Unmute Yourself (You’re Muted)

You would think that after more than a year of the world working from home, we would have a better handle on how to use the mute button. This last year and even now, more people are meeting online than ever before. In years past, you may have had 1 to 4 people joining from afar, but the main contingent was gathered in a conference room. Now everyone is joining online. You definitely loose the ability to start up conversations, and even though tools exist to whiteboard online, it is challenging at best.

One thing I noticed is how many people don’t turn their cameras on. It may be insecurity or simply that they didn’t want to change out of their pj’s, whatever the reason, it changes the way people see you (or don’t see you) and especially the way they hear you. People tend to focus on what their eyes see. Ears play a secondary role to eyes when it comes to hearing. I would imagine this is somewhat different for people with no sight, but it is very true for people who have vision. It is said that deaf people read faster than people with hearing, as their eyes naturally take in more information to make up the difference of hearing loss. This is just another way to understand how vision is so important to the way we hear.

When I started writing this article, I was thinking of comparing the different primary and secondary cause and effects of how we are becoming less heard due to technology. I touch on this topic in my article, Water Fountains, Smoking, and Working From Home, but as I thought more of it, I realized it is not technology that is muting us, it is ourselves.

We are constantly fighting for attention and placement as we navigate through a seemingly purpose filled trajectory. I discuss the increasingly competitive nature of employment in the article, Navigating Scale in a Competitive Workforce, however, as we look to be heard and to be understood, we naturally fall into spaces others rule over. We are territorial by nature and even though civilization has calmed us down through time, we secretly want to roar out in a selfish act to ensure that we too are heard.

The key is not to suppress these instincts, but to embrace them and to strategically utilize them to your advantage. Predictability can lead to complacency. Complacency makes people ignore good qualities and normalizes them, which reduces the perceived effort and decreases overall value. It’s kind of like a person that tells the the same joke over and over. It might be their best one, and it might even be funny enough to make you pee a little, but told more than once or twice, and you start wishing you were deaf.

There are so many ways to write this article. How sometimes we need to be muted, and shut out everyone else. How our voices are not heard and how to break through the noise. Or maybe reviews of microphones and cameras on how to increase the quality and clarity of your presence. At the end of the day, I have come to conclusion that if we treat our virtual experience much like our physical one, we have a much better shot at getting results that are instant and meaningful.

Here are a few tips to get noticed and to let your voice be heard in virtual meetings.

(1) Give People Something to Look At

People listen with their eyes and their ears, give them something to focus on, other than a black square or a photo, and you will be louder without having to raise your voice. If you were in a meeting in person, it would be rude to not look at a person when they are talking. This technique allows you to tap into this natural habit of a person giving another person respect of attention. Additionally, people love to compare themselves to others. If you are on camera, chances are people will pay more attention to you, then being distracted by a million other things.

(2) Reduce Distractions

Use two monitors or arrange your windows to see more. If you are on a call and are taking notes, presenting, and everything else, make sure you designate space. This will allow you to communicate more concisely and to be more productive, which will translate to better reception, understanding, and feedback. You could even use apps like Fireflies to help with note taking. The less distracted you are, the more receptive your audience will be.

(3) Ensure You are Clear While Providing Clarity

I am not making this article about product reviews or the best 5 microphones for online meetings, but if you expect to be heard, you need to make sure people can hear you. It’s the age old question of; If a tree fell in the woods and no one was around to hear it, did it make a sound? Get a good microphone.

I am going to group this tip with network connection, as in most cases, the default computer has a descent enough mic and people tend to struggle with connection signal more so than the microphone, however, if you have a mic with good noise cancellation and frequency response, you will be able to cut through the noise in a meeting and be noticed. If people are only hearing every other word or the audio quality is poor, it doesn’t matter how clear you articulate your message.

(4) Know the Tool

I can’t tell you how many times someone logs on to meeting and is not familiar with the application. To me, it’s the same as someone getting in the drivers seat of car and expecting to know where everything is. Sure there are some areas that are the same; steering wheel, gas pedal, brakes, signal, but you may not know where the wind shield wipers are or which side the gas tank is on. Or maybe you don’t know how to use the mute button. All in all, you need to have a descent understanding of how to navigate or use the tool for the task at hand.

(5) Add Value

If all you ever do is talk and never listen, the only thing you will learn is what you tell yourself. Make sure you are engaged, ask questions, and always add value. People may not respond to a lot of things, and it may feel like you are not seen or heard, but adding value to your team, meeting attendees, clients, etc. will always pay off and ensure you don’t stay muted for long.

Complacency makes people ignore good qualities and normalizes them, which reduces the perceived effort and decreases overall value.

Whether you are muted because you forgot to press the button or because you are not being noticed, you can change this by working the above tips into your online meetings and to make an effort to becoming a voice that people want to hear.

These are great tips to reference and add to your list. In summary, simply remember to do the following. Ask yourself, am I being heard, am I being clear, am I being understood, am I adding value?