The 5 types of audience questions — and how to handle them with confidence
What’s your relationship with questions? When you get asked a question in a meeting, what happens to you?
If you’re like many of our clients, the answer is “it depends.”
If the question is an expected part of this scenario, if it’s asked in a respectful way, and most importantly if you KNOW THE ANSWER, questions can feel great! You feel settled and powerful, confident in the opportunity to demonstrate your knowledge, “show your work”, and be seen as an important contributor.
If the question comes as an interruption to your flow, or feels like it comes out of nowhere, or feels like a challenge — or you DON’T KNOW THE ANSWER — questions can immediately send people into a tailspin of nervous system activation and stress. You freeze and go blank. Your breath suddenly becomes shallow. Your voice or your hands shake. You start sweating or turn red. The question feels like a test you could fail: a threat to your success or belonging. But . . .
Questions aren’t just an inevitable part of interacting with an audience — questions are an opportunity. Yes, even the questions that normally trip us up!
Are you concerned about concision? Do you find yourself rambling? This is often because you’re trying to answer your audience’s questions (or address any objections) before they even have them. It’s one way that we attempt to prove ourselves in situations where we don’t feel 100% confident and present.
Instead, what if we welcomed questions?
Questions give us crucial information about our audience: who they are, what they care about, what they’re interested in, what they may not understand. And far more than simply giving everyone all the information right away and expecting them to file it all appropriately in their brains, allowing room for questions actually CREATES space in our audience’s minds for the answers. Questions help us be heard, be understood, and be memorable.
But not all questions are created equal — they can have different functions and intentions, and require different responses from us. Being able to do some quick ID work gets you to an answer faster, without losing the floor or your agenda. We’ve identified five types of questions that happen in the context of speeches, presentations, and meetings.
Let's take a look.
The Five Types of Questions
1. A Real Question (On Topic) That You DO Know the Answer to
Obviously, we tend to love questions like these! But there are a few important caveats:
Sometimes, you know the answer to the question, but you’re so caught up in demonstrating that you know the answer that your knowledge comes out like a word volcano. Remember that you do not have to show ALL your knowledge in any one moment. Remember that your audience needs rhythm and structure to hear what you’re saying. (Punctuation is your friend. Period.) Remember that expertise is not demonstrated by the volume of information, but by the curation of information: giving them enough relevant info to pique their interest and cause them to ask more questions you can answer further. This helps create space in their brains to really hear what you’re saying.
Sometimes, you know the answer to the question, but you can’t say it to the person who’s asking. Maybe the timing is off. Maybe this is a company secret for now (or for always). In this case, you have a few options. The simplest is “I can’t answer that question right now” with zero explanation. You can choose to add a little explanation if you like, but keep it tight so you don’t sound like you’re defending your right not to answer. “I can’t answer that question today, but we’ll be making an announcement on X date, so hold tight.” You can also . . . and this requires some practice . . . say “I don’t know” when you actually do. Use this with EXTREME caution.
Sometimes, you know the answer to the question, but you don’t want to tell them. It’s too personal. It’s too painful. It’s inappropriate. In this case, either a simple “no” or a strategic conversational redirect can be appropriate.
2. A Real Question (On Topic) That You DON’T Know the Answer to
Ooooh, these are stressful. However . . . .
You. Are. Not. Google. (Or ChatGPT, for that matter.) You cannot possibly expect yourself to immediately be able to answer every single question that anyone ever has.
In high school, we demonstrate knowledge via what we can remember in the moment for the test. In the real world, we often demonstrate expertise via our ability to find and synthesize information, not necessarily retrieve it in that exact moment. Releasing yourself from the expectation that you will have instantaneous, perfect knowledge and recall can go a long way to de-stress the experience of getting questions in the first place.
There are a few subtypes of this question as well:
If you actually do know the answer but your brain has completely gone blank — buy yourself time with a short phrase: “that’s a great question” is an interview classic for a reason. You can also try “I’d like to organize my thoughts.” Then, take a breath. Chances are, your amygdala has activated, and you’ve briefly gone into freeze mode. A conscious breath can get your prefrontal cortex back online. We can almost guarantee you that the brief pause that feels like an uncomfortable ask from your audience is barely a blip on their radar. Pausing to gather and organize your thoughts is a power move, and so is breathing.
If you “should” know (or your audience thinks you should know) the answer — We can almost guarantee that if you don’t know the perfect answer, you do know SOMETHING. Focus on that. Try something like “Based on what I know today, _______.”
And if you simply have no idea: we must all learn how to clearly, and without angst, say “I’m not sure about that. I’ll look it up and get back to you” or some variation thereof. The key is to deliver this with confidence, not shame. You can even employ the power move of facilitating them getting the answer from someone else: “I don’t have all the information, but I would be happy to connect you with (Person Who Does).”
3. A Question That Is Outside the Scope of the Conversation
These come in a variety of forms, from the needlessly personal question in a business context to something irrelevant to your current project. Use your knowledge of your given circumstances* to determine how direct you can be here — as much as you might want to put the smack down on someone edging into inappropriate territory, you may need to employ a subtler tactic.
Sometimes giving the conversation some freedom of scope can be beneficial. It can lead to real creativity and collaboration, and give you valuable information about what your audience wants and needs. If you’re facilitating the conversation, you can allow some “slack in the reins” while keeping us focused on the real objective of the meeting.
The key is being able to get back on track. If it feels like a jerk move to cut someone off or redirect a conversation that’s going off the rails, remember that we show respect to people’s time by keeping meetings focused. Here’s an option: “This is such an interesting question — I want to make sure we get folks out of here on time. Let’s dig into this later.”
4. The Question That’s Really More of a Comment
Oh boy . . . we’ve all seen this one. Chances are, most of us have BEEN this person at one time or another — especially when we want to be seen and heard in this scenario.
So here’s where we ask ourselves WHY: activate your curiosity (and tame the judgement, for now) to keep your nervous system humming smoothly. What is this person trying to accomplish here? Are they demonstrating to the room that they also know stuff? Are they trying to take over? Are they just really, really excited? Getting into this curiosity mindset helps us choose an appropriate response for our commenter without feeling threatened by them. As with question type #3, our given circumstances and knowledge of the power dynamics in the room will help us judge how far to let this go before getting us back on track.
You can give them a little validation before taking the reins back: “Great point, Steve.”
You can appeal to time: “Thank you for your insights — I want to make sure we have a chance to get to a few more questions before we wrap up.”
And of course, you can always use the most direct option: “Did you have a question?”
5. The Bad Faith Question
Start at 12:55 to watch an absolutely MASTERFUL response to a fun hybrid “off-topic / bad faith” question to these two brilliant Prime Ministers!
These are the ones that are designed to trip you up, take you down, poke into your soft bits, or turn the audience against you. Unfortunately, these have become a reality for most women with opinions/expertise of any variety, especially public figures and especially online. We live in a culture that rewards this kind of false “dialogue” and fetishizes the TAKE-DOWN.
In an in-person scenario, this is where your preparation, your knowledge of your given circumstances, your bedrock knowledge of who you are and what you offer, and making friends with your nervous system are absolutely essential.
As with all conflict scenarios, make sure you’re breathing. Let your butt be big! A body that is occupying space is a body that feels safer.
Activate your curiosity: what do you think their goal is? Is it worth attempting to disarm them by helping them feel seen and heard and then taking back the reins, or is this not that time or space?
What and who CAN you respond to? Is there a nugget of something they’ve said that you can talk to the rest of your audience about, while simply ignoring them? Sometimes, it’s helpful to spiritually dismiss them as being a relevant part of your audience and conversation — there are some people that we will never convince, no matter how passionate or eloquent (or CORRECT) we are. Why waste your time and energy on them?
Employ allies: Especially if you’re a public-facing woman who talks about anything even remotely controversial, having another moderator in the room besides yourself can be the best advance strategy. Have a plan in place for trolls.
If you need to leave the situation, leave. It is not “defeat” to protect yourself.
Remember: questions give us an opportunity to connect with our audience and manifest our presence in the room. How we handle questions doesn’t just show our knowledge — it shows our personality and unique leadership style.
Got more ideas of how to handle questions? Let us know in the comments.
*Our given circumstances are the who / what / when / where / why / how of our scene . . . our context. Want a structured way to dig into your given circumstances to streamline your prep and make empowered choices? Try our Meeting Prep Workbook!