Do you get nervous around dealing with questions after (or during!) your presentations?
It’s something that many of my clients get concerned about.
Here is a simple framework you can use to make sure you come across as poised and professional when faced with questions. It comes from one of my favourite books on presenting which you might have heard me recommend before – ‘The Leader’s Guide to Presenting’ by Tom Bird and Jeremy Cassell.
The framework is called the ‘4-A Model’ with each ‘A’ representing a step to follow:
- Acknowledge
- Audience
- Answer
- Ask
Acknowledge
It’s important to be present and really listen to the question to make sure you understand it. Thank the person and make a comment on the type of question if appropriate. For example, you could say “That’s a very insightful question, John. Reformulate the question by repeating it in your own words if you want to buy yourself time, clarify your understanding or give the audience an opportunity to hear the question again.
Audience
You can give the rest of the audience the chance to answer the question before you do. This is an excellent opportunity to get interaction and it may help you focus your own answer better afterwards. This step is particularly useful in facilitation or training scenarios.
Answer
Answer the question yourself clearly, acknowledging and riding on the back of a previous answer from the audience. Try to keep to a maximum of three points and don’t spend more than two minutes answering. However, it depends very much on the context of your presentation; if the audience is very small and the presentation is acting as a basis for a robust discussion, more detail may be needed in your answers.
Ask
Go back to the person who asked the question to check if you’ve answered it satisfactorily. Be prepared to expand on the point if necessary, or request to take the question ‘offline’ in a private conversation if the rest of the audience is becoming disengaged.
And one little tip for your mindset and to keep you present and feeling in control – ‘when they get furious, you get curious’. What do I mean by this?
When we get challenging questions, it’s easy to feel attacked. We can then feel defensive which can harm our credibility. But when we choose to get into an attitude of curiosity about the question being asked and what’s behind it, there is no place for defensiveness. So, in response to a challenging question or statement, we might say something like “that’s an interesting perspective, can I ask what’s prompting it?” Or “That’s something that I wasn’t fully aware of, can you tell me more?”.
This approach also buys you time to think about a possible answer whilst showing interest and concern for the questioner at the same time.
