8 Habits That Are Ruining Your Remote Meetings
Video meetings are an effective tool for organizing and getting your work done: they provide comfort, speed, and save resources. But online conferences require some preparation because they are different from on-site meetings. What can you do wrong and what should you avoid when hosting or participating in a remote business meeting?
Virtual meetings and their place in the modern business world
Videoconferencing has taken a significant place in the niche of remote communication. More and more people are turning their attention to the facilities provided by video conferencing software. More precisely, these tools help to save time, provide more opportunities for recruitment and employment, organize any events, etc. But this result can still be eliminated by the human factor - inattentive attitude.
Virtual meeting etiquette: why is it effective for video calls?
Online meetings require special behavior and preparation. Just like you look groomed and kitted out in the office, you should prepare for a video call. Thus, online meeting etiquette exists to ensure better communication and relationship building. The way a person observes it testifies to his attentiveness, attentiveness, respect and professionalism.
Imagine people in an office walking around with black bags over their heads, throwing papers around, and calling project meetings to say they got their computer turned on. It seems like an exaggeration, but the lack of hangout etiquette seems just as clumsy and inadequate. But when people follow the rules, it helps keep the whole team organized and productive. If so, it generates a growing respect and friendly atmosphere among professionals, which always improves the workflow.
Bad habits that ruin remote meetings
When calling for a meeting, you must keep a few things in mind to avoid misunderstandings, confusion, and interruptions of any kind. If you skip this, you will end up with an ineffective meeting that will waste time and not be productive. The following habits cause a bad conference call:
- lack of an agenda - without a plan, you quickly lose the line of discussion and you can forget about important issues that need to be addressed;
- forgetting to turn off the sound – background noise or keyboard tapping interrupts and annoys participants;
- passive listening - by this you show disrespect and miss important points that the person is talking about;
- multitasking - this confuses the whole team, and as a result you get even worse than if you worked more slowly but consistently;
- leaving the camera turned off - questions arise about your presence and attentiveness (why talk if no one is listening?);
- lack of process - passive and sluggish meetings are unproductive;
- a booking group is useless - if you ask for an online meeting, you have a lot to say;
- low engagement - when only one person is speaking or there are long pauses when nothing is happening, know that this is an ineffective speech
Pay attention to these points to avoid and your work will be much better.
Companies make extensive use of videoconferencing, but people need to learn etiquette for themselves. Most of these rules are purely logical, others are software and device specific. But if you take into account the main ones, your teamwork will improve significantly.