For those of you out there who aren’t bilingual English/French, the direct translation is “The Spirit of the Stairs” or “The Wit of the Stairs.” The phrase is a French colloquialism originating from the witticisms of Dennis Diderot, a French author of encyclopedias. Essentially, it describes the response to an insult or cutting remark, when it comes to late to be useful. Romantically, a spirit that comes to you on the stairs, as you leave a party, telling you what you should have said when someone made you feel small.

It is possibly one of my favorite French phrases, along with “le seul mot juste” or “the one precise word.”

As infuriating as l’esprit d’escalier can be, it can also be a great tool for both learning and motivation.

How many times in your daily sourcing/recruiting have you approached a candidate who made a statement that you just didn’t have a response to? An objection that immediately de-railed your train of thought and left you speechless? And, after you took off your headset or replaced your handset defeat, the exact reposte occurred to you.

It occurs to me more often than I’d like to admit.

The first thing I typically do, after recovering from slamming my head against the desk, is to figure out how to integrate the response that I’d wished I had into the conversations that I’ll have with future candidates. It allows me to eliminate a possibility for being stumped again by answering an unasked question or debunking an unmade statement.

The second thing I do is use my embarrassment to fuel motivation to get back on the phone. I’m too good to allow my last call of the day to be one in which I didn’t have the upper hand, and I’m going to work until I’m 100% sharp on my new delivery. The only way to do that is dial, dial and dial.

As frustrating as The Spirit of the Stairs can be, make sure to listen to what he has to say.