Ripping Bad Jokes To The Brass – How Do You Recover?

If you've ever spent any amount of time around me, you probably know, I can't seem to take anything seriously. I like to think it's a natural instinct to diffuse tense moments, but it might not be real clear.

Example:

We recently had a meeting in which the brass showed up. I'm talking about executives. Now, the content of the meeting isn't relevant to the story, but the context was professional. It's not a stone cold serious discussion, but it's not a buddy-buddy party atmosphere either.

During the speech, in a millisecond snap judgement, there was an opening. I pop off a self-deprecating quip, and quickly realize, I find myself far more funny than the they do. Not that it wasn't funny, it was just really poorly timed.

The question is, how do you recover from something like this? Do you stand there with moxy and own the moment? Do you offer a respectful apology? Or do you cower in the hopes this VIP will move on to the next destination and forget this particular moment?

Full disclosure, I almost immediately offered a respectful apology and owned it... But I later thought, what would you do? Leave a comment.