我在斯坦福商学院教授战略沟通,经常看到许多人因为问答环节而感到焦虑和紧张。这其实大可不必。 有效的问答环节不仅能提升演讲效果,更能体现演讲者的专业性和掌控力。 这篇文章将分享一些技巧,帮助你在问答环节更加自信从容,将挑战转化为机会。
提前准备,化解焦虑
成功的问答环节始于充分的准备。在演讲前,我建议你花时间思考可能被问到的问题。这并非凭空想象,你可以通过一些方法来预判:例如,询问与你的目标听众类似的人,查阅常见问题解答(FAQ),或者参考客户数据库等等。
一旦你列出了一些可能的问题,就开始构思如何回答。 仅仅知道答案是不够的,你需要练习如何清晰、流畅地表达出来。 站着练习,模拟现场氛围,这能显著降低你的焦虑感。 在撰写演讲稿的同时,同步思考可能的问题,并决定是否在演讲正文中提前解答,或者准备单独的答案并进行练习。
掌控节奏,引导提问
何时开始问答环节?对于新手演讲者,我建议在演讲结束后再进行问答。这样可以让你专注于演讲本身,避免被打断思路。 但对于经验丰富的演讲者,或者主题非常复杂的演讲,可以在演讲过程中预留时间进行问答,但务必在演讲开始时就明确告知听众。
如何有效地引导提问至关重要。 避免使用笼统的开场白,例如“有什么问题吗?” 这种开放式的问题往往难以引导观众提出有针对性的问题。 我建议你明确说明你希望回答哪类问题,例如:“接下来,我想用5到10分钟时间回答关于我刚才提出的解决方案的问题。” 这种明确的引导,既能帮助观众聚焦,又能让你掌控问答的节奏。
理解观众,化解紧张
记住,不仅仅是你,你的听众在问答环节也可能感到紧张。 他们可能担心问出愚蠢的问题,或者顾虑到权力动态(例如老板在场)和社会规范(例如质疑演讲者是否失礼)。 他们甚至可能不想让你难堪。
因此,你需要主动帮助你的听众。 在提出“现在开始问答”之后,要留出一些时间,让大家有时间思考和组织问题。 如果迟迟没有人提问,不妨自己先提一个问题,打破沉默,引导大家参与。
高效管理,优先处理
在收集问题时,你可以采取一些策略来提高效率。 在在线演讲平台上,你可以标记重要的提问;在面对面演讲中,可以请听众将问题写在纸上,或者通过短信、推特等方式提交。 这不仅能保证提问的匿名性,还能让你更好地优先处理问题。 你也可以像著名的风险投资家John Doerr那样,先收集所有问题,再根据你的判断和优先级来回答。
自信回答,运用ADD方法
回答问题时,务必先复述问题。这有几个好处:首先,它肯定了提问者的参与,鼓励更多人提问(但避免对每个问题都称赞“好问题”);其次,它确保你回答的是正确的问题;再次,它能为你争取一些思考时间;最后,它还能让你重新调整一些情绪化或具有挑战性的问题。
例如,面对“你们的定价贵得离谱,你们是怎么做到的?”这样的问题,你可以将其重新表述为:“您是在询问我们产品的价值,对吗?”
回答问题时,要面向全体观众,保持与演讲时相同的风格和节奏。 一个能展现自信的肢体语言是:在倾听提问时,身体微微向前倾。 在线问答尽可能使用视频,这能增强互动感。
为了让你的答案更清晰易懂,我建议你使用ADD方法:
例如,针对“描述你作为沟通教练的资质”这个问题,你可以这样回答:
** impactful 结尾,强化印象**
最后,在问答环节结束前,务必重申你的核心信息。 避免仓促结束,留下遗憾。 感谢听众的参与,并简洁地重述你的主要观点,确保你的演讲以你想要传达的信息结尾。
通过充分的准备和策略性的运用,你可以有效地掌控问答环节,将紧张转化为自信,最终提升你的演讲效果。
This episode is brought to you by Loom. Loom lets you record your screen, your camera, and your voice to share video messages easily. At Think Fast Talk Smart, we use Loom video messaging to get feedback on episodes, share updates, and get us all aligned before our meetings. This has saved us a ton of time, reduced the number of meetings we have, and made collaboration so much better.
Loom has easy editing and AI features to help you record once and get back to the work that really counts. Try Loom for free today at loom.com slash thinkfast. Many of us struggle and feel nervous when we go from monologue to dialogue, from presenting to Q&A. Yet it doesn't have to be this way.
My name is Matt Abrahams and I teach strategic communication at Stanford Graduate School of Business. Welcome to Think Fast, Talk Smart, the podcast. Q&A during meetings and presentations can be incredibly challenging and nerve-wracking. Yet there are things we can do to feel more calm and confident in Q&A. Today I'll be playing a chapter from my first book, Speaking Up Without Freaking Out, which is now available as an audiobook on Spotify.
Speaking up without freaking out is all about helping you be more calm and confident when you communicate. So as you listen to this chapter, I have one question for you. What will you take away to help you feel and do better in your next Q&A session?
Before we get started, I wanted to let you know that my first book, Speaking Up Without Freaking Out, is now available as an audiobook on Spotify. The audiobook helps you manage symptoms and sources of anxiety while also helping you handle blanking out, staying composed during Q&A, and so much more.
Thousands of people have found value from the print version of Speaking Up Without Freaking Out. Now you can listen to it. Check out Speaking Up Without Freaking Out on Spotify or go to faster smarter dot IO slash speaking up. Appendix C, commanding the room with confidence during Q&A.
Mustering the courage to present confidently in front of others is hard enough. But when it comes to actually engaging an audience and managing their participation during a question and answer session, many presenters freak out. Making this switch from monologue to dialogue is a challenge for both the audience and speaker alike. But it's necessary if you want to allow for questions. Your audience needs you to lead them through this transition.
They expect you to confidently command the room and help them to participate. The quick switch to interactivity and a more equal balance of status and power can be confusing and challenging to you and your audience. However, there are simple actions you can take to help you navigate smoothly and calmly into and through your Q&A session.
Prior to presenting, you should spend time reflecting on the questions you might receive on your topic. You might need to do some reconnaissance to find out your potential questions, such as asking people similar to those who will be in your audience, querying FAQ or frequently asked questions lists, or customers' prospect databases, and so on. Once you have some potential answers, you can begin to think about how you might answer them.
Thinking about what you intend to say is not enough. You also need to practice standing and delivering your answers. Simply knowing what you might encounter during the Q&A session can help reduce your anxiety.
Try this: while authoring your presentation's content, reflect on possible questions you might be asked. Decide if you should alter your content to address these questions in the body of your presentation, or start to generate answers to these questions and actually practice delivering these answers. To begin, you need to consider when to take questions from your audience. My advice for novice and nervous speakers is to take your questions at the end of your presentation.
This compartmentalization allows you to stay focused on the task at hand, presenting or answering questions. If you are a more seasoned speaker or have content that is very complex, you should consider taking questions throughout your presentation at designated times that you define for your audience at the beginning of your presentation.
When it comes time to ask your audience for their questions, you need to solicit their queries in a way that maintains your credibility and authority while being humble, open, and responsive. This transition to an actual conversation with your audience can be tricky, but it can be made easier by 1 the expectations you establish when you call for questions and 2 how you actually collect the questions that you intend to answer.
Too often, Q&A sessions are opened with a generic invitation like, "Are there any questions?" Broad invitations such as this are often too open-ended for audience members to come up with focused, concrete questions. Rather, I suggest asking for the exact type of questions you desire to answer. For example, "I'd like to spend 5 to 10 minutes answering questions about the solution I provided."
This boundary setting opening helps your audience know what types of questions to ask, establishes you as being in control, and leads to questions that you are prepared to answer. It is important to reflect on the anxiety involved in the Q&A session. As a presenter, it is easy to understand anxiety that you might feel, but audience members also experience nervousness during the Q&A session.
While you've had a chance to warm up and become comfortable with speaking in your environment, audience members do not have this advantage. Further, they're feeling the influence of several pressures. First, audience members might fear looking stupid and foolish by asking a question. Second, they may be highly sensitive to the power dynamics, for example, the boss being present, or societal norms, for example, it's disrespectful to question a speaker.
Finally, audience members might not want to put you on the spot and make you look bad. Unfortunately, as a presenter who desires good interactive questions, you must take on the added burden of helping your audience get their questions to you. To assist your audience in asking questions, allow for time after your initial call for their inquiries. It takes a little time for them to formulate questions as well as to muster up the courage to ask them.
If you do not get an initial question, have one ready to ask yourself. For example, you can say, "I am often asked." When accumulating questions, you have a few options available to go beyond the standard call and respond methodology. The first is to prioritize the questions coming in. In an online presentation platform, you should be able to flag questions that come in as you're presenting so when you get to the Q&A, you can already have some questions to start answering.
As new questions come in, it may help to have someone online with you to filter and ask the questions to you so you can stay focused on your answers. When presenting in front of a live audience, you can request that audience members write down their questions on note cards or post them via text message or tweets. This allows for some degree of anonymity for the asker and allows you to prioritize which questions you would like to answer.
Next, you can follow the lead of famous venture capitalist John Doerr and solicit all questions first, writing them down, and then answer them in the order you wish. Like this written approach, you can prioritize and link questions together.
When answering questions, paraphrase the question asked. This confers several benefits to you. One, you validate and reward the asker, which will likely encourage more participation, although avoid saying "good" question to every query. Two, it ensures you'll answer the correct question.
Three, if you can paraphrase and also think of an answer at the same time, you buy yourself a little preparation time. And four, you can reframe an emotional or challenging question to be better suited for you. For example, a question such as, your pricing is ridiculously expensive. How do you get away charging so much? Can be rephrased as, you're asking about our product's value.
When responding in person, remember to address your answer to the entire audience and deliver your answer in the same speaking style, cadence, vocal variation, etc., as you used during your presentation. You want to avoid becoming a different speaker in terms of your delivery.
One powerful nonverbal action you can take to demonstrate your confidence is to step forward toward the question asked while listening to the query. Nonverbally, Q&A online should always be done with video, if possible. To help your audience understand your answers, invoke the ADD method of answering questions. A. Answer the question.
One clear declarative sentence. D. Detail a specific concrete example that supports your answer. D. Describe the benefits that explain why your answer is relevant to the asker. An example ADD answer to the question, describe your qualifications for a job as a communication coach.
Answer. I have over 20 years of experience helping people improve their communication skills. Detail. I have helped line employees and executives learn to be more confident and compelling presenters. Just last week, I worked with an executive at a large local firm on a major keynote she had. Describe. What this means for you is that my experience will allow me to immediately help you with your specific needs.
Try this. After generating a list of possible questions, practice answering the questions using the ADD structure. Take the time not only to generate the content of your answer, but practice speaking the answer as well. The final step in a confidently managed Q&A session is to return to your core message prior to ending your talk.
Too often, nervous speakers end Q&A with a quick "thank you" and an even quicker exit from the stage. You want to end with impact, so be sure to thank your audience and concisely restate your central message. This ensures that the last thing your audience hears is what you want them to leave with. Taken all together, your pre-work and preparation for managing a Q&A session can dramatically reduce your nervousness over this anxiety-provoking spontaneous speaking situation.
So there you have it, a whole approach for feeling calm, confident, and in control during Q&A. If you like what you heard, consider checking out the new audiobook version of Speaking Up Without Freaking Out on Spotify or faster smarter.io/speakingup. Thank you for joining us for another episode of Think Fast, Talk Smart, the podcast. To learn more about anxiety management, please listen to episode 48.
This episode was produced by Jermaine Hamilton and me, Matt Ibrahams. Our music is from Floyd Wonder with thanks to Podium Podcast Company. Please find us on YouTube and wherever you get your podcasts. Be sure to subscribe and rate us. Also, follow us on LinkedIn and Instagram. And check out FasterSmarter.io for deep dive videos, English language learning content, and our newsletter.
Please consider our premium offering for extended DeepThinks episodes, AMAs, Ask Matt Anything, and much more at faster, smarter.io slash premium. Hi, Matt here. I'd like you to consider becoming part of our Think Fast, Talk Smart premium.
Premium affords you lots of opportunities to get extended Deep Thinks episodes, coaching through Ask Matt Anythings, and access to a global community of people looking to hone and develop their communication and careers. Many people around the globe have already joined Premium. Special thanks to our ambassadors who've donated extra money to the cause. Please check out faster smarter dot IO slash premium. We look forward to seeing you there.