Forbes magazine has supplied business leaders with three phrases designed to stop rambling questions from delaying or hijacking meetings. The advice aims to help keep discussions on track without causing embarrassment to those asking lengthy questions.
One suggested phrase involves redirecting a tangent by saying, "Let me pause you there. That’s worth discussing, but it’s more than we can cover here … Send me the rest, and I’ll follow up after the meeting." Another technique is to close a question that has already been answered, with the suggested phrase: "We covered that earlier, so I’m going to keep us moving."
The third phrase offered by Forbes is to give the floor to someone else, stating, "I want to make sure we hear from people who haven’t spoken yet. Let’s take the next question from someone new."