The Ultimate Guide To Lead Remote Meetings Better

Be Prepared

This is the primary requisite in for not only remote meetings but for every meeting. Whether online or in-person, you have to ensure previously that you have arranged your material and team updates in advance, so that the meeting would go according to plan. Ensure to explain workflow and process and try to get the feedback.

Businesses should install employee feedback software to keep managers informed of the employees’ accomplishments and the roadblocks they are experiencing. Managers should discuss all these in meetings.

Using Best Available Tools

The effectiveness of remote team meetings highly depends upon the tools you use. Different people can be comfortable with different kinds of tools, but it is to be ensured that a selective tool is set that everyone is comfortable using. Stick to that tool for further meetings also and don’t try changing tools for every meeting. A software leverage features like screen sharing and video conferencing will be a better way. Several tools would help you organize smooth meetings, and these tools include Zoom.us, Skype, Appear.in, etc. Consider that no tool is perfect. You may need to deal with several issues such as low-quality audio/video and constant disconnections and requirement of connecting several times during a meeting.

Consideration of Time Zones

If you are planning to organize a meeting, you have to consider that everyone would not be able to make it according to the time suits you. For example, if you want to organize the meeting at 6 am or 10 pm, others may be responding to family or friends’ commitments at that time. It’s even more difficult for your team members working in international locations. So, you should use a tool that can provide you with a quick overview of times worldwide. This would prevent you from commanding a rude order of meeting to your colleagues on odd timings.

Pick a Location

Conducting meeting and addressing the associates from a noisy background can make it additionally difficult to convey and receive message and purpose of the meeting. This is a common problem with virtual meetings. So, you have to be conscious of where you are and what activities are running in the background. You must ensure that you are at a location with no unusual, disturbing background sounds and activities. Also ensure that during a formal meeting, the presence of your pet can make it more problematic. The interference from domestic animals or pets would create significant restraints in the meeting progress.

Avoid Speaking Over Each Other

While working on remote locations, due to video delay or other such reasons, sometimes you will never know when someone is about to start speaking. This cause accidentally many people are speaking simultaneously. This would lead happen the most awkward moment of asking each other “you go then”. The best way to avoid such a situation from taking place is to allow someone to take the lead.

Allow Everyone to Talk

In every meeting, few people stay in to complete silence or do not say much. Sometimes, few people do not get the chance to talk also. So, being in the lead, you have to check whether they are listening or not. Involve everyone in the conversation by asking them for feedback or just asking everyone about the tasks they are given to work upon. This is the most effective way of ensuring the attention of every person in the meeting.

Encourage Casual Talks and Follow Etiquettes

Casual talks in between the conversation can enhance the meetings’ productivity. A casual talk ensures that the meeting environment stays calm and people are not getting bored with the repeated things being asked by everyone. There is some etiquette which are to be followed during remote meetings which include switching off or silent your phone and avoid taking eatables and drinks during the meeting.