Handle Q&A Sessions Like a Pro

How you handle the Questions and Answer session after your speech/presentation can have a significant impact on how you are perceived as a speaker.

There are two important things to keep in mind.

First, make sure you let the person complete the question before you start to answer. Otherwise you could be answering what you perceive the question to be instead of the actual question.

Secondly, repeat the question. This will serve a couple of purposes. It will insure that you are answering the correct question and it will insure that the audience knows the question as well. It will also provide you with a few extra seconds to formulate your response.

If you want to create a good impression as a speaker learn to master the Q and A session.

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If You Want to be Known as Pleasant Tell Your Face

It is important that our facial expression and vocal tone are in synch with what we want to be known for. If we want our audience (1 or 1000) to perceive us as pleasant we need to ensure that our facial expression and tone of voice are reflecting that message. If they aren’t our audience will pay less attention to the words and will focus on our facial expression and tone of voice.

This applies to all our oral communications and whatever quality we want to convey. If we want to be perceived as enthusiastic, sincere, committed, grateful, etc. we will be more successful if our facial expression and tone of voice supports those qualities.

If you are using video to communicate your message remember that you will not have the advantage of immediate feedback from your audience. This isn’t a bad thing. It will give you a greater opportunity to focus more energy on delivering your message.

What’s your face telling your audience?

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There is No Secret Pill for Speaking Anxiety

Many individuals are looking for a quick fix to their speaking anxiety. The reality is that there is no quick fix. It took us years to learn our public speaking anxiety. The good news is that we can ‘unlearn’ it. It will require patience, commitment and participation. It will take time.

You do not mange your anxiety by focusing on ‘tricks’ such as imagining your audience in their underwear. I had a hard enough time when they were fully dressed. Another trick that doesn’t work is to find a spot on the back wall and look at it while you speak. One of the core skills of public speaking and all types of oral communication is to engage your audience. The best way to do that is through eye contact. So staring at a spot on the wall won’t work.

There are more practical ways to manage your speaking anxiety. The most important one is preparation. If you are not prepared you have set yourself up for failure. You have to know your content well and be clear on the most effective way to deliver it. Preparation includes rehearsal.

Preparation gives you a solid foundation to work with. My next post will show you how to build on that foundation and how that will lead to you managing your speaking anxiety.

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Understanding Speaking Anxiety

Why do we have such a strong fear of speaking in public? I think we have a better chance of answering this question if we understand what drives our fear.

In this video I use a beam analogy to help you understand the dynamics at play when speaking anxiety takes hold on us. It is not unlike having a fear of heights. So if we understand one we understand the other.

This analogy helps you determine is the fear of speaking worth the risk of actually doing it. The risk you face is that your anxiety will manifest itself in some strange and bazar way. I have been learning, training and coaching public speaking for over 20 years and I have never seen anyone die from public speaking and I have never seen anyone faint. So determine what is the worse that can happen to you. Accept and get on with doing it.

Regardless of how much anxiety you have, the reality is that to get past it you have to get up and speak. No one else can do it for you.

For those that decide yes, the journey to managing their speaking anxiety is well underway.

Now go out and Make Your Voice Heard!



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I’m Back!!

At the start of the summer I decided to take a break from posting my video content so that I could focus my attention and energy on moving my products and services online.

It was a little more complex and challenging than I originally thought it would be. It has been a very satisfying journey. I learned a lot about internet marketing. I now have most of the pieces in place and I expect to have a formal launch early in the new year.

In the interim I want to reconnect with my community by reinstating Joel’s Minute on Mondays and the Video Blog on Wednesdays. Joel’s Minute is my thoughts on a cliche or topic compressed into approximately 1 minute. The Video Blog will contain content related to oral communication.

I look forward to engaging with you.

Now go out and Make Your Voice Heard!



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Starting an Effective Q&A Session

This is a follow-up to an earlier post I did on “Creating an Effective Q&A Session”. In my earlier post I focused on making sure you have clarity on the question. I advised waiting until the full question is asked. Another consideration I made was to repeat the question so that everyone, including you is clear before you respond. Here is the link to that earlier post.

http://joelsweeney.com/2016/04/handle-question-and-answer-sessions-like-a-pro/

I received some feedback on my LinkedIn feed. The gentleman pointed out another aspect to consider. Getting the Q&A started can sometimes be challenging. The audience is not forthcoming with any questions and this can create an awkward pause. His suggestion, which I agree with, is to always have 3-4 canned questions that you can use in those situations. You could introduce the question by saying “Here is a question that I get asked quite frequently”. State the question then proceed to answer it. By this time the audience usually has a few of their own questions. If not use another of your canned questions to remove any awkwardness.

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Sowing the Seeds of Success

I have been a proud contributor to the CAST (Community Advancement Strategic Team) for over two years. The CAST is a group of approximately 10 individuals facilitated by Barry Lewis Green. Barry poses a question each month and the members respond either in text or video. Barry then compiles the submissions and posts them to his blog.

Here is the question for April 2017

They say April showers, bring May flowers (whoever “they” are)… so if we understand the metaphor of showers as the preparation for the flowers… what habits or practices or advice do you best recommend for sowing the seeds to any success? In other words, what rituals or practices do you use to best prepare yourself for opportunities and challenges?

Here is my video response to the question.


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The Greatest Compliment I Was Ever Paid

The greatest compliment I was ever paid was when someone asked my opinion and actually took the time to listen.

Oral communication is a giving and receiving process. It is important that listening is an active part of the process.

This is true for all forms of oral communication, whether you are speaking to one or two people or an audience of many.

Whatever the size of our audience they will communicate with us both verbally and non verbally. Unfortunately we don’t typically put a lot of effort into listening to the non-verbal messages, particularly if we find ourselves speaking to a group of people.

Some speakers believe that because they are speaking they don’t have to listen. If you are speaking to a large audience often the only communication you may get from them is non-verbal. So it is important to keep that in mind and learn to ‘listen with your eyes’.

By listening with your eyes you will get a chance to read the nonverbal messages being sent by your audience.
 
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Can Speaking Anxiety Be Age Based?

The suggestion that speaking anxiety is more intense for a young person than it is for an older person was suggested to me a few days ago by young person in his early twenties.

I having been thinking about it and I believe that the level of speaking anxiety is not determined by age. There can be situational anxiety where individuals find some speaking situations more intimidating than others. ie speaking to your peers, speaking at the wedding of a close friend or family member. speaking to a large audience, etc.

I have been teaching, training and coaching on public speaking and presentation skills for over twenty years. I have dealt with a wide ranges of ages from late teens to late fifties. I have not seen any evidence that would suggest that anxiety levels are age based. One could argue that the reverse might be true. The older you are the more entrenched the anxiety could be.

I have dealt with individuals of all ages who had intense anxiety and did not find one with anxiety more limiting than another.

There is no magic pill or secret formula for managing speaking anxiety. It requires commitment to doing the work. The good news is that if you are committed you can create the perception of confidence long before you actually have the confidence.
 
Now go out and Make Your Voice Heard!




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Eliminating ums and ahs

A big challenge for many speakers is reducing and ideally eliminating ums and ahs or other comfort words and phrases when they speak formally. The use of these can be a sign of nervousness and a need to bridge awkward moments or just a bad habit.

Either way they can be controlled. Comfort words and phrases are very common when we speak informally with colleagues, friends and family. In these situations they are not a big deal. In more formal speaking and presentation situations they can be very distracting and make us look ill prepared and not as professional as we could be.

The secret is to focus on the craft of speaking utilizing the various tools that are available to us, eye contact, facial expression, vocal variety, etc. Put your energy into something constructive.

Take time to rehearse and think about your delivery. The more prepared you are the more deliberate you will become when you speak or present.

Use video to record your presentation. Then review it to reveal if you are using comfort words and phrases. Just listen to the audio to assess your performance. You will still need to look at the video to help refine your overall delivery.

Good preparation will go a long way towards reducing and eliminating your comfort phrases.
 
Now go out and Make Your Voice Heard!




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