Improve Your Virtual Meetings

With more people working remotely, companies will become more reliant on virtual meetings.

Since 2010, businesses have increasingly embraced remote meetings: “Person-to-person” phone calls became conference calls, and in-person meetings transformed into video meetings. COVID-19 accelerated the trend toward virtual interaction. Video conferencing is now ubiquitous. The pandemic highlights why workers who seek career advancement and businesses that want to remain viable need to learn to use this technology.

Advances in technology parallel the increase in audio and video conferences. Back when downloading an image from the internet took almost half a minute, no accessible technology offered an effective means of linking numerous people via video. Today’s greater bandwidth supports many such activities.

“One silver lining is that…[coronavirus] started a trend of making home-work arrangements that probably will never fully reverse.”

Virtual meetings have increased due to the growing number of freelancers and “digital nomads” who earn their living primarily via the internet. Because these people can work thousands of miles away from your company’s office, in-person meetings are rare. The ability to use the best talent, wherever it might be, saves businesses money, and working online broadens freelancers’ opportunities.

Having your staff work from home saves money and cuts attrition rates in half.

For businesses, relying on an off-site freelance staff means be able to choose from a larger pool of talent. You can select freelancers for specific projects at less cost. Businesses spend less on office space when they employ remote workers. Even having half of your full-time staff members working from home will result in significant savings.

Freelancers, likewise, enjoy financial benefits. They can serve global clients while living in areas with a lower cost of living. Although freelancers face the initial cost of buying the equipment a virtual office requires, they can save on commuting and other work-related expenses. Working from home also helps with staff retention. Forbes reports that more than 80% of employees would like to work from home. Workers often have better morale when they don’t have to commute to work or deal with office commotion.

Companies need to define virtual meeting guidelines.

Some leaders like in-person meetings whenever possible, but others prefer virtual meetings. Whatever your company’s inclination, define your virtual meeting guidelines. Clarify whether meetings will occur via audio or video, where people can be during the meetings, and who will generate the agenda and take notes.

Business leaders can encourage virtual meetings by supporting them above in-person sessions and by being “fully-engaged and energetic” in audio or video conferences. Leaders should provide staff members with the resources they need to work at home. This may include paying for cell phone service. You may also need to invest in conference technology for your office.

“There is no bigger killer of the virtual meeting movement than a platform that doesn’t work for your people.”

People working from home can face difficult distractions. When working remotely, find a place to work that helps you focus and gives you a sense of routine. Working from a coffee shop doesn’t count as working from home. Such places are full of distractions. The background noise will affect your business calls or virtual meetings.

If you need a comfortable chair or ergonomic aids, get them. Being uncomfortable sitting in front of the computer will affect the quality of your work. Consider the visual impact of your desk. A standing desk allows you to move more easily in a virtual meeting and may look more natural.

Creating a functional home office starts with a robust internet connection. Quality video connections require about 1 megabits-per-second bandwidth. Running at 1.5 Mbps is even better. Upgrade your connection to these speeds, if necessary. If your equipment or connection proves insufficient, you will appear unprofessional.

Will noise from your children or pets will affect your calls? Find a place to work where loud sounds are not an issue. Create a routine. Start work at the same time every day and make sure you meet your deadlines and reach your goals. Consider dressing for the day as if you were going to the office. Wearing more formal clothes results in heightened productivity.

Preparation, a pleasant “phone voice” and proper phone etiquette will improve the quality of your conference calls.

When you are getting ready for a conference call, make sure you are in a quiet place, without background noise. The sensitivity of current technology means it will relay more noise than you think. If you have an old computer, don’t use the audio on it. With people possibly in different time zones, midday is the best time for conference calls. Limit single-topic meetings to 15 minutes. Even in-depth discussions should last no more than 45 minutes.

As with in-person meetings, send out any materials attendees need to read prior to the meeting. Agendas are always important, and they turn out to be even more so on conference calls. The agenda helps people prepare, generate questions or consider issues pertaining to the meeting’s subject matter. Put time limits on each agenda item. Keep in mind that clients may not have read your prepared materials and adjust your presentation accordingly. Creating and providing an executive summary of the pre-conference material can help.

“Navigate through the call like the emcee of a talk show, and make it easy for people to follow.”

Because attendees can’t see your body language, your voice becomes much more important as you relay information. Radio hosts often exaggerate the pitch and pace of their voices because it helps others better understand them. Create a “phone voice” to increase your vocal range and experiment with speaking faster or slower. Helpful conference call etiquette includes having the host introduce him or herself and others on the call, asking people to mute their phones when they aren’t speaking, and not multitasking while on the call.

To shine in video conferences, make your presence more professional.

Video meetings often feel less impersonal than conference calls and, thus, can allow people to more easily build relationships. Preparing for video meetings is, in many ways, similar to getting ready for conference calls, but video calls have additional technical and presentation elements to consider. If you are hosting a video meeting, sign in early and define the meeting guidelines. When the video conference is done, close the meeting application quickly.

Make sure your internet connection can support hosting or attending a video meeting, both of which require significantly more bandwidth than a conference call. Video equipment varies, but you need high-quality capability that doesn’t create a “lag” during your meeting. Most current tablets and laptops come with suitable cameras. In case of a technical issue, using your phone for audio is usually better that using the mic in your computer. Always test your equipment at the start of the day and between meetings. You can test your internet speed using free online software.

“The distraction factor of poor video equipment or bad bandwidth is huge.”

Learn all you can about the video conferencing software you will be using. For example, Zoom allows you to turn off the video during a meeting if you need to briefly vanish.

Unlike a voice-only conference call, a video call requires you to present yourself visually as a professional. Sit or stand in front of a “plain and professional” background. If you’re not content with your real-world background, many applications allow you to create a virtual backdrop. The people on the video call will see the workspace between you and your computer camera, so make sure that area is free of clutter. Anything moving in the video frame, whether your arm or a ceiling fan, could affect the clarity of the video. During the meeting, gaze into the computer camera.

Choose solid-colored clothes in neutral tones, such as grays or blues. Black and white clothes or clothes with busy designs don’t present well on video. For men, stubble is more visible in videos than in person. Zoom has an “Improve my Appearance” feature in the Video Settings tab that softens the look of your skin and skin tone.

Lighting can also improve how you look online. Natural light is best. If possible, face a window. Try to have a window or light at your side as well. The camera should sit at eye-level, not below it. You can invest in a laptop stand to elevate your computer to eye-level or use books to prop it up.

Take a note from TV news anchors and keep your eyes on the camera. Copy how they speak, move and communicate non-verbally with their viewers. While smiling is important, telling jokes is not a good idea.

Practice will help you improve your virtual meeting skills.

Being a better presenter in virtual meetings takes only one thing: practice. If you work on your performance, you will improve. Make sure you prepare for virtual meetings. This doesn’t mean gather yourself five minutes before it starts. Well before the meeting, create an opening statement that will seize people’s attention. Define the points you want to make and the transitions between them. If you are using a video conferencing application, make sure you know what features it offers and how to use them.

Experiment with your delivery style and your virtual meeting set-up. For example, author John Arthur uses two computer monitors, side by side: One shows the attendees of a meeting, while the other one displays his agenda. When he needs to move to the next point, he can see it easily. Using a notepad on your desk is less intrusive than typing on your computer during a meeting.

Your voice is important on a conference call and in a video meeting, but words are only a small portion of how you communicate. Your tone of voice and your body language are even more important.

Learn to use your breathing to support your voice quality. Singers employ breathing techniques to enhance their range and volume. Find a “voice timbre” within your natural range that produces a clear and strong sound. Learn to play with vocal range so you don’t speak in a monotone. What might strike you as excessive expression might prove engaging to those in an audio or video meeting.

“Voice tone is underrated as a communication technique.”

Make a video of yourself speaking, as all top-tier public speakers do. You may find, upon reviewing the footage, that a speech you thought was engaging comes across as boring. Many video software applications offer a “test meeting area” where you can run through your presentation. Some allow you to record your meetings. No matter how you practice, repetition is important. Your presentations will improve as you become increasingly familiar with virtual meetings, their technological requirements and your material.

If you get nervous before a meeting, try a breathing exercise. Breathe in for four seconds, hold for seven seconds and exhale for eight. Repeat this three times; it will help you relax. Take several deep breaths and exhale deeply prior to starting the meeting. Preparation will reduce your anxiety.

You can handle “Zoom fatigue” and get ahead of the pack.

The emphasis on virtual meetings during the COVID-19 pandemic has led to “Zoom fatigue.” It takes more effort to conduct video meetings than in-person ones. In a video meeting, you end up looking at yourself most of the time, which is not something you usually do. You don’t gain the input from people’s body language or facial expressions that you would garner during an in-person meeting. That means you have to concentrate more. Although you are not interacting with colleagues in the same way, The Wall Street Journal reports that you are probably interacting with more people than usual.

“The number of interactive commitments increases, which can be tiring even for an extrovert.”

To deal with fatigue, acknowledge that it exists. Build in breaks between meetings. If your counterparts permit, change a video call into a conference call. If you are in a long video meeting, feel free to stop the video for a minute or two and move around. Purchasing a standing desk or a larger monitor may help alleviate Zoom fatigue.

How We Can Help You

At Bentley Moore Executive, we have specialists with excellent commercial experience in transformation, service delivery, cost savings, cost containment initiatives, as well as operational efficiencies gained operating in the public, private and charity sectors.

If you want to know more or wish to engage us to have a consultation on sustainable cost savings for your business or organisation, please do feel to contact us.

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About the Author

Executive John Arthur also wrote Manage Your New Career: Learn Quickly, Avoid Pitfalls and Start Your Career With Momentum.