Speaker 1: Have you ever watched a newscast and wondered how the newscasters do that? Back to you, Patricia. So well and so seamlessly. Today we are talking about how to moderate or host a panel discussion like a newscaster. So stay tuned next on Moxie Talk. Hey everyone, welcome to Moxie Talk where we help you find your voice, share your message and lead with confidence. Today we are talking about how to lead a panel discussion or how to moderate a panel discussion. And this is part of a two-part series. Last time we talked about how to be on a panel or be part of a panel discussion. And today we're talking about how to actually moderate that panel. So let's start with the first steps. Congratulations, you've been asked to moderate a panel discussion. And this is a remarkably interesting and a remarkably difficult job. But you do not have to be a Hollywood director or even a newscaster from the, you know, nightly news to have something in common with all of your panelists. All you do is play a role in the show. You are not the star of the show. A lot of people think, oh my gosh, the pressure's on me as a moderator or I'm gonna be the moderator. But you're actually not the star. Let me say it again. You are not the star of the show. The audience didn't come to this panel to listen to you wax poetic about your vast wisdom on the topic. Now, for some people, that might be a major disappointment. For most of you, that will take some pressure off because really your job is to shine the spotlight or shine the flashlight on the panelists. The flashlight is really not on you. First and foremost, what is your role? What are you doing as a moderator? Now, I mentioned above that you are the rudder of this boat. You are a small part of the ship, but you are determining the direction the entire panel goes. You are really steering this panel discussion. You are both a moderator and an instigator, meaning you will start the fires, but you'll also put the fires out. You will ask the questions to steer the conversation in the right direction, but you'll also defer if you feel that the conversation is going in the wrong direction. You have to ask the questions that raise the ideas and that will stoke a meaningful, energetic, engaging conversation. You have to be able to stop somebody that's been talking for days and days and days and is waxing poetic about their topic, but you also have to be able to open the floor for other panelists. There are ways to do this from start to finish. There are techniques that we're going to talk about now. The first step to any good panel is selecting the panelists. Most likely, if you're the moderator, you will be part of the selection process or you will be the entire selection process. Let's compare this to hosting a dinner party or hosting a banquet. You're looking for expert chefs. You want to wow the guests, so what criteria are you going to use to pick your chefs? Are you going to use their ability to cook amazing meals? Are you going to use their names and that they've opened these incredible restaurants, these trendy restaurants? Or are you going to hire the chef's son because he wants to get his break in the kitchen? Now, I'm sure that you are not going to hire the chef's son, but deciding if you're hiring somebody for their reputation or for their talent or for both is the same way we're going about picking panelists. You need to go with the ones that will be able to contribute meaningful ideas to this discussion and those might not be the most trendy, popular people on this topic. Now, if you are in the panel kind of industry, if you know about your topic and you've sat through many panels, even if you've not moderated them before, you know that there are subject matter experts that people call on constantly for these panels. Some of them are somewhat celebrities, they're known as the experts. You have the opportunity perhaps to choose somebody different, choose somebody who hasn't had the spotlight before, that maybe you saw them in a past panel discussion and they earned your ear, they got your eye. You know that they are going to give something meaningful to this panel. You might even want to balance these unknown up-and-coming panelists with some KOLs, some celebrities, right, that people have come to expect to see in these panels. That way you've got a nice balance of knowledge and personality and also some unexpected talent. So you've picked your dream team, you've got all of these people assembled that you want to be in your panel. Now it's important that you prep them. You need to set them up for success so that they give the best panel discussion. That's going to really help you. Tell them about the people in the audience. Tell them about who they'll be speaking to. Tell them who the other panelists are. Get phone numbers, LinkedIn profiles, anything that will allow them to collaborate with each other. If you can create a community even before this panel discussion, I know people are busy sometimes, this is impossible. But if you try your best to create a culture of collaboration and bouncing ideas off each other even before the start, this will basically set you up for success. And the more work you can save your panelists, the more they'll appreciate you and the better informed they'll be on that day. So if you have the questions in advance, please give it to them. Don't make it a mystery. Let them know if they're opening the discussion or if there's going to be Q&A with the audience or if you're going to bring something up that's somewhat controversial. The more you can tell them ahead of time, the more they can prepare. Nothing is worse than feeling that you are coming to a panel discussion cold, without any information about what you're going to be asked and what you're going to speak about. So the more you can open that up and give your panelists some information that they can prepare ahead of time, they can talk to each other about, the more they'll appreciate you and the more lively, confident, engaging discussion you'll have. Speaking of Q&A, there will definitely be Q&A between you as the moderator and the panelists, but oftentimes there's Q&A between the panelists and the audience. And this can be an incredibly memorable, exciting part of any panel. It can also be a minefield. It totally depends on the person in the audience that's asking the question. And it's up to you as the moderator to make sure that you understand the intent of the and make sure that you are crowdsourcing the audience so that you're not having people in there that are purposely coming to stir up controversy or stir up the crowd. It's up to you to safeguard your panelists. And you can do this in a couple ways. You can vet the questions that are going to be asked ahead of time so that the audience already knows who is going to ask the questions. If you aren't able to do this, it's really a good idea for you to come up with some ways to take the mic away from that audience member, if you will, and pass it to somebody else in the audience or to one of the panelists so that you control the conversation. You control the Q&A segment. It is up to you to keep the temperature at room temperature and not let it get too hot or too cold. You're really in charge of safeguarding these panelists and making sure that the audience is having a good experience. So it's really crucial in order to do this that you think about the bigger picture. We talked last week in our panel discussion video about the theme of the conference or the theme of the panel that you're participating in in this conference or just the theme of the panel. And it's really important as the moderator that you understand this in and out because you are setting the tone. You are asking the questions that are going to be on theme. You are asking the audience members to ask questions that are going to be on theme. So it basically comes down to three elements that you need to keep in mind so you keep this ship afloat and you steer it in the right direction. Intent, empathy, and focus. So let's tackle them one by one and we're going to go through all of them so that you have a really clear idea of how to really keep the theme of this panel going and keep this ship steering in the right direction. We do not want any titanics in our panel discussion. So let's start with intent. It's really important that you ask yourself early on, what is the point of this panel? Why are we having this panel discussion anyways? If you answer that question for yourself, you will make sure that you don't have people going down rabbit holes of information that's not relevant, nobody's getting stuck in the weeds, the conversation doesn't get derailed. It's important that everybody walks out of this panel discussion feeling like the purpose of this panel, it was clear, the purpose of the panel was clear and that the audience has a clear idea of why they're there. So you want to answer that question from a couple different perspectives. The perspectives of the panelists, why are they there? The perspective of the audience, why are they there? And the perspective of the organizers, why did they organize this panel? Think about what the audience should gain from the panel. Why are the panelists interested in participating? It could be that they're educating others. It could be that they're trying to grow their reputation in their field. It could be that they're growing their brand. Understanding the core objective of the organizers is super important too. Why are they having this panel? Are they promoting a new product or a new service? Or are they spreading awareness about something? Or are they providing a solution? If you know the purpose of this panel discussion, both from the audience's perspective and the panelist's perspective and the organized perspective, you can really help keep this discussion going in the right direction. All right, with empathy, you really have a dual purpose or double duty to perform. You need to direct the discussion in a way that the panelists and the audience get what they came for. And this will call for you maintaining empathy for both the audience and the panelists. In order to demonstrate empathy for the audience, think about it this way. When a panelist dominates the whole discussion and you have to politely say, it's time for another panelist to speak, what is going on in those panelists' brains? What are they thinking when that happens? And what is the audience thinking when that happens? Are they thinking, this guy went way too deep into a direction that I have no idea what he's talking about? Are they thinking, I wish they would be talking about something simpler or something in this side of the discussion? Are they thinking that they need you to summarize the conversation? When the discussion gets off topic or is no longer relevant to the goal or the purpose of the panel, you need to think about what is that doing to the audience and what is it doing to the other panelists? You are really a shepherd, right? You are a shepherd guiding this discussion back in the right direction. And you can do this in a couple ways. You can coax them out with like, could you explain more about X, Y, Z? Or would you elaborate a little bit on this? Or you can do a graceful baton pass to another panelist that might have more information about that. So it's really important that you have empathy for both the audience and the panelists. Now when you're moderating a panel, you're going to have people that are highly prepared, have succinct messages, and then you're going to have the people that ramble uncontrollably and have a really difficult time wrapping up their message. They might not know how to wrap up their message. They might be so nervous that they're just going to keep talking until you steer them in a different direction. And it's important that you do so, so that you keep the discussion lively. We hear from different voices. You can say something like, that was really well said. Very interesting. Let's see if this other panelist would like to chime in on that. So it's important, again, just as a recap, empathy for the panelists so that you help keep them on track and everybody gets an equal opportunity to speak, and empathy for the audience and thinking about why did they come to this panel in the first place. So last but not least, focus. Now if you're like me, you are struggling to remember what happened in your meeting this morning, let alone what's going to happen in a panel discussion. But it's important that you focus on the main points of the panel discussion. Focus on the audience members that want to speak. Focus on the panelists that are giving this discussion. And regardless of how well this discussion is going, you have got to keep on track. You've got to stay focused and make sure that you are putting this train down the track, or if we're going to keep the ship analogy, getting this ship into port. Sometimes what happens with panel discussions is they start to take a turn, and the two to three ideas that you wanted to bring up in the panel, they get sidetracked, and now it's spinning out of control, and it's feeling really sloppy. If that happens, throw your panelists a bone by outlining, just start to outline what you thought was important to the panel discussion, the purpose of this panel discussion. You can say something like, you know, I know we've been having a really lively discussion about A, B, and C, but it's really important that before we end this discussion, we talk about points one, two, and three. And this will get everyone back on track, and it will make it so that you have narrow focused the discussion. What's most important, aside from intent and empathy and focus, is that as a moderator, you really have a chance to set the tone, to set the mood, to guide the conversation, and to give that audience a memorable experience. It's all up to you. You are a conductor in an orchestra, and your musicians are these panelists, so take the time to prepare, to make sure that you are meeting the purpose of this panel, both from the points of view of the panelists, the audience, and the organizers, and all you've got to do is take a little time to prepare and think about this. So thanks so much for watching. I hope that you found this valuable. If you did, and you are going to be on a panel discussion, or you know somebody else that's going to be moderating, please make sure to pass on this video. And if it was something you enjoyed, make sure to like us, subscribe to our channel. We have soup to nuts, everything you need to know, from the minute you find out you're doing a panel or a presentation, to the second before you step on stage, even when you're on stage. And if you want to learn more about Moxie and our methodology, check out moxieinstitute.com. We've got every service to help you, whether you're leading a panel, you're participating in a panel, or you're in the audience for a panel. Thanks so much for watching, and we'll see you next time.