How to speak intelligently
hey everyone, just wondering how do you guys get good at answering questions.
When I make presentations at school, I often anticipate questions and draft answers to them before the presentation. I then memorize them and spit them out when someone asks about them. No problems so far.
The issue I have is when people ask questions I have not prepared for. Often I fumble, talk faster than I think, only to realize I made an error in my analysis and then have to backtrack and correct what I said. The end result is that my answer sounds incoherent and I am pretty sure the audience gets confused. At the same time, I can't seem to be able to think quickly enough before speaking. I certainly can't afford to make the other party wait for 10 seconds while I think before answering.
I have an upcoming school presentation that is pretty crucial so am shit nervous about it.
Anyone faced this issue before? Doesn't have to be a presentation, could be an interview setting too.
Thanks.
Until you get enough experience in the given topic to be able to fluently answer incoming questions with relative confidence (this becomes more practicable in a professional setting than during school), you can get some breathing room by putting together a toolbox of phrases that you can use to preface your actual answers thereby giving you more time to think over your response.
Back in school I had success with starting off trickier answers with phrases like "That's an excellent question...", "So your asking insert paraphrase of their initial question, correct?", and a few others to get a few extra seconds before answering. Otherwise, if you just answer with a confident tone and make it seem like the answer to the question is obvious, you can often get away with BSing a bit.
Last point to note, get some of your friends to be in the audience and plant questions for them to ask you if that's an option. It's an easy way to ensure that you end up with a positive overall image for your presentation even if you screw up a few of the non-rehearsed questions.
Thanks for the detailed response. People have mentioned to me about rephrasing the question before, but I find that when I have to think of rephrasing the question, then I can't spend time thinking about the actual question. So I have found that it doesn't really help me.
HAHA the part about planting questions in the audience is great. I would certainly try that.
But just out of curiosity, how do you manage it in a professional setting? You can't possibly plant questions with the help of your colleagues? I graduate soon so this would become important to me.
You manage it in a professional setting by spending 8-16+ hours a day, every day, dealing with the same general area of focus. After a while you develop a level of subject matter expertise and experience with presentations that allows you to much better anticipate incoming questions and to confidently answer unanticipated questions on the fly without having to resort to the aforementioned tricks.
Thanks for the response. Have a great weekend! Off to preparing for my presentations.
The COO of a bulge bracket IB that will not be named chewed an MDs head off over an IB group e-mail for saying "That's a great question...".
I don't necessarily agree with the view, but some people see it is as the worst thing to start with.
I still struggle with this at times as well, even as I have transitioned from undergrad/grad school into the professional world. Rephrasing the question into your own words has really helped me because it allows me to verbally communicate the question as I understand it, while also buying me a little time.
Some similarities I've noticed while sitting in on meetings with MD's and Directors when they get asked a tough question:
They will usually start with a fairly broad response that helps move the direction of the conversation the direction they want. Often times, they don't even answer the question directly and instead will see if the person asking is just asking a question just to ask a question (happens more than you think - even in a professional setting).
If the person asking the question is persistent, they might say something like "well, not to get too deep into the weeds, but..." and then go pretty far into the weeds to see if the other party loses interest/the conversation will move on afterwords. Just from my own (limited) experience, unless the question is pertaining to literally the most important piece of information in the meeting/presentation, the person constantly asking super tough or in-depth questions comes off worse than someone who might not know the answer. That's because everyone else in the meeting is trying to keep up but they don't have any interest in getting side-barred into granular details about something.
One thing I have to constantly remind myself is, who is the audience? Let that guide you in your answers. If you don't know the answer or need to bs something, usually an answer into a field that is not their strong suit will do the trick.
Dolor et cum asperiores rerum. Nihil distinctio deleniti ducimus asperiores. Quia ut maxime molestias aliquam. Culpa assumenda suscipit assumenda aut. Possimus velit nesciunt soluta est. Laudantium deleniti rem tempora ipsa. Ut sed rem facere est a voluptatem voluptatem.
Minima facere earum consequuntur quos ratione quaerat facilis. Quis voluptas exercitationem impedit perferendis laborum sapiente aperiam minus. Dolores sunt ipsa magnam blanditiis qui at tempora non.
See All Comments - 100% Free
WSO depends on everyone being able to pitch in when they know something. Unlock with your email and get bonus: 6 financial modeling lessons free ($199 value)
or Unlock with your social account...