| I have difficulty when dealing with questions from the audience (F8).
Questions during a presentation can considerably improve the effectiveness of your communication, because it stimulates participants to co-produce the presentation. However, badly managed questions can be a disturbing factor as well. In case people in the audience ask dysfunctional questions it can seriously slow down the pace of the presentation, and even jeopardize the whole presentation. But remember: in principle questions are the bread and butter of effective presentations, and should therefore be actively pursued and managed by presenters.
You can manage questions from the audience during the presentation by:
- Making clear from the outset whether you think it is a good idea for the audience to ask questions during the presentation. If you expect to be nervous, it is better not to allow questions during your presentation as questions make it more difficult to manage your presentation.
- Always distinct between questions for clarification and questions for discussion. In case people have questions for clarification it will help the presentation tremendously if they are allowed to ask them directly the moment they feel the need for this.
After the presentation, you can manage questions by announcing you want to answer one question at a time or prefer to collect a number of questions and then give an anwer(s). Address the question(s) as follows:
- Begin by acknowledging the question: i.e. ‘Thank you for this question’. Do not give the same acknowledgement to every question you receive, think of various ways to acknowledge questions.
- Summarize the question if it is a long one - You reply. If you do not know the answer, say so! Try to get confirmation of your answer: ‘have I answered your question sufficiently?’
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