Master Question and Answer Sessions

You’re standing before an audience, an expert on your subject. You’re happy with how your prepared speech went. Now all you have to do is answer a few questions – do you feel your confidence ebbing away? What if you don’t know the answers? What if someone argues with you? What if…??

Here you’ll find some tips on how to handle Question and Answer (Q and A) sessions with self-assurance. This is in addition to two excellent resources you have to learn about this. First, the Q and A project in every Pathway at Level 4, and secondly, the Toastmasters magazine article, “Leading a Q and A Session with Confidence.”  https://www.toastmasters.org/magazine/magazine-issues/2021/mar/handling-the-qanda-session-with-confidence

How to Prepare

What are the most likely questions you will be asked? Here are some ways you can narrow the list down:

• What are details you would have liked to cover, but don’t have time to in your presentation?

• Think of resources that you used to prepare for the talk (websites, journal articles, books, etc.). What are section headings and areas of controversy noted in those resources? This will point you to major topics of concern.

• Test your talk (or a bulleted summary of your talk) with coworkers or friends. Ask them if anything was unclear or made them curious. If possible, test this out with both novices and those who have some experience with the subject matter.

• Do the same thing with the AI software of your choice. Request that the software provide the most-asked questions given your planned content, specifying the characteristics of the intended audience to get a more focused response.

OK, now you know some of the questions you will likely get. Prepare the answers to these questions just as much as your planned speech (even though you may not mention this additional material). If you like to have your speech nailed down in detail, write out these answers the same way and commit them to memory. If you are comfortable with a more impromptu style, prepare these answers in a looser way. Since saying the words out loud makes them stick in your memory better than just thinking them, make sure you practice saying these answers out loud too.

During the Speech: Setting Expectations

• It’s a good idea to let your audience know at the start of your speech that there will be a Q and A session afterwards – this may reduce the number of interruptions you get during your talk (if you want to, you can ensure this by saying, “Please hold your questions till the end”). If it’s a long speech, you can suggest that they jot down their questions to make sure they remember them.

• At the start of your Q and A session, you may want to tell the audience how long this section will be to help them gauge how many questions you will address and how thoroughly. Note that Q and A’s often last longer than the speaker expects; if you have a fixed ending time, you may want to shorten your talk by cutting the least essential parts so that you won’t feel too rushed for the Q and A.

Problem Solving During the Q and A Session

Here are a variety of issues that may come up and how to handle them:

• You ask for questions and are met with total silence. Very often, people are shy about being the first questioner; if after giving them a few moments to formulate their questions nothing comes up, this is an excellent time to go into the material that you prepared for your Q and A – you don’t actually have to be asked about this to talk about it. You can preface this information with the phrase, “A commonly asked question about this is…” Or, “Something you may be wondering is…” This may loosen up the audience since you informally kicked off the Q and A. You can also try to generate questions on specific areas, by saying something like, “Does anyone have questions about this controversial aspect, namely…?”

• You’re initially stumped for a way to answer a question. Pause to give yourself a few moments to collect your thoughts – remember, you don’t have to blurt out the answer immediately. If you want to, you can buy time with filler language such as, “Thank you for that interesting question…. I think the way I’d like to address it is to say that…”

• You don’t know the answer. Always be up-front about this to maintain your credibility. If possible, offer to provide additional information later. E.g. “I don’t have those facts off the top of my head, but if you want, you can give me your contact information after the talk and I’ll look into it for you.” If you can’t or don’t want to offer follow up, pointing the questioner to some reliable resources is a good alternative.

• The questioner goes into a long, rambling story. Feel free to interrupt them and politely tell them that while you want to respond to their question, they need to come up with it pronto. E.g. “I’m sorry to cut in, but we only have ___ minutes to answer questions and I want others to have a chance too. Can you briefly ask your question without further background information?” If they dive back into their long-winded story, it’s time to cut them off again and tell them that you’d be happy to discuss this with them further after the talk, but now it’s time to move on. 

• An audience member wants to ask too many questions. Avoid eye contact and point to other questioners. You can say, “We haven’t heard from you in the back. What would you like to know?”

• Someone argues with a point in your presentation. It’s important to avoid getting defensive, even if the person sounds obnoxious about it. Stay pleasant but firm in your tone. There are three possible situations here:

1.     You realize from the person’s comments that you made a mistake. You can acknowledge that without downgrading confidence in the rest of your material. E.g. “I’m glad you brought that point up, because it’s something that is often overlooked and that I think I should have considered more myself. Taking that into account, I would conclude that…”

2.     The person may or may not be bringing up accurate information, and there’s no way to confirm or deny it in the moment. “Thank you for your comments. With the information I have now, I stand by my conclusions, but I will definitely try to verify what you’re telling us when I can do so.”

3.     The person is bringing up “facts” that you know are wrong or that are so outlandish that you highly suspect they’re wrong. You can restate your reasoning and the reliable sources of your information, but in this age of wildly inaccurate popular beliefs, don’t be surprised if you are not convincing. Avoid time-consuming stand-offs. You can say something like, “Thank you for sharing your deeply-held convictions on this. I come to different conclusions, but I appreciate hearing your reasoning.” If they persist in arguing, resort to the classic phrase, “I think we’ll have to agree to disagree on this.”

Concluding Your Speech

Last but not least, do you end with your final Q and A answer? NO! You may recall from an earlier blog that audiences remember the first and the last thing that is said in a talk the best. We do not want the last thing to be some obscure question or an argument with a listener. Keep an eye on the clock, and when you have eight to ten minutes left, announce that you have time for one more question. When you have at least five minutes left, announce that the Q and A is over, and then present your take-home message, which may be a summary of main points and/or a call to action.

Q and A sessions add value to your presentations by delivering content customized to each unique audience. They also demonstrate your confidence and flexibility. Using the principles above, you have an excellent chance to answer questions like a pro!

Elaine P.