How do you Answer a Question under Pressure?
There you are, you're on the panel, you're in the presentation. And someone asks you that tricky question. And in front of everyone you have to think on your feet. What do you do?
It’s not much fun this one is it? It has echoes of the exam room somehow. The pressure’s on to get it “right”; to produce an answer of brilliance. So you can “pass”, be judged and not found wanting.
All this pressure to say something brilliant tends to produce precisely the opposite effect. The dear old brain gets jumbled. Clarity eludes you. Finding any word feels like an uphill battle, let alone the right one. There’s so much noise in your head as you sort through possible answers that it’s hard to pay attention to the audience. And all the while you feel the drumbeat of pressure to get an answer out.
How to handle it?
The golden rule? Forget perfection and aim for structure.
The perfect equation, the perfect line of code, the perfect building: these things may all be possible in the world of mathematics.
Answering a question under pressure is more art than science at least in the sense that there is no possibility of perfection, only in a choice made in the moment.
And speaking, especially, is more art than science. The beauty is often in the imperfection - the Wabi Sabi as they call it in Japanese. The broken bowl is pieced back together with gold, its imperfections adding to its beauty.
The art of the answer under pressure is, at its heart, about committing to a choice and being concise and structured in your delivery. Forget perfect. Make choices, however imperfect, commit to them and forge them together in a compelling way.
What matters above all is to make a creative decision from the outset. Set out your stall. If you lay out a map of the structure of your answer, even while you are scrabbling for the words, the audience think you have a plan.
There are many possible structures of course, but one I come back to time and time again is this:
- Name the So What? Why should the audience pay attention to this answer?
- Pain: what’s the problem here?
- Vision: what’s your transforming insight to overcome it?
- Plan: what plan could you offer to help?
When you’ve landed your four point structure, remember the wabi sabi principle. It’s all about structure, and committing to a choice in the moment.
Land it with power, then stop. Don’t keep talking because you feel it needs more detail. Zip it. Pause. You’ve said enough, and you’ve said it with structure.
Close your mouth firmly, and wait. Give yourself breathing space.
Let the audience ask the follow up question now.
Enjoy the ease of wabi sabi speaking.
Notice how when you let go of the need to be perfect, you can focus on shaping an answer that works in the moment, and be in the room, in the moment, present, rather than in your head trying to be perfect.
Your audience will thank you.
Have a great weekend.
Caroline x