Key Learnings for Handling Audience Pressure

Do:

• Anticipate questions beforehand. If you work at it, you can predict nine out of ten of what you’ll be asked.

• Rehearse the answers with your experts present. Know your facts are right before you go live.

• Always restate or rephrase the question. Not sometimes. Always.

• Identify the issue at the core of the question. Rephrase on the issue.

Don’t:

• Think about the answer until you have rephrased the question. If you do that, the answer will be there.

• Answer back by directly addressing the questioner. He or she will trap you with another question, and another. You want dialogue, not monologue.

• Think you can wing it without rehearsal. That’s hubris. You gain nothing but could lose everything.

• Try to put down a questioner. If you’re successful, the audience won’t forgive you. If you’re not, they won’t forgive you. Either way, you lose.