When a stakeholder challenges you in front of everyone

You’re presenting your project update. The room is engaged. Then mid-presentation, that person (you know the one) pipes up.

“Have we validated this approach?” It’s phrased as a question, but everyone hears the implication. The energy shifts. Suddenly, you’re not presenting – you’re defending.

Being challenged in a meeting isn’t the problem: it happens to even the most accomplished project managers. Being challenged in a way that undermines your authority? That requires a different response.

The goal isn’t to keep your composure. It’s to maintain your credibility while addressing the concern, without appearing defensive. Here’s the framework.

Keep your composure

No matter the situation, getting snappy is never the right solution at work. It makes you look insecure and will plant seeds of doubt that maybe you don’t know what you’re doing.

Don’t let undermining comments knock your confidence – that’s exactly what they aim to do, so don’t give them the satisfaction.

Acknowledge, validate and continue

When you’re leading a meeting, it’s your responsibility to ensure that things stay on track.

So you’re well within your rights – in fact, being an excellent leader – to acknowledge the question, share the answer if you have it, or reassure that you’ll share some more information with them later, and keep the meeting on track.

It’s literally what the phrase “let’s take this offline” was made for.

Maintain your authority – this is your meeting.

Set expectations and boundaries at the start of the meeting

And for the love of matcha, create a meeting agenda!

One of my best strategies for ensuring that meetings stay on track is setting expectations at the very beginning. Honestly, it’s a tiny detail but it goes a long way.

A simple “in this meeting we’ll be discussing xyz, to ensure that we stay on track let’s keep questions until the end and avoid topics that are unrelated to the topic – I’m sure we all have lots to get back to and don’t want the meeting to overrun.

It’s important to remember that when you’re leading a meeting, you don’t need to ask for permission to lead, and I think that’s something we often forget.

When you set the tone immediately and appear calm, confident and competent, it actually reduces the likelihood of stakeholders trying to undermine you, because they can’t sniff out a weak spot.

Be prepared, channel your inner confident queen and embody the leader you are.