14th, 2006 at 7:47 am
Hi Mike,
That’s an interesting challenge. As a journalist and a writer, I’ve interviewed hundreds of folks in very diverse arenas - authors, writers, actors, CEOs, and political figures. And the only experience I ever had with an interview going awry was during an interview with a Senator from Texas. He would not ever stop talking and was only talking in “speech bytes.”
With CEOs or companies I’m writing case studies for what I typically run into is how to draw them out in the conversation more, not less!
But having had a couple long-winded folks in the tech arena, I can say that during the phoner or in-person interview, I just consistently try to bring the interview back to focus. I will say things like, “The readers (of this story or of this white paper or of this case study) are going to want to really have drilled down very concisely what the issues are, can you summarize in three what they might be?”
Another thing that works good is a couple of responses in, if they’re really long and long-winded, I will say, that’s great and can you encapsulate that in a more brief way? If you keep doing it and make them repeat what they’ve just said, but in smaller response form, it tires them out and keeps the call more focused.
September 14th, 2006 at 2:40 pm
Michael,
Your new book is terrific and I plan to review it soon, promise. Been swamped. Love your entry about the non-stop talker. Kinda ties in with CEO blogging, doesn’t it?! Well maybe not. Talking a lot doesn’t, er, necessarily mean “saying” a lot.
September 15th, 2006 at 4:49 pm
Nettie and Debbie - Thanks for your comments. - Mike
October 16th, 2006 at 8:15 am
I occassionally run into the nonstop talker. I believe this happens for two reasons:
1. Repetitive presentations of the same topic that causes them to go into autopilot and run the speech script during the content interview.
2. A high level of nervousness and insecurity. Many feel that as a CEO or executive they need to be in an authoritative advisory position during important content interviews, which results in the non-stop chatter.
Repeating questions a second or third time usually gets them to calm down and settle into a normal dialog.
October 16th, 2006 at 10:45 am
Jonathan - Love your auto pilot statement. I think that is a key problem. - Mike