In my first blog on Q and A I talked about structural issues – when to take questions, and what to do about your agenda. In this blog, let’s get into some tips for handling the questions themselves successfully.
1. Always, always repeat the question. People often start talking before the mike gets to them, or from a corner of the room where not everyone can hear them. Repeating the question back to the questioner ensures that you’ve got it right. “Let me make sure I understand you. What you’re asking is whether or not the bungee cords were strapped on by those little hooks or some other means of fastening, right?” In addition to making the exchange more interesting for the rest of the audience – because they know what’s going on – you get two further advantages. First, you get a little more time to think up an answer. And second, you get a chance to re-phrase the question subtly – not too much – so that you can answer a better, clearer, or more interesting question.
2. Listen to the whole question. As speaker, you’re in adrenaline time, while the audience is in normal time. You’ll hear the first part of the question and be tempted to assume the rest. You’ll be moving already, nodding to show you understand, and getting ready to cut in and deal with it.
Big mistake. Wait out the question, stand still, facing the questioner, and listen to the entire question with your whole body. Why? People ask questions to get answers, sure, but also to be heard and seen. It takes courage to ask a question in front of, say, 600 peers. So reward that behavior. Show courtesy to the questioner. Wait the question out. You’ll get more and better feedback, and by showing respect to the audience, you’ll get respect back.
3. If the questioner runs on too long, go to plan B. Some questioners ask questions to pontificate, to berate the speaker, to hear themselves talk, or simply to put forward their own point of view…forever. In that case, here’s what you do. Start walking toward the questioner, keeping your eyes fixed on him, and when you reach him, turn so that you’re standing, facing in the same direction as he is sitting, next to him. That will silence 99 % of this irritating subset of questioners.
If you’re stuck on a stage and can’t get to the questioner, then you simply have to interrupt. Wait until the questioner pauses for breath, and say, “Let me stop you there so that I can answer the first part of your question…..”
4. Try to surface the underlying emotions in the question. If you want to connect more powerfully with your audience, listen hard for the underlying emotions, and play them back to the audience. “What I hear you saying is that you’re frustrated by the unacknowledged increase in the number of sports metaphors in everyday discourse, is that fair?” When a speaker (correctly) labels a questioners’ emotions, the connection created is surprisingly strong.
5. Finally, here’s a little secret to control the flow of questions. If you want to encourage questions, finish your answer with, “What else?” That will bring several more questions. If you want to end the flow of questions, finish your answer with “Anything else?” You’ll get one more question at most. It’s a way of controlling the question flow without the audience realizing it. Try it, it works.
Where I live in Queensland, Australia we recently had elections for both state and local govts. Between the two I hosted/facilitated seven public forums for candidates in my local area. While the questions weren’t being asked directly of me I think I did most of the things on your list quite well – but there was one problem that kept coming up and I wish I had known about #3 above. Each time in the opening I would ask the public to think about how they could ask their questions as directly and concisely as possible. What I learnt was that it just doesn’t happen and people ramble, pontificate, etc especially when the people in the ‘firing line’ for their questions are politicians. I had to keep cutting them off so we could get answers from the candidates. In retrospect, I think walking over and standing next to them would have still worked quite well even though I was only the facilitator.
David, thanks for the comment and anecdote. You’re right, that technique works just as well for the facilitator, and would have helped your public forums.
In my experience coaching others to do presentations, their biggest fear is the combative questioner. I get them to work on reflecting the question, considering the issue and then answering, but it’s pretty nervewracking to be challenged openly in public. Any tips on this one?
Hi, Claire —
See #3. That usually works for a combative questioner as well. If not, say something like, “I can see you feel strongly about this issue, but I want to give everyone else a chance to weigh in, too. What other comments are there? Do the rest of you feel this way?” That stops the fight without caving in or further antagonizing the person.