With so many people now working remotely, it is an excellent time to review some best practices for navigating virtual meetings. Pump up your professionalism with some of the pointers below.
Establish an agenda
When holding a meeting, it is essential to define your goals for the meeting clearly. Have an agenda and stick to it. If other topics crop up, table them quickly and make yourself a note to add them to an upcoming agenda. Plan your virtual meeting just as you would plan an in-person meeting. You will be more effective and likely to accomplish your goals with a clear meeting agenda.
Asking your attendees for input before the meeting will help keep them engaged and help ensure the meeting accomplishes your goals and fulfills their needs. Ask your participants what topics they would like covered and what questions they may have. Once you have input from your meeting participants, you can review and decide which items to include in your upcoming meeting, which to table for a later meeting, and possibly even what items should be addressed more effectively one on one.
Send your meeting agenda and any additional reading material to participants well before the scheduled meeting. This will help keep the meeting on track, and it helps your participants know both the purpose of the meeting and how they can contribute. Then, once the meeting starts, let everyone know the best way to participate, such as questions and comments in the chat function, designating a time for each attendee to speak, or having them use the ‘raise a hand’ feature. The more they know how best to get involved, the more they will participate.
Keep it brief
Research suggests that in the first 15 minutes of any meeting, about 91% of attendees are actively engaged. It drops to about 84% in the second 15 minutes and decreases dramatically, suggesting that the shorter the meeting, the more effective.
Control the meeting, follow the agenda, and redirect attendees as needed. Figure out your technology before the meeting. If you need to screen share, make sure you know how to do that before the meeting. If you need additional information on a topic, do the research before the meeting. If you are going to reference another website or app, know the name and location before the meeting. Be as prepared as possible. No one wants to sit in a meeting while the host figures out their website references or how they came up with that calculation or works through how to resolve a problem. Keep your attendees engaged and participating. For example, suppose you find your virtual meetings only regularly address one or two participants or departments. In that case, it is time to rethink your participant list and ensure the agenda matches the participants’ needs.
Use a desktop or laptop
Only use your cell phone as a last resort for virtual meetings. Why? Most meeting apps are designed for desktops with greater bandwidth, giving you better image and sound quality. It will also be easier to navigate the desktop or laptop version of the program. Better sound and image quality and more straightforward navigation are a plus!
Desktops or laptops also provide the ability to be more hands-free. Not only is this a more physically comfortable option, but it keeps your hands free in the event you need to take notes.
Look at the camera when speaking
Eye contact is essential in person, and so is looking at your camera. Your device camera should be your focal point when you are speaking. Watch yourself during your next meeting; If you are looking at the person’s face, you can see that your eyes appear to be looking down vs. directly at the person. We need to remember that the camera is at a higher focal point than the eyes of the person we are speaking with. Look at the camera when you are speaking and look at the person on screen when they are speaking.
Looking at the camera when you are speaking gives the impression that you are making direct eye contact. This is hugely important in all types of communication. Good eye contact helps improve understanding and helps build respect. Additionally, good eye contact helps others retain what you said.
Find a quiet space
You wouldn’t bring your pet, kid, TV, or your noisy neighbor to meetings in the office, so don’t bring them to a virtual meeting either. Headphones help, and the mute button can be a lifesaver too.
Whenever possible, have a neutral background. Yes, those virtual meeting backgrounds are fun, but they can be distracting, so try setting up a neutral background or using the blur feature if available.
Dress for work
Comfort is key to working remotely, but retaining an image of professionalism in your appearance is still important. Continue to look professional in front of your colleagues and yourself; If you wouldn’t wear it to an in-person meeting, do not wear it to a virtual meeting.
Be welcoming
Greet everyone in the meeting and introduce any newcomers or unfamiliar faces. If you were meeting in person, you would greet everyone as they walked in the door. Greeting everyone who enters the meeting also has the added benefit of boosting morale, as it makes people feel seen and heard. We all need to feel seen, heard, and appreciated, especially as we navigate this new remote work landscape. Greeting people is polite and shows respect, plus it helps you make eye contact with each participant. Just remember to look directly at the camera as you greet each person.
Silence notifications and be present
Yes, even on your desktop or laptop, turn off the notification when you attend meetings. Turn off your cell phone ringer and any cell phone notifications too. Notifications are both visual and audio distractions. Additionally, if you are hosting and screen sharing, do you want all your texts, emails, and other notifications visible to everyone?
Have you ever attended an in-person meeting where someone was busy and focused on something other than the actual meeting? It is obvious when that happens, but virtual meetings are different. It isn’t always apparent to the other attendees if you are multitasking but be professional and give the virtual meeting your complete focus and attention, as you would for an in-person meeting.
Use meetings to take action
Follow your agenda and set action items as you progress through the meeting—delegate tasks as needed and clarify who is expected to complete what action item. Follow up with a written meeting summary that lists the action items and who is responsible for each with clear follow-up timelines or due dates. Virtual meetings should be no different from in-person meetings in this respect. When planning for a meeting, consider if the meeting could instead be an email or a quick phone call instead of an hour-long conference.
