Tell me about a presentation or talk you gave that didn't land the way you'd hoped. How did you know, and what did you do about it?
Why this works
Everyone has a rehearsed story about their best presentation; almost nobody rehearses the flop. The recovery — noticing the room, adjusting, following up honestly — is where presenting skill actually shows, and it can't be faked with delivery polish.
Follow-up probes
- What was the earliest signal it wasn't working?
- What did you change in the moment, if anything?
- How did you prepare differently for the next one?
What good looks like
A specific signal they caught — the questions, the silence, the wrong debate starting — some live adjustment or honest repair afterward, and a concrete change to how they prepare since.
Red flags
The failure is blamed on the audience or the time slot, they never noticed until someone told them, or the "flop" turns out to be a minor stumble inside an otherwise polished win.
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