Gilly Meek, Accredited Think on Your Feet®, Six Thinking Hats® and Skilled Presenter™ trainer.
Imagine you’re asked to present at a really important meeting. You’re ok with the presentation itself but the questions and answers section fills you with dread!
You’ve sat through similar presentations before and watched the presenter crumble when they are asked a tricky question by an eager, or not so eager, audience member. You need to be able to answer all questions quickly and persuasively. There is no space for getting it wrong. So how do you do this? The key is to have a series of techniques to handle any question (no matter how tricky it is) quickly and persuasively.
Think on Your Feet® That’s exactly what Think on Your Feet® does for you. It provides you with a series of techniques that will help you to package the information you want to give in an understandable and persuasive way, structuring your information around three key points.
One of the Think on Your Feet® plans that you can use is known as “The Benefits Plan” – this involves delivering your three key points as three key benefits to your listener. Ensuring you answer the question asked whilst remaining on message, understandable and memorable.
But what about the tricky questions? I don’t have time to think when I’m put on-the-spot.
For those really tricky on the spot questions, you can use a Think on Your Feet® technique known as Bridging. Bridging techniques can both buy you time and also help you to reframe a question (or answer!).
An example would be to ask your questioner if they can give you a specific example. For example: they say to you “What are you going to do to improve communication?” You respond with “Please can you give me an example of where you feel communication needs to be improved?”
This will help to narrow down the question, making it easier for you to respond persuasively and it will also buy you thinking time.
During our two-day Think on Your Feet® workshop we look at, and practice, over ten different ways to bridge, in addition to six plans to package information when you’re put on-the-spot and need to answer persuasively.
Our objective at the end of the workshop is for you to be confident in handling questions, responding quickly and persuasively. Think on Your Feet® is delivered as:
- UK and Ireland public workshops – view the UK and online public workshops calendar.
- In-house training for groups and teams, worldwide – enquire about in-house workshops.
- Training for trainers – we train and certify your trainers to deliver the workshop to your people. Read more.
More about Gilly Meek
Gilly is an accredited Think on Your Feet®, Lateral Thinking, Six Thinking Hats®, The Skilled Presenter™ and Stakeholder Engagement (including Simulation)™ trainer and has delivered these workshops to numerous clients. Gilly also trains in management skills, negotiation skills, facilitation skills, impact and influence, and time management.
Prior to joining Indigo, Gilly managed the learning and development function for Global Radio, the UK’s largest radio organisation; training and coaching employees across a number of brands including Heart, LBC and Galaxy Radio. She has also led global initiatives for numerous multi-national organisations – including the design and delivery of management, leadership and soft-skills programmes.
