The French have an expression, un ange passe, that literally translated means ‘an angel is passing.’ It is used to describe that awkward silence that sometimes occurs, for example, at a dinner party when by coincidence everyone stops talking at once. What’s relevant about this is that experienced media people know that CEOs and other corporate spokespeople abhor a vacuum. So a clever reporter will ask a question, get the answer, and then say nothing for what seems like a long, long time. It’s usually just a few seconds, but it seems eternal. Too often when this happens, your spokesperson starts talking again, adding more to the previous answer, or changing it, and sometimes divulging way more than is appropriate. Advise your spokespeople to answer the question and resist the temptation to fill dead air.