Top 3 Tips To Be Ready for ZOOM Business Meetings
Senia Maymin, PhD
Chief People Officer | Stanford PhD | Data-driven, ROI-focused, people-first leader | Board Presentations, HR Strategy, M&A, Employee Life Cycle
Ready to hop on a business Zoom meeting? You have an interview over Zoom? Here's a short checklist to get ready to look and sound your best. The rest is up to you to ace the meeting!
To watch, click here or play the embedded video below.
This checklist is for setting up your office for Zoom meetings. There are three things to set up: water, what you look like on the screen, and your equipment.
1) Water
- Have cold water within reach.
Optional items:
- Have tea/coffee if you like warm drinks. “I always have a glass of hot water like tea. Why? Because you're going to get parched, especially if you're the one who's doing most of the speaking. You don't want to be leaving a Zoom webinar to run into your kitchen.”
- Have a cough drop just in case.
- Have tissues nearby just in case.
2) YOU on the screen
- What You Look Like
- Background: CHOICE A: a blank wall - face your computer towards you with only a blank wall as a background. You can get a room divider as background - especially if you’re working from a room that doubles as living space that you don’t want on camera. CHOICE B: one item on each side of your head. One picture on each side. A plant on one side and a bookcase on the other. A plant and a painting. Why? Something that adds texture to either side of your head looks comfortable to the viewer. If there’s something behind you like a bookcase, make sure nothing is coming out of the top of your head; make sure the bookcase is consistent across and behind you. (I don’t recommend a virtual background for business calls - your arms keep disappearing when you gesture. If you want to come across as authentic, a virtual background can feel a bit distancing.)
- How You Appear
- Head and shoulders in the frame. Not too close so we see only your face, not too far away so we see a lot of the room.
- How much space should be above your head? Almost no space between the top of your head and the top of the frame. Err towards the top of your head being near the top of the frame rather than a lot of space over your head.
- Should the camera look up, down, or exactly at you? The camera should be at eye level for you. if you’re on a laptop, put some books below it.
- Should you look at the camera or onto the screen where the person appears? If you are having a 1:1 conversation, look at the person - it’s ok that your eyes look down to their face on your screen. You’re authentic - you’re having a real conversation. If you are presenting a webinar, look directly at the camera.
3) Your Equipment - Lights, Video, Audio
- Lights
- Best option - you are facing a window and you get direct natural light.
- Next best option - a ring light like this one on the side of your computer, shining on you nearly head-on, but from the side.
2. Video
- Your computer’s camera is likely ok.
- Since we’re on Zoom a lot, consider the Logitech Brio (also available at the Logitech site - Logitech is a client of ours) or a similar camera - the difference in what it looks like is significant. There are also many settings that you can adjust.
3. Audio
- Make sure that people can hear you. The first question I ask is, "Can you see and hear me well?”
- If your Internet connection is not stable, keep the video on Zoom, but CALL IN with your phone - then at least your phone connection will likely remain stable even if Zoom freezes.
I'll end with a story. Let's say Susie wakes up and she has a video call in 10 minutes. What should she do? She should log on and make sure that she can see herself and everything's fine. She should get her water glass. She should either hop in a really fast shower. Or - if she doesn’t have time - quickly put on a business top. She may consider having a big, bright sign on her door right that says, “Important call. Will be available at 11am” for the other people in the house, if any. Once she has gotten there, then she can relax. Everybody is going to have people and pets walk into their calls these days. Everybody is going to have weird things happen with video and audio. We all know this is going to happen and we're all in this together…. You already have what you need. You have water, you have video, and you have audio. You have these things, so don't stress about all this other stuff. You have what you need.
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Thanks for posting