A moderator preparing to interview Elon Musk crowdsourced questions from energy experts, then found their assumptions challenged when Musk offered them water. The most valuable trait for any moderator, across any interview, is genuine curiosity.
If you had the opportunity to sit down with Elon Musk for half an hour, what would you ask? So I got about 6 weeks notice that I was going to be interviewing him on stage in front of thousands of the top global energy experts, right? I used to work in the energy space, so I called up 10 of my energy friends, people who looked like the people who were going to be in the audience, and said, if you had the opportunity to sit down with Elon Musk for half an hour, What would you ask? What would you want to know? And I went on LinkedIn and I crowdsourced it.
How much did you have to lead, or did it head off in all sorts of different directions? I can't imagine he's a straightforward person to, to interview.
He took me unawares. Anybody who's interviewed big names will know they kind of think that they're the main guy, right? And you, the moderator, are not terribly important.
Yeah.
And he completely took me unawares. He sat down on stage and he looked at me and he picked up the jug of water between us and he said, would you like some water?
Interesting.
Little thing, right? But what it told me is that my preconceptions about this kind of arrogant, egotistical, self-centered, narcissistic, any of the words that is what you see in the media, wasn't 100% true. The reason that's important is it completely shook my, you know what, I don't know this man. I've done a whole load of prep, but I do not know this man. And the curiosity came back of like, okay, I need to learn something from him. I think if there is one characteristic that serves a moderator well, it's curiosity. So when I get up on stage with, whether it's, you know, the Elon Musks and the Vladimir Zelenskys of the world, or it's a panel of young leaders who most people haven't heard of. Probably the most valuable characteristic that I think you bring to the table is curiosity. In the end, I'm just interested, right?
The Skill That Helps You Connect With Any Audience with Michelle Mills-Porter
What Moderating World Leaders Taught Me About Great Communication with Xenia Wickett
