Looking for advice on speech making? Bookstore shelves are groaning with it. But you’ll find precious little help for the part of your talk that people actually listen to: the Q&A. Michael Sheehan, the renowned communications consultant who worked with Bill Clinton throughout his presidency, says the speaker must have a strategy for the question and answer segment—it shouldn’t be just an afterthought. Here’s his advice (in Q&A format, of course) for nailing the Q&A. How can you be strategic about the part of the speech that’s out of your control? You’re mistaken if you think you can wing it. CEOs tell me, “I’m great in the Q&A; it’s the formal presentation I’m not comfortable with.” They’ve held on to that notion because no staffer has been willing to level with them and say, “You’re really boring.” Or “You took eight minutes to make a ten-second point.” You have to prepare—and in the right way. Executives tend to have a three-ring binder with 500 questions they might be asked. They take it home and study it like the Baltimore Catechism. But the staff who created those binders rarely anticipates the real questions from the analysts (if that’s the audience) or the way they’ll be posed. That inevitably puts the executive in a defensive position. He’s up there scratching his head, thinking, “Was that question 177 or more like question 491?” My approach is to throw out the binder and replace it with an index card that outlines a three- to four-point aggressive framework. Is that a way of telling a speaker to stay on message? That’s a sore point with me. Next to “brand,” “message” is the most misunderstood word in corporate America. Businesspeople think their message is expressed by their mission or value statements—all of which sound alike. (I suspect there’s a company in Ann Arbor mass-producing these in needlepoint.) Or they think their message is a set of talking points to be repeated, like a doll whose string you pull and hear the same statements over and over. I start with developing a brief, linear story line for the presentation itself. I show them it’s possible to summarize even Hamlet in a paragraph (yes, it can be done). When I see 75 PowerPoint slides, I ask, “What’s the story line?” Inevitably, we can cut the presentation by a third. Then we can strategize about how to use the Q&A as the second tier of communication. How do you take advantage of the heightened attention in the Q&A to amplify, to drill down, to extend your case? What if you know what an audience is going to ask but don’t want to answer? Stay on the offensive. Bless all the lawyers, they’re very nice people, but don’t let them be your speech coaches. They’ll admonish you, “Don’t say this, don’t say this, and whatever you do, don’t say this. Now, go get ’em!” My approach is “Say this, say this, and whatever you do, say this.” The energy you display sends its own message. I was struck by current Exxon Mobil chairman and CEO Rex Tillerson’s recent network interview during a time of skyrocketing gas prices. He looked as though he wanted to be there and explain things. Bill Gates often radiates an attitude in his Q&As that makes him seem to be thinking, “Oh, that reminds me of a big idea I wanted to share.” That positive aggression is half the battle. Is there a perfect length for an answer? No. Pardon? If all your answers are too short, it’ll sound like a deposition, and you’ll get questions of increasing hostility. Make them too long, and it’ll sound like a filibuster. Vary your length. Then you can splurge on answering one question in greater depth. Any takeaway advice? Bottom line: “LIE.” “L”: Listen to each word of the question rather than answering before the questioner finishes. “I”: Identify the opportunity to answer simply or more deeply or to expand to adjacent arguments. “E”: Enhance your reply with something memorable, such as a specific example, analogy, personal experience, or colorful phrase.
