Online or virtual meetings have become an important part of this work culture in this new era of remote working. However convenient the meetings may be, they can never give you the same experience as an in-person meeting. After working on-site and attending meetings personally, we know how the meetings work, and we think the virtual meetings would function the same way. However, the very nature of virtual meetings is different, as we have to approach them with a completely different mindset.
With the changing work culture, virtual meetings will be sticking around for a long time now, and so we have to treat them differently from those boring in-person meetings. Some habits help you be excited and motivated to attend online meetings.
1. Re-imagine Your Role as Moderator
People who have been used to leading meetings might find themselves risking their positions, as in a virtual meeting, the role of a leader is to ensure everyone attending the meeting is given equal attention and time to talk. A leader has to schedule a plan before the meeting begins, share the agenda of the meeting, give tasks, and share ideas.
If it’s hard to balance these two jobs, someone else can help as a guide. This person will follow the plan and ensure everyone gets a chance to talk reasonably while still knowing who is in charge.
2. Pretend Your Screen is a Picture Frame
Often, people have a habit of seeing themselves on the screen during a video call or a virtual meeting. However, this seems completely unprofessional during the meetings. To avoid such a situation, you must not look at your video; instead, look into the camera while it is your turn to speak. Your head and the top end of the shoulders should be visible on the screen.
People who work on TV also use this trick while doing their part, no matter how weird it feels.
3. Balance Control with Organization
What does being organized mean to you? Well, it means that you must always plan your day and meetings ahead of time. Always keep the necessary files and documents handy as this will help you to save time in looking for topics. Online meetings can be more relaxing if you plan everything in advance, including short breaks if the meeting is going to take long.
If you want to keep control over the meeting, you must be really clear when you hand out tasks to your team. You should tell them what exactly you are expecting from the meetings, including the end results.
4. Prioritize Follow Up
Having a follow-up after the meeting is very important as it assures that the task has been completed successfully. Always remember to talk to your team members after the meeting and check with them if they have understood the agenda and if they are working on the tasks assigned to them.
The schedule you made during the meeting can tell you when to follow back with your team or your client. If you’re a leader, be ready to help more, even in different ways. When you give a follow-up call, it will also help you determine and address any new concerns and help your team solve them. It would also establish the point that you are interested in helping them and are not simply burdening them with work that might be confusing for your team members.
5. Does Everyone Need to be Here?
While you are planning a schedule and agenda for the team meetings, there is one additional task that you need to accomplish. This is to see if every name on the list is meant and important to be at the meeting if you find anyone who could be occupied with another important task.
This helps you save the time of your employees and give people more talk time in the meeting; once you have rectified the list, make sure you invite people who really need to attend the meeting. Those who wanted to attend the meeting but could not attend may watch a recorded version. Let your team watch the meeting when they want shows how musyou trust them and lets them plan their time better.
6. Opportunity to Try New Things
When you start attending virtual meetings, you start to identify the loopholes and errors that can be fixed for the next meeting.
Onile meetings can be very challenging at times, some may experience voice issues, less talk time, unfinished agendas, or too many interruptions. What you can do is always note down the issues faced during every meeting., Once you start planning a new one, you start by working out a plan to rectify the errors. For example, in the last meeting, there were too many interruptions by a few people; so before you begin the next meeting, ensure to tell those employees to keep their questions ready for another time and not interrupt the speaker.