Five Secrets To "thinking On Your Feet"
By Ed Sykes, Sat Dec 10th

Five Secrets to “Thinking on Your Feet” By Ed Sykes © 2005 AllRights Reserved

Many times we are put into situations where we are asked aquestion and need to give an answer on the spot, or “think onyour feet.” It could be a sales or customer service situation,your manager asking you for a progress report, a request foryour ideas on a new community project, or a job interview.

During these times we can feel the pressure. Our heart begins torace, we start to sweat, we feel our knees knocking, or we wantto hide under a rock. This is because sometimes the answer wegive could mean that big sale, the customer being satisfied, apromotion or raise, or that dream job.

The following are five secrets to help you master your “thinkingon your feet” skills:

1.Listen Many times when we are in a high pressure situationwhere we are so nervous we really don’t hear the actualquestion. Been there, done that. To make sure we understand thequestion and give the right answer do the following:

•Breathe slower (Benefit: Relaxes body and mind). •Look directlyat the questioner. (Benefit: Increases comprehension.) •Askquestions (Benefit: increases clarity and shows you arelistening).

2.Pause to Organize It is okay to pause. Pause to gather yourthoughts. When you pause you look and sound poised and incontrol.

Cookies with httplib
<p>I needed to do a simple http get in the other day, the only catch was that I had to send a cookie. My first thoughts were that this might be tricky, but in practise it's a doddle. Below is a simplistic example passing a cookie (called "Fish", with a value of "Cod") using Python's <a href="http://docs.python.org/lib/module-httplib.html">httplib</a>.</p> <pre> import httplib conn = httplib.HTTPConnection( "www.example.com" ) Headers = {"Cookie" : "Fish=Cod"} conn.request("GET", "/fishfinder.html", None, Headers ) response = conn.getresponse() data = response.read() </pre> <p>How hard can it be?</p>
Easy security blanket
<p>Back in May del.icio.us announced some changes to their api, in a post curiously titled <a href="http://blog.del.icio.us/blog/2006/05/feel_secure.html">Security blanket</a>.</p> <p>It took all of two minutes to update my <a href="http://feetup.org/blog/dev/projects.html">linkblogging script</a> (a different url, and https rather than http), source code for which can be found in the usual location: <a href="http://feetup.org/code/py/pydelicious.py.txt">pydelicious.py</a></p> <p>One gotcha for Pythonistas is that the default win32 build of older versions of Python doesn&#8217;t have any ssl support, I&#8217;ve tried <a href="http://alldunn.com/python/">Robin Dunn&#8217;s drop-in replacement for _socket.pyd</a> and it seems to work fine.</p>

Remember, there is power in silence. 3.Repeat theQuestion This has several benefits: * Buys you time to think. *Communicates a complete piece of information. * Allows you totake control of the question by rephrasing the question to amore positive light if needed. * Enables everyone, if in apublic setting, to hear the question. 4.Focus on One Main Pointand Support It The number one reason why we sometimes freeze upwhen asked to think on our is because we have so many ideasrunning around in our minds. We don’t know which idea tomention. Here’s the solution: Go with the first idea that comesto mind and say it. By sticking with that one point you canfocus on two or three supporting points. You sound more directand confident when giving your answer. 5.Summarize and Stop(SAS) End your answer with some SAS (Summarize and Stop). Giveyour answer, summarize, and stop. Don’t apologize and don’tramble on beyond the finish. Try this trick: repeat the essenceof the question. For example, you may be asked, “Why did youstop the project?” In your summary you might say, “And that‘swhy we decided to start another project.” Then stop.

Give your answer, let them know the end is near by saying:

“In summary…” “In conclusion…”

Then simply stop. Remember SAS.

Apply these techniques so that you can become a master at“thinking on your feet” and give great answers. You can practicethese skills by joining Toastmasters. In their meetings theyhave an exercise called “table topics,” in which you canpractice this skill in a supportive environment

About the author:Ed Sykes is a professional speaker, author, and success coach inthe areas of leadership, motivation, stress management, customerservice, and team building. You can e-mail him atmailto:esykes@thesykesgrp.com, or call him at (757) 427-7032. Goto his web site, http://www.thesykesgrp.com, and signup for thenewsletter, OnPoint, and receive the free ebook, "Empowermentand Stress Secrets for the Busy Professional."