Why Are Pauses Important During an Interview?
For the past month, reality television fans have been reeling from #Scandoval.
In the past week, two of the three “villains” in the scandal – Tom Sandoval and Tom Schwartz – broke their respective silences on the ordeal. For some reason unknown to the entire world, Sandoval choose Howie Mandel’s podcast (despite Mandel never watching Sandoval’s show or knowing anything about the scandal) to share his side of the story. Schwartz chose Bravo’s Watch What Happens Live in an attempt to defuse the fans’ fury and win back the favor he and Sandoval had no matter what they did on the show or in real life (ahem) for the past decade.
During his interview, Schwartz was so nervous that he wore hand weights to attempt to keep himself from touching his face all night long. But the gaudy weights were the least of his issues. Schwartz’s primary mistake: in all of his years on television, he never took the time to get media trained by a professional.
How do I know this? Because he has no understanding of the art of the pause during an interview.
Pauses during interviews, both by the journalist and his/her/their subject, are critical.
Often, a journalist – whether on camera or during a print/online interview – will pause for two to five seconds after a subject has answered the question before delving into the next query. The pause allows for a well-trained subject to bridge to their key messages. It also allows for all parties to take a breath and prepare the next line of questions. Sometimes the silence is simply so the journalist can finish writing his/her/their notes or while the production team is switching cue cards or checking on technical issues.
What happens to the untrained? All too often, usually due to nerves, they fill the silence by rattling on and on, derailing the interview, veering off topic, forgetting any and all goals they had for the interview, and – as was the case with Schwartz – embarrassing themselves and their brands.
How bad was this interview? Host Andy Cohen did an entire podcast and provided interviews afterwards discussing Schwartz’s failings, going so far as to give basic media training advice. Even his recent ex-wife and Vanderpump Rules co-star Katie Maloney commented on the epic fail, also noting his lack of media training.
Do yourself a favor. No matter your field, ensure you or your leadership is media trained. Here is everything involved. Need a professional? Book us for your media training today.
