Brooke found herself in a situation where she was laid off but I want to expand this talk to
basically if you're not working or or even anything where you are in explanation mode
meaning you might hear me say for those of you that follow me a lot there's in an interview
there's offense and there's defense and when they ask you to clarify something explain something why
are you no longer there you're in defense mode because you're not going to win any points by
not being there you just need to make sure you don't lose points and you want to get that over
with as quickly as possible so you can get back on offense or when they say geez I saw that you've
gone from this company to this company to this company you're in explanation mode now they're
asking you a question why is that the case why did you do that right why did you switch Industries
Why did you switch companies all of those kinds of questions you're in defense mode so why did
you leave your current company why are you open to leaving your current company right you're
in defense now there's ways to turn those into offense but here's what I I want you to see what
Brooke asked me in the system and what I said to her and there's a couple of really great lessons
here now first thing she says so this was a just a few days ago hey you coach I think my upcoming
interviewer may ask me why I left my last job the truth is I was laid off after just six months
with 12 percent of the company my gut says to be straightforward thoughts if I do mention it how do
I avoid compromising my negotiation leverage when they make an offer now my first response to her as
you notice because coach likes to be timely was 11 minutes later it's 11 minutes after she asked
me this question I said yes say the number of people okay now this is what I want you to learn
say the number of people if it's bigger than 12 percent or say 12 percent if it's bigger
than the number of people who's tracking that is if 24 people got laid off right out of a
200 person work unit you say 24 people you don't say 12 why because it sounds bigger
right like they did a mass laugh you're and then your negotiation leverage has nothing to do with
your current employment status it has everything to do with you making an argument and standing Pat
so number psychology anytime y'all are explaining yourself whether you're you're talking about and
you're responding to hey how did you implement that project and I want you to give them context
I want you to use numbers in your context I was dealing with a 12 million dollar a month loss
I was dealing with you you want to provide gravity to the situation and oftentimes gravity
can be applied based on a numerical assessment we have an opportunity to gain there is 80 percent
market share that's open for whatever you're showing an order of magnitude or uh these are
the financial repercussions if we do not remain compliant with oftentimes you're using a number
when I say to you if you would like to join my leadership coaching program on an annual basis
as opposed to a monthly basis I don't say to you you can save 50 I say to you you will save
291 dollars because what that sounds like more doesn't it who's tracking so far okay you get
where I'm going with this right you want to show level of gravity in whatever numerical fashion
provides you the most benefit we're going to gain so much we're avoiding losing so much
right so that's what I said to her and that was our first exchange and then the second exchange
she went on to clarify something and said great tip coach Andy it was greater than 50
percent nine of 17 folks so I'll say that except I didn't just want her to say that
now that I had a better understanding and had more context that it was 9 of 17 I went on to
say and here's here's another piece on numbers psychology but another thing on how to shut down
and get out of defense mode very quickly and I want you to take this in a broader perspective
okay yes make sure now I want her to say it this way make sure to say 50 and then mention it's
nine people because what 50 is a bigger number than 9 because and also 50 could be 2 of 4 right
okay so do not say they let half the team go half sounds like a small number okay so you don't want
to use fractions in this case so they let over 50 percent of the team go that was nine people that
gives them context except now you need to give them the reason because they kept eight people
so when you get in situations like this and she's in defense mode I need her to get out of defense
mode as fast as possible when you when you respond to a question and you give them information this
goes for any in question you get asked in any information you provide you need to know what is
remaining that has not yet been answered what has not yet been answered if she stops her response at
nine people is there were eight other ones why didn't they keep you as one of the eight you
don't want them to ask that question you need to move on to the next question so you can get
back on offense so then she needs what we call a shutdown remark so the reason they let those
nine go is because use the word because to follow because is a rationale the human mind loves the
word because and usually becomes satiated as long as you provide a rationale so I wanted her to say
I said you need a shutdown statement you do not want them to ask why didn't they keep you as
one of the so on and so forth so we went through this exchange over what I don't know a 15-minute
period she gets what she needs she can go on into her interview and this way she can give them some
context regarding right what it is that happened why it happened give a simple explanation for
why they let these nine go and kept those eight however it is for her to get out of defense mode
as quickly as possible so whenever I say to you anytime you're explaining something and I'm not
talking I'm talking about explaining yourself meaning why did you do that why why were you
not there why did you change this why did you go there why did you have so many jobs in the last
whatever why didn't you finish school why did any of these you're in defense mode you're an
explanation of yourself mode you want to get out of those as quick as possible and you want to use
shutdown remarks to make sure that you do that okay who's who's getting that one right do you
understand the the anything that they ask you where you need to clarify something clarify it
clarify it completely immediately and then and just so there's there's no more questions to
ask it was 9-17 that's more than half the team the reason these nine were gone was because and that's
it whatever the rationale is will likely be okay as long as you give a rationale just because now
there's no more questions to be asked right kind of thing okay this is really really important a
lot of you get hung up you're spending a lot of time explaining yourself in an interview
every minute you're spent ex you spend explaining yourself you are not on offense meaning you are
not selling yourself so I want to make sure that you're you're getting this oh I love this okay
so we got a couple other follow-up questions on the on the brook uh numbers and shutdown
Clint uh what if it well first off I would never use the word just what if it was just you due to
restructuring you say my organization restructured now one you go to zero don't don't don't make any
reference to the number of people say there was a restructuring and I because I was responsible for
this and it was restructured it was outsourced it was whatever
uh they they had they they had a layoff now you might say well Andy what if the question is
um well couldn't they reallocate you now okay so you gotta think of every single possible question
now if they say if if in your mind you're like they're thinking about uh they might
ask me why I didn't find another position they might ask me why the company didn't offer me
an alternate position they write any of those are fair game because I would ask
you those you're never going to get you're never going to get out of that interview
with me without without me wanting to know that so you could do a couple things if if
they offer you other positions and you are not interested say I was restructured out of that
group my organization offered to reallocate me too but I was not interested because
explain rationale um I I I'm more interested in and so on if the organization did not reallocate
uh then don't then don't say anything and just say there was an opportunity for me to
evaluate different or you could proactively say there was an opportunity for me to out
um pursue other options in the organization but there wasn't anything that I thought there that
it that right there wasn't anything for me to seek there that I thought was of Interest explain
it shut it down kind of thing so that's a Clint that's a great question and Andrea what if you
were laid off but it was two people on the team at 27 how to explain the reason when not when none
was given by the company okay number one number one a company if they're going to let you go
in 99 of the case is going to give you a reason if there is no reason then you can
then I would rather you speculate a reason and that speculation should lean towards something
that is not your issue not your fault and so I I would just say to them I probably wouldn't say
to a 27 because that doesn't suit you right it looks more surgical I would say my organization
um was cutting budgets and some of us were let go and I would and I would try to just shut it down
due to budget constraints or something of that nature now I don't know your exact situation and
I got I will tell you I I do go through a lot of these and many of them are unique and sometimes
people are leaving for integrity issues ethical issues sometimes people just want to leave and and
write and because they don't believe in this or that anymore sometimes they get let go sometimes
it's a situation where they voluntarily took the leave where they were going to let five people
go off the team but I decided I would be one of them so somebody else didn't have to you know on
an involuntary basis lose their position there's a umpteen different ways that this can occur the
point is just make sure you've got an explanation and you shut down any additional questions or as
many as possible right if you're wondering and then go right into it but I hope you enjoyed
that one if you did make sure you click the like button uh if you're here with me live
we're gonna go to the chat if you're watching this on a recording I'll see you next week