How To Deal With Audience Hostility In A Presentation

You’ve prepared a killer presentation that will blow your audience’s minds. But as soon as you start speaking, you realize they’re not on the same page as you.

In fact, they’re on a different planet (or seem to wish you were).

How do you deal with hostility when you present?

One impulse to avoid is fighting fire with fire by lashing back. That inevitably ends up rebounding and scolding you.

With that option off the table, here are seven highly effective approaches to deal with audience hostility in a presentation.

1. Give them a Road Map

In my presentation skills training, the ONE significant mistake participants make when preparing to speak is to include a Road Map.  Senior leaders are inclined to sharply interrupt, with questions such as:

“Are we going to cover {the off-site / the bonus structure or etc}?”

All you need to do is give headlines for the three main points and you’re done.  At this point, you may need to check they’re on board with this.  If not, jump to the next point.

2. Find the Sticking Issue through Questions:

Let’s say you’ve decided to cover three points but there’s a fourth one that’s the real hot potato. Ignoring it will result in a festering resistance to what you say.

One highly engaging speaker I know was flown out to Barbados to give a motivational talk. During the presentation, he noticed a simmering dissatisfaction in the room. After announcing that he was noticing a general sense of irritation in the room, someone explained, “Half of us were made redundant yesterday and we don’t know which half.”

Through questioning, the speaker uncovered the main concern, hidden until then.  He addressed that through harvesting questions and picking out the top three concerns, which he slammed up on a flip chart to keep the audience focused as he reshaped his presentation to envelop those concerns, quelling his audience’s anger and winning them over.

Your audience will shut off until you deal with the elephant in the room.

3. Empathise

Many presenters may head straight for a justification to a solution, or a defensive reaction to a problem. When a merger was announced, one of my clients, an Engineering CEO, went straight for the justification of the business deal.  This was highly alienating to an audience worried about their jobs.

The next time round, after having worked his speaking skills, it was empathy that led the way. He demonstrated a grasp of the situation from his employees’ perspectives, expressing their thoughts and feelings before his explanations.

Statements such as these may introduce this kind of connection:

“You might be thinking that this is outside your work remit and you don’t have time for it.”

“I know you’re frustrated with the complexity of the work flow.”

“I understand your concern about job security.”

4. Share a Personal Anecdote

You can press this further with a short personal anecdote using this structure, if you’ve personal experience of being in their shoes, even if the context was slightly different.

The combination of empathy with a personal anecdote, tangibly softened my client’s audience within minutes – even in a hybrid setting.

5. State a Common Objective

This may seem obvious, but about 99% of speakers fail to mention why they’re talking about whatever they may be covering.  You need to state at the outset the shared higher aim and repeat it at least three times if you’re talking for at least five minutes. And that higher aim isn’t ‘Regulatory Compliance’.  That’s not what has people jumping with joy.  What motivates is staying out of trouble – and keeping in business. Abate any anger by stating the higher aim at the outset and combining this with the next point ‘Pause the PowerPoint’ – if you’re using slides.

6. Pause the PowerPoint:

When there’s an air of hostility in the room, flashing up Slide One of your PowerPoint is like red rag to a bull. People want to know that you’ll address their concerns but if they see a slide before you’re into your content, they sense that you’re bypassing those concerns, even if you will be addressing them. Make it conversational at the beginning, by asking questions, perhaps using their names to build connection, and showing a willing ear before going into your content.  Adding any of the previous approaches will increase their openness to what you’re going to say.

7. Ignore it:

Some people will simply take a dislike to some presumption they have of you. When expressed non-verbally, it costs you nothing to ignore it. You see them sneering in the corner or what seems like an insidious little whisper to their neighbour. Firstly, their hostility is your presumption.  They may be empathising with your issue in that whisper. As for the sneer, well, that could reflect a personal dislike to your attire, hair colour, age or the fact they’ve a migraine.

Regardless, the whole talk can be sidetracked by irrelevant issues if you pursue a perceived challenge which could be based on nothing more than misconceptions.

There’s also a political reason you might not want to engage. If the decision makers aren’t the ones openly challenging you, they may not appreciate you allowing someone who is less involved in the decision to have airtime.

But how do you know there will be any hostility in the first place?

Sound people out. Asking people these three key questions will have you prepared.

Your Action:

1. Sniff out your listeners’ concerns before you prepare.
2. Define your key messages. Go here to help you with that.
3. Build in your route map and any combination of the 7 techniques above.

Remember, your audience’s mood is not set in stone. You can change it by how you communicate and respond to their reactions.

By being empathetic, engaging, and credible, you can overcome initial resistance and win them over.

My presentation coaching and training has helped specialists in tech to deliver engaging presentations and pitches, winning them new jobs, more business, millions of pounds in funding and the ability to see their ideas come to life. Check out my range of presentation and public speaking courses here to see what I can do for you and your teams.