A heckler comes in many forms. It can be someone aggressively trolling a successful comedian, a person interrupting a politician’s speech, or simply someone in your presentation audience who wants to see if they can stump you for fun. Hecklers are harmless if you know how to handle them. But they can seriously diminish the effectiveness of you and your presentation if you don’t.
If you want to be unshakeable the next time you present, then make sure to pay mind to the following heckler-handling techniques.
Manage Your Emotions
The last thing you want is for a heckler to get an emotional reaction out of you. If you react with anger, frustration, or any other emotion that makes you lose control, you’ll destroy your focus. You’ll also lose the respect and trust of your presentation audience. Having command over your emotions is one of the best ways to combat a heckler and it comes from having keen awareness of you and your presentation persona.
Don’t Reward Interruptions
What a heckler wants most is to interrupt your presentation, so don’t feed them by rewarding those interruptions. Rather than stop your presentation to address whatever point the heckler is trying to make, simply talk over them if they try to interrupt. It might feel a little awkward at first but ignoring them is often the most effective course of action you can take for an attention-craving heckler.
Find Your Grace
It’s easy to let someone get under your skin; it’s much harder to face a difficult person with grace and kindness. That’s why your presentation audience will respect you so much more if you confront a heckler with the latter. Unless you’re a seasoned comedian, don’t try to give the heckler a taste of his or her own medicine. Instead, be courteous and polite, acknowledge their feelings, and redirect the attention to your presentation.
Let Them Talk
If your heckler is extremely persistent, then ignoring them or meeting them with grace and kindness might not be enough. For this type of heckler, it can be helpful to give them the floor for just a minute or two. Typically, a persistent heckler isn’t expecting for you to give them centerstage. If you actually let them talk, oftentimes they’ll be caught off guard and embarrassed, which means you won’t likely hear from them again.
Ask Them to Leave
If all else fails, never forget that you’re in command of the room you’re presenting. If an audience member won’t stop interrupting and distracting from your presentation, then don’t hesitate to ask them to leave. It might feel uncomfortable, but in the end it’ll result in a better presentation and your audience will thank you for not allowing someone to get in the way of what they came to see.
If you want more tips about how to design and deliver a killer presentation, then check out why so many people have benefitted from our Catapult training.
