Thinking On Your Feet: You've Either Got It, Or You Don't

Unfortunately I am the latter – I am terrible at thinking on my feet when someone throws me a remark which I am unsure of how to respond. Honestly, I really believe this is not a skill you can acquire. It’s a natural talent – some people can roll with the punches where others need time to digest what they’ve just heard.

I’ve run into this situation with the same person—my boss—twice over the past month, the most recent occurrence happening this morning. We had a conference call in her office, and the person we were calling asked us to call back in 15 minutes. So we proceeded to sit and chat about the hot topic of the day…one of my co-workers gave her notice yesterday. My boss wanted to know how I was feeling about the situation, and was reassuring me that everything was going to be fine and that we would “divide and conquer” the workload. She seemed to have a preconceived notion that I was probably freaking out and worrying, when in fact I’m not. (And this is another issue that irritates me…where is she getting these ideas?)

So anyway, out of the blue, without me prompting her at all, she was like, “Well, you know, if you are feeling like you need to, we could look at other arrangements if you’re, like, missing Boca Raton, or, like if there are other reasons for you to possibly have a different work arrangement we could make something work.”

HUH????? [Me: Blank stare]

Had I known this from the start, would I have packed up and moved from Florida to the Midwest? What does this mean? Should we be thinking about moving? My husband is still looking for a job and so that has been top-of-mind since we moved—and could be a driving factor in us relocating again.

Seriously, I am so distracted by this and I can’t concentrate.

The other time I was force to think on my feet occurred during my “Goals and Development” meeting. You know, that one where you talk with your manager about what you want to strive for in 2010, what are your aspirations, how do you see yourself growing with the company…yada, yada, yada.

One of the things that my company likes to do, and one of the reasons I found the job so attractive, is that they like to advance their internal talent on a regular basis. My boss has been asking me from Day One where I want to go in the Company and all along I’ve been like, “uh…I’ve been here two months…I’m good where I’m at right now, thanks” (well, not really, but you get the idea). So, suddenly as we’re talking about my development during this meeting, she asks me, “Do you want to move into my job? Do you want to be leading this team?”

Again…HUH???? [Me: blank stare, again]

I mean, isn’t that a loaded question? If I say yes, I want your job, it seems threatening. If I say no, I don’t want your job, it appears that I don’t have aspirations and goals. I really didn’t know how to answer her and I think I just sort of fumbled like, “Oh, that is nice of you to ask, well, who knows, we’ll see…” or something like that. Hello, embarrassment!

After that meeting, I must have gone over in my head a dozen different ways I could have—and should have—responded. But instead, I am like a deer in the headlights. I wish I had that talent to respond in a precise and thoughtful manner. So tell me, how do you think on your feet? What are your tricks? This girl could use some help!