This is the business English podcast episode 71 presentation panic how to take control of Q&A in English Welcome to the Business English podcast from All Ears English.
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Hey, Aubrey. How's it going? Good. I'm a little nervous for my daughter today.
She's doing a big presentation in her English class.
Is she really? Wow. She had to write a story and illustrate it on a storyboard, and then she has to present it in her class.
And she's in eighth grade. She's 13, which is the epitome of being shy in front of other kids your age.
So she's sort of horrified. It'll be a great experience for her, but she's pretty nervous.
Yeah. The epitome. That's a great word, by the way.
And it does really define seventh and eighth grade.
The epitome of awkwardness, nervousness, just sort of figuring out who you are in the world.
Right. That's tough. Yeah. And it's been interesting because their teacher is requiring a Q&A.
So she has to be ready to answer questions at the end.
And the other kids are being great, like participation points on asking questions.
So you can't just say, okay, no questions, sit down.
You know they're for sure going to ask you questions because it's part of the grade, which can be a little more difficult, right?
Yeah, that sounds like something I had to do in school.
I feel like there were times when teachers would incentivize students to ask questions, and that was hard.
Did she do any preparation around the question piece, anticipating them, writing down what she thought people might ask, anything like that?
Oh, no, but she should have. Mom fail. I didn't even think about having her do that, which would have been great preparation.
Mm-hmm. No, but that's okay. So this is a really good point, though.
It's a good example, because a lot of our listeners, we did receive a question for this episode from a listener.
Guys, by the way, if you have questions, send them to Lindsay at allearsenglish.com.
We love building episodes around your questions.
So what was the student kind of asking about here, Aubrey?
Yeah, so it was a student who was going to do a presentation and was concerned that they wouldn't understand the questions in the Q&A.
And I can totally get that, right? If you're sort of the expert, you're presenting on something, you don't want to show maybe weakness as you see it by not understanding one of the questions that's asked.
So we're going to give you guys great language today so that you can never have to be worried about this problem.
Exactly. We're going to show you how to take control of the presentation, anticipate correctly so that you guide it.
You're always in control. Even if you get a question that's tricky or that you don't expect, you are ready for it.
Right. So what would be the first of the four tips, Aubrey, on how to take control in your presentation?
Yes. So make sure people know when they can ask questions.
Tell them right when you begin at the end of the presentation, we will have a Q&A.
So please hold questions until then. Yeah, this is huge.
So people aren't interrupting you. Yeah, and we've said this multiple times on this podcast.
We do talk about presentations because we know you guys use English in your career, right?
You are business professionals, global professionals.
So we always say this, it's up to you to set the stage and set the structure.
It's your house, right, in a sense. So you invite people in and you show them how to move through that presentation with you.
Exactly. Right. And you can, you know, whatever you're most comfortable with, you can, of course, set it up however you want.
If there will be a break in the middle and you'll allow questions, then just let them know.
Make sure it's very clear for people that they will have a chance to ask questions at a specific time.
Yeah, that's so good. Okay. And then what else, Aubrey?
What else should we keep in mind? We want to tell them how they can ask questions, right?
If you want them to often in presentations, we'll ask for written questions to be submitted.
So everyone will write their question. You'll have them all written.
Then you have so much more control over the questions you're answering.
I did this when I was a French teacher in the Bronx because...
I was working with ninth and tenth graders.
So some often they would ask a question that was meant to be funny, maybe a little inappropriate.
Right. They would say something like, how do you say murder in French?
And it would be everyone's laughing. It would derail.
So I started having a question box where they would put their questions in.
I would select a couple every day that I could filter out the ones that I knew were going to be disruptive and answer ones that would actually help the lesson.
Very cool. And this is also good if you feel like you won't have time to answer all the questions.
You do want to answer them all, but maybe you have them send them in on Twitter through your Twitter feed.
That's cool because it gets it online, involves other people who might not be there.
And then you can choose the ones you want and follow up by replying at that person later, right?
Yes, exactly. Especially, yeah, if you want to make sure everyone's question is answered, give them an outlet. to either email you or put them on Twitter so that you can later after the presentation respond to everyone, give people that personal connection, and then you might end up being able to add them to your network.
Yeah, I really like the idea of using technology to do questions in a new way.
In a different way that feels a lot more engaging.
So that's a good one. And then the third tip is just, this is what I asked you about your daughter if she had done this, right?
Because this is a good thing, right? Stop beforehand as part of your preparation, anticipate what questions you might get.
Yes, exactly. Depending on the subject matter, the topic, you probably have a good idea.
The questions that might be asked, write those out and write out your answer.
Practice them just so that you feel really confident in answering most questions that could come up.
Yeah, or even better, bake that into the presentation.
You could have an entire slide that says, oh, I've taught you this.
Maybe you're asking or maybe you'd like to ask this and it becomes part of the content.
Yes, right. An FAQ slide, right? It stands for Frequently Asked Questions and then just cover them right there in the presentation.
Yeah, perfect. And what if we just can't hear the question very well?
Yes. And this might happen, right? If you have a big room, people are answering their question and you have difficulty hearing the question.
Just ask the person to speak up or speak a little louder and then they'll repeat their question more loudly.
Exactly. And maybe add a please on there because we're in kind of a professional environment here, an academic environment.
Please speak up or please speak a little louder.
Okay. Yes. And you can even anticipate that if it's a big room when you're going to take questions, say, everyone, please speak very loudly as we don't have a mic for you.
And it's a very big room. Yeah, absolutely.
Know that that's probably going to happen and be ready for it.
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Exclusions apply. See details online. Now, Aubrey, what happens if we do hear it, the question, but we don't understand the question?
This is the key that I think a lot of our students, our listeners today are worried about.
Yes, for sure. And there is a good chance this could happen.
But there are great phrases where you can say this.
Even natives, if you didn't hear someone correctly, aren't sure you understood what they mean by the question, you'll hear them ask these things to get someone to rephrase or clarify.
So the first thing you can say, I'm not sure I understand.
Could you rephrase that? Yeah. So you can ask them to repeat.
But if you're pretty sure that they're going to use the same words and you still won't understand, ask them to rephrase it, to say it another way.
Right. Because it can be stressful the first time.
But imagine the second time when they say the same thing again and you still don't understand.
Yeah. Not good. Not good. We want to avoid that at all costs.
Right. Exactly. And then you could just say, could you clarify?
Yeah. Because if you know, sometimes at these types of presentations, someone will ask a question that's a little bit lengthy.
Right. They're kind of sharing some background of of why they're involved and why they have this question.
And you might sort of lose the question and everything they're saying.
So it's definitely within, you know, reason within your rights to just ask them to clarify what their actual question is.
Yeah. Sometimes we understand so little about what they ask.
It's hard to know what to ask as a right.
What to ask them of how to plug. You can't ask a detailed question if you didn't understand anything that the person asked.
Right. You can't come back and you can't say, could you rephrase that when they've talked quite a bit about, you know, their background, something because then they would say probably. which part do you want me to rephrase?
But you can say, can you clarify your question?
And then this next one I love because sometimes people are just really broad in their question, too broad and that you can't quite understand.
I need things in very specific examples, right?
So could you be more specific or could you give me an example even better?
Yes. I love both of those because that's going to really break down their meaning for you if they say, OK, let me give you an example.
And then by the time they've shared this example, you have a very good idea of what they're actually asking.
Exactly. Exactly. I love the example. I just think examples are easier to understand, you know, in general.
There's so much better. It happens sometimes when...
If Jessica and I are recording for the IELTS Energy podcast, this will happen sometimes where like one of us will have a great idea for an episode.
Yeah. And you'll try to share it and you have this idea in your mind, but it doesn't come out that clearly or.
And so we'll just say, OK, give me an example.
And then you share an example and it's, oh, OK, this is clear.
I understand how this is going to work. Exactly.
We got to have examples in life. And then I think just to finish up this episode, guys, a good rule of thumb.
So again, if you're, let's say you're giving a talk on some scientific research you did and you've gotten a question, you don't understand the question, you've asked them to rephrase or be more specific or give an example and you still don't understand, this is the time to say, please contact me later or please see me at the end and move on.
Do you agree with that, Aubrey? Would you say two strikes and you're out?
Like if you, you know, if you can't understand their question, don't try a third time because it's not going in a good direction.
Exactly. It's just going to create sort of awkwardness if you keep trying to understand and everyone else.
That's the thing to remember about a Q&A is often a lot of people there listening already know the answer to this or maybe aren't interested in that subset.
So this wouldn't be unreasonable. for you to ask someone to contact you later about a specific question.
If you feel like maybe, you know, some other people in the audience aren't as interested, you want this to be a separate conversation.
So don't feel awkward about that. You just say, please contact me later about that question.
Here's my email on the slide, right? Give them a way to contact you.
And you don't have to make a big deal about that.
The problem is an understanding, a comprehension issue.
Just let them know. Let's, let's talk about that offline.
As we say, let's talk about that offline.
Let's take this offline. And that's another good expression we could teach too.
We'll talk about that in another episode, but yeah, guys, so don't make it a big deal.
Stay positive. So maybe you're panicking on the inside, but people don't have to know that, right?
They don't have to know that they don't, they could see a smile on your face.
You could appear quite calm, even if there's a storm going on inside your mind and that's okay.
That learning exactly right keep stay in control remember you're the one in control everyone in the audience they are going to There's so much more validation to what you're saying, so much more credibility if you keep a calm, controlled presence.
Right. So you don't want to let that be dismantled by the question.
So just stay in control and use these phrases so that they take away a good feeling of really feeling like they've come away with something important.
Yeah, I love it. That's such a good rule of thumb.
You're bringing value to the audience. So keep that in mind.
They're here to hear you, what you have to say.
You're adding the value. So don't let them knock you off your center.
Yeah, so good. All right. Aubrey, how can our listeners make sure they get more great tips for presentations in business or career, the academic world?
What can they do? Yes, exactly. Follow All Ears English.
We have so much great information. So many good episodes planned for you guys coming up.
So make sure to follow wherever you find your podcasts, All Ears English.
All right. I'll see you next time. Take care.
See ya. Bye. Thank you for listening to Business English, a podcast just for you, the high achieving global professional.
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