Your Panel Moderator Survival Guide
Moderating and attending panels can boost our external visibility, our personal brand, and put us before interesting stakeholders — more than our everyday typically allows. Clients who’ve said ‘yes’ to industry and company-wide panels in recent months find their public speaking skills improve, they learn a lot, and they feel so accomplished and inspired afterwards, they seek more speaking engagements.
One self-described introverted director agonized over joining an industry panel with other energy experts. But with prep and coaching, he found the experience fabulous. “I didn’t know I could stay that nimble — nor did I know I could speak as comfortably amidst others,” he marveled after. “It was a confidence boost I’d not expected.”
But like any public speaking moment, panels can invoke panic and anxiety with all eyes upon us and the pressure to sound and feel “expert.” (With many panels streaming live or recorded, that pressure amplifies.) Many self compare to their fellow panelists (in non-helpful ways) and for moderators, the pressure’s even more immense with needing to keep the eye on the ball and move wherever the conversation goes.
Here lie some tips I’ve used both as a facilitator and corporate trainer and in my own coaching for effectively moderating an event, managing the ideas panelists share, and performing in ways that present us well. I’m breaking the tips down into two groups: First for the moderator and in follow-up for the panelists as a two-part series.
Reframe “the panel” to a conversation
As in any high-stakes presentation, reframing to make the moment less high stakes can change how we feel about the situation. If we’re pressuring ourselves to be exceptional as the moderator, then we tend to over prepare (thereby exhaust ourselves), feel intensely scared, and come across as rigid and wooden vs. free flow, engaging, and charming.
What helped me when facilitating communication workshops for giant banks and tech firms was considering myself a hostess of a gathering of liked-minded people (in my case, all of whom care about becoming better writers and presenters.) Coming up with a metaphor for my role as moderator, for me, it’s “hostess with the mostess” helped me diffuse the tension and reduce my nerves. I focused more on the intent, my “guests” and their hopes of coming to my event vs. my own insecurities and shortcomings.
Think of how you want to seem
The personal branding piece feels vital for panels as in any address. Visualize yourself in front of this group. Imagine yourself in your most confident form. For panels, many of us (as moderator) want to seem: Bright. Articulate. Informed. But also: Non-lofty. Conversational. Gracious. (I hear these descriptors the most from those I coach; but figure out what that is for you as you build your communications strategy.)
Many I coach want to stay humble and not bring the spotlight on them; but if your organizers handed you the mic, then manage and coach to that feeling. (They want to hear from you. You’ve clearly earned it.)
Think of what knowledge you personally possess that you can use to guide you or even contribute to the conversations. Let what comes to you guide the language that you use in your introduction, which we get to next.
Use a compelling introduction to tee things off
As moderator, you’re the beholder of the introductory notes, a place where you can have fun, dazzle, and shine. Play with a compelling hook (startling data, a story, or a quote). State the purpose, the importance, a preview and some clarification on what you hope the panel covers, in what time frame, and what you hope any audience (including the panelists) feel at the end of your time together today.
I write on introductions here and these tips can serve us well in any address. The key becomes tying your topic to a broader, more impactful topic behind it. Make it contextual to help the audience know and feel what’s at stake.
If we can come up with a compelling, strident, confident-sounding and feeling intro, the panel has left the dock like a sparkling cruise ship and you’re plain sailing across the sea.
Allow panelists to introduce themselves
Within your intro you’re introducing your guests or panelists. Ask your experts ahead of time to do what you do: Introduce themselves in 3–5 sentences and include within that what they do, for whom, why they do it, and 1–2 reasons why they’re excited and informed about the topic.
Understand your panelists and the industry trends
Part of our duty and prep must tie to the panelists. If we have any control over who attends the panel, we need variety in age, perspectives, industry background. And then part of our role as moderator ties to knowing their backgrounds well and what they love to talk about — and what they feel no interest on speaking on as well.
If I’m hostess with the mostess (my metaphor for myself as moderator) then I’m duty bound to know my guests, ensure I seat them “well” together, know their dislikes and aversions, and let the magic occur between them. In panels, we can apply these same tactics by ensuring they’re comfortable, but challenged and stretched a little, too. It is a social event, after all. And a shared learning one too. Consult with them prior to learn which topics if any stay off limits or beyond their expertise (especially true if you’ve shared learnings and experiences.)
On the industry trends, going in with a handful of data points can empower you and the panelists. Use them as fodder to engage and gather a helpful range vs. similar numbers saying them the same thing.
Have 5–7 questions pre-prepared; and ask them
For panels, I suggest having a handful of pre-prepared questions either you curate or you inherit from the organizers. Ensure if you have inherited the questions they fulfill all that a great question must fulfill:
- Open-ended (so you don’t gain a yes or no response)
- Thoughtful and curious with why, how, for what reason kind of approaches
- Specific and focused vs broad and vague. Effective moderators ask questions that become helpful for your panelist to answer — and broaden the conversation and topic for your audience. Try honing in with tactics like: What’s the most outrageous thing you’ve noticed when it comes to X? Or if you had to cite three obstacles getting in our way, what comes up as your top three?
- Not-loaded. Non-weaponizing. Resist asking panelists questions aligning with our point of view and vantage point. That’s steering vs. moderating. Stay neutral, unbiased, and without agenda. If we want to weigh in with our own two cents, do so; but not through engineered questions. Your audience and panel will see through it.
- Personalized. While you are the moderator vs the guest, you can still weave in elements of your own experience to help humanize you to both the audience and the experts you quiz. If you’re hosting a panel on career growth, briefly share your own blockers on advancing and ask the expert(s) which ones have stumped them — or new ones.
Apply active listening skills to notice and add depth
Many moderators miss a vital skill that coaches learn in depth when training with the International Coaching Federation and that can help improve our skills as business communicators too: Listen actively. By that I mean listen with all your senses, hone in on each panelist — even the audience, and share what you notice.
To illustrate, if we actively listen vs. listen in other ways (how we all mostly listen), like directive listening, narcissistic listening, or partial listening, we miss an opportunity to:
- Pick up and notice repeated word choice
- Notice how our panelists say things and the emotions behind their words
- Pick up what has not been said (despite us expecting to hear that insight) and with no judgment nor bias…
- Get inquisitive and curious
- Read body language like leaning in, smiling, nodding of heads — even looking up and away (in which case, you can say fondly, X, we’ve lost you. Where did we lose you?)
If we can listen actively as a moderator, we can also:
- Pick up what language the panelist lays down and braid it into a question. E.G. A panelist might say: “It’s really hard in this environment to do X…” You as the moderator might say: “What about X makes it so hard?” Or…
- Draw wisdom and insights through opposites. In that same example, you might say: “You say X is hard because of Y and Z. What are three new ways of doing things that might make X easy?”
- Notice inflection and other vocal patterns. Get curious once more, with blameless discernment. If someone ends a statement on an upnote vs. down note and has completed all they have to say, the upspeak signals uncertainty or doubt. You can gently ask: “Do you think X? Or might it be something else?”
Loop in and elevate the quieter ones
Panels draw all personalities — both introverts and extroverts and bold thinkers and more contemplative ones. Ensure (as you moderate) you notice those you’ve not heard from and whilst you do your best to evenly spread the questions, notice those who say very little and stay overly succinct. Do the same with your audience.
Without cold calling, perhaps you can notice once more: “X, we’ve not heard from you recently; but I see you nodding. What’s coming to you, if anything at all?”
In that same example, remind them gently (and briefly) why you want them to weigh in. You might add: “X. You see those patterns a lot from your vantage point at Y. What’s standing out as something unusual in this space we’re not speaking to enough?”
Stay nimble (and firm) with your audience
You want also to ensure you’ve time to hear from your audience. Be sure as you loop in those curious question bearers you delegate to your panelists to answer, even asking the question bearer to address which panelist — or the group, what they want to learn.
Worried about weaponizing questions? Know that only three types of questions exist: Clarifying ones to clarify what someone said. Curious ones to generate more depth. Or weaponizing ones to gas light someone and to prove the question bearer’s points. In the latter, stay neutral, calm, bring them back to the topic at hand, and feel comfortable with saying when something’s outside of the scope of today’s event.
You might also ensure that you fully understand the question before offering to the panelist. Ensure the question bearer’s clear, narrow enough to provide depth, and complete in their logic.
I’ve more to say here but hopefully this handful of tips and tactics can help tee off your panel in ways where you can enjoy vs. endure your esteemed role as moderator. Enjoy the spotlight and the joy that can come from a grounded, focused conversation with bright, like-minded people, like you.
Debbi Gardiner McCullough coaches and trains foreign-born leaders to become more confident, concise, and mentally fit communicators. From Wisconsin, she owns and runs Hanging Rock Coaching and coaches worldwide with BetterUp.