We’ve all been there. You’re speaking, and you sense there’s someone in the room who is antagonistic to what you’re saying. You’ll be able to identify who they are because they’ll be looking down, they may look very serious—they will be feeling inside that they cannot look at you—almost because they’re sorry for you that your view is so wrong.

Or worse, they may be making the occasional snide interjection.

The natural instinct is to plough on and ignore them, but you actually need to draw out what their objections are. Don’t avoid them; engage with them.

Here’s how you handle it:

• Stop what you’re doing: Instead of saving your questions for the very end, pause your section right there.
• Draw them out: Ask the room, “Does anyone have any questions now? Is there anyone out there who fundamentally disagrees with me?”
• Acknowledge the challenge: They may well ask a really difficult question. If it is a really difficult question, acknowledge it as such. Say, “That is a really difficult question, and I’m going to do my best to answer it.”
• Engage and follow up: Answer the question, and then come back to them afterwards. Ask them, “Has that gone some way to answer what you were worrying about?”

Let them interact with you. The fact that you gave them the opportunity, and that you are not pretending that they’re agreeing with you, will at least get their respect and engagement back in.

Based in Leytonstone, London, UK, Julia Caddick is a dynamic Leadership Voice and Communication coach, working in person and online worldwide.