Facing the news media can be nerve-racking even under the best conditions. Now imagine yourself in a crisis or emergency situation facing hostile reporters who want answers to their tough questions. What would you do? What do you say?

Below are 10 basic commandments for answering tough questions from reporters:

1. Be yourself; be comfortable and confident – take a deep breath and relax: remember that you probably know more about your subject than the audience.
2. Be honest: if you don’t know the answer to a question, admit it rather than jeopardize your credibility.
3. Be brief; be human: don’t be afraid to be yourself – it will look genuine.
4. Be personal: use personal stories and anecdotes to convey an idea or concept.
5. Be positive and consistent: set your goals for the interview and keep them in mind, controlling and focusing your material toward them.  Establish your SOCO (Single Overriding Communication Objective) and state it, over and over again.
6. Be attentive: concentrate, listen carefully to questions.
7. Be energetic – without going over-the-top: use gestures, subtle facial expressions and appropriate body language to add vitality to your words.
8. Be committed and sincere: don’t be afraid to pause.  Avoid, or respond appropriately, to the “buzzwords” that reporters use to get interviewees to react, such as:  Why are you lying?; Are you embarrassed by …(your job, your company, your company’s position/record/etc.)?
9. Never repeat the buzzword in your answer: Do not restate the allegation or negative statement used against you.  Rather, just replace it with your positive response or SOCO.  Don’t waste valuable media time saying what you don’t do or what you are not.  Just say your SOCO.  Always be positive.
10. Don’t attack the media: be respectful and kind.  Don’t play into the attack game.

1. Preventing a Crisis Before It Happens:  The most important first step in crisis management is to prevent a crisis in the first place. Take a hard look at your company, and examine potential vulnerabilities from every angle, and seek out issues or situation that could result in controversy, damage control or full-blown crisis situations.
2. Designate a Crisis Management Team:  Who should be appointed to the crisis team? Who will speak to which audiences? Make sure you know how to contact everyone at any time.
3. Develop a Crisis Communications Plan:  What to do in the first hour of a crisis. Get the facts first. What do you need to know? What will the potential reactions be? How to respond to the media. Who’s in charge and how do you reach them? Drill it in with practice.
4. Implement a Company-Wide Media Policy:  Develop written policy guidelines on how to handle media inquiries, make sure everyone in the company knows about it and do this BEFORE a crisis hits, or it could backfire.
5. When a Real Life Crisis Comes:  If the worst should happen, don’t panic. Take a deep breath, and collect your Crisis Team. Examine the situation quickly, choose your approach and determine the message you want to send to the media, your homeowners, your employees and the public in general. List the most important rules for handling any crisis.