Virtual meetings are a great way to hold meetings and save you and your business valuable money and time. Thousands of companies receive great results connecting multi-pull locations around the country or world with conferencing tools.
Know when to have a virtual meeting and when to have a face-to-face meeting. There are many circumstances when not having all the participants in the same place works just fine. Catching up with your project team from time to time, or beginning to plan for a large meeting or conference are examples of meetings you can conduct without a face to face meeting. As long as you are using best practices with a clear idea of what you want to achieve, you should have a productive meeting.
Start by analyzing the purpose of the meeting and what you want to accomplish.
You may find that you need to meet face to face with a person or group for the best results.
Consider having a face-to-face meeting if you are:
- Building rapport with a significant client
- Attempting to defuse a situation that has become overly heated or contentious
- Trying to make a convincing case for someone to approve or fund your project
- Meeting with a potential or important client you want to impress
- When you are concerned about a language barrier that may cause communication difficulties
- You want to demonstrate a product or provide an exceptional level of service
- Build stronger, more meaningful business relationships
- You need to be able to read body language and facial expressions
In all of these cases, you will obtain better results if people can see you in person. Situations that are already tense can be made worse if the person you are speaking to cannot see your body language or facial expressions—for example, a light-hearted aside could be misconstrued as a derogatory remark, and cause offense.
One of the benefits of virtual meetings is that they are cost-effective. However, before you think about the virtual options open to you, think through all the implications carefully. In cases where the stakes are high, it may be worth investing in a business trip.
For instance, if you need to demonstrate physically how something works—whether it be a piece of equipment or a software package—it makes much more sense to be there in person than trying to communicate via an Internet or video connection. The other meeting participants will be able to see much more clearly what you are trying to show them, and they can also ask questions or raise issues right away, rather than taking up valuable time later with e-mails or phone calls.
The general activities of day-to-day businesses can be accomplished with web conferencing tools and produce great results.
It is all up to you and your meeting skills.
Excellent meeting skills in face-to-face meetings are still the foundation of good virtual meetings. You still need to start the meeting on time, define the meeting objectives, invite the right people, etc. If you do not have good in-person meeting skills, a teleconference meeting is not for you. Understand your limitations and work on improving your virtual meeting skills or ask a facilitator to facilitate the meeting for you. Excellent meeting skills are necessary for virtual meetings to be productive and people to pay attention and remain involved.
As the Team Leader, here are the items to have in place pre-meeting:
What venue do you want to use? (Conference call, web-based meeting, teleconference, etc.?)
There are many different ways to conduct a virtual meeting – from new, fully web-based services and traditional downloadable web meeting software, to pricey installed software systems. Many web conferencing applications now support document sharing, real-time interaction, simultaneous audio conferencing, mobile connectivity, high-definition video, and other next-gen features that make virtual meetings more like face-to-face meetings.
What technology do you need? Does everyone have it available? Does the providing company have human help if you need it?
Who are the appropriate participants and how should they be invited?
What time will the meeting be held and how do you define time if people are in different time zones?
In what language will the meeting be conducted? Will that make it difficult for some participants? What do you need to have in place to assist?
How will questions be addressed? What ground rules have been established for questions and discussion?
What materials need to be distributed and what is the best method for distribution? Do not depend only on Internet connections. In many areas of the world, these connections are not always reliable.
Once these questions have been addressed and communicated you are ready for the meeting.
During the Meeting
Call in early to make sure all equipment is in working order and ready to go. Start the meeting with a brief introduction from each participant so that everyone knows who is participating and what their connection is to the group. Keep as close as possible to the published agenda.
Simple Rules for the Meeting Leader
- Prepare and share the agenda in a timely manner
- Make sure each person knows why they are attending and what is expected of them
- Designate someone else to take notes
- Speak clearly using easily understood words and phases
- Give examples – paint visual pictures to get your point across
- Verify your understanding using good communication checks
- Recap and summarize often
- Use the round robin technique when appropriate and when you need to ensure everyone’s opinion is stated
- Use electronic tools only as necessary and not because they are fun to play with - refer to a slide number or a page number if you are using a previously sent presentation
- Ask - What questions do you have? Instead of, Are there any questions?
- Keep speakers and the meeting on point and on time
- Keep the meeting short
- Keep control of the meeting while respecting input and questions
- Summarize the meeting’s decisions and action items, assign tasks and time frames in detail and gain concurrence
Make sure the leader or facilitator is familiar with the features of the web conferencing system available solely for “leaders” of the conference; many applications allow leaders or facilitators to select speakers, control document sharing, and keep track of the meeting’s progress.
Manners for the meeting attendees:
- Do not call in on a cell phone. Cell phones go in and out of range and batteries die.
- Identify yourself when you first speak and occasionally thereafter.
- Do not play music in the background and turn your computer sounds off.
- Use proper nouns rather than pronouns. A statement such as "It's not working for them" is wide-open for interpretation.
- Do not point or gesticulate. Others cannot hear your hands moving.
- Ask questions if you do not understand something or have lost the conversation thread.
- Do not multitask. Concentrate on the virtual meeting and ignore the 10 other pressing items on your desk.
- Read the agenda and material so you have a talking knowledge of the topics
- Don’t put your phone on vibrate and then lay it on the table – leave it in your office
- Turn off your call waiting feature
- Don’t ever place a call on hold, use the mute feature – many conference calls have been interrupted by music or advertisements on hold
- Participate with professionalism – don’t make faces or talk about people
during the call
If you are an area manager or team leader, coach your team regarding good meeting etiquette and how to participate and join in the conference call.
Save Your Work
You should always choose virtual meeting software that allows you to save documents, chats, discussions, notes, whiteboard memos, and all other important content. The facilitator or leader should continually save all content both throughout the meeting and after it’s done. Make sure to save both the audio and session files, because you may want to use the meeting content again or make information/recordings/videos available to colleagues who were not able to attend the virtual meeting.
Virtual collaboration is critical to your company’s success. The right web conferencing tools will enable your employees, partners, and customers to interact and collaborate effortlessly in real time, driving innovation and bottom-line business growth.
Be Timely
Send meeting notes out in a timely manner to ensure that everyone has the same understanding of what happened and will happen next. The more helpful and inclusive you are the better results you will see form your meetings.
Thank Those Involved
When you have a meeting that was exceptionally productive and people were involved, send out handwritten notes to everyone thanking them for their participation and contributions. It will change you from a virtual person into a real person that cares and leads with skill. Your meetings will improve and the participants will enjoy your meetings more.
Do A Post-Mortem
Do a post-mortem of your conference meeting and make improvements. Learn from each meeting and improve your skills. Understand what is and is not working and the role you plan in each. Virtual meetings require a high skill level that takes practice on your part.
Improve Your Skills
I work with many professionals to improve face-to-face and virtual meeting skills.
They not only improve their skills, they feel more comfortable, have more productive meetings and happier meeting attendees.
You must be very adept and skilled to run a successful virtual meeting.
Why People Need Face to Face Meetings
To gauge how companies feel about face-to-face and virtual meetings, Forbes Insights surveyed more than 750 business executives about their meeting and travel preferences. In particular, they were asked about what types of
outcomes they expected from different meeting methods, and what they see as the chief benefits from their menu of meeting options.
In the survey, executives were asked to choose the meeting method that was most conducive to fostering a certain business action or outcome. Throughout,
executives preferred face-to-face meetings when the decision-making process was fluid, requiring the kind of give-and-take typical of complex decisions and sales. For example, respondents said face-to-face meetings are best for persuasion (91%), leadership (87%), engagement (86%), accountability (79%), and decision-making (82%).
Face-to-Face Provides Deeper Engagement
Technology can never replace the “traditional methods of dealing with people in person, as opposed to across cyberspace.”
Generally for the dissemination of data or when time was of greater concern virtual meetings can ‘get the job done’, but remote meetings fail to meet certain other expectations related to morale, recognition, and trust. This is why
technology cannot substitute for direct human interaction when it comes to
reaching consensus on important business decisions.
In addition, many executives expressed concern that attendees did not give their full attention to virtual meetings. In fact, 58% admitted that they “frequently” surf the web, check their email, read unrelated materials and handle personal matters.
When Daniel Goleman discusses Social Intelligence and Leadership he never once discusses the power of the internet. Good leaders, good sales people, good companies don’t use technology to replace people skills.
Remember, we buy from people we trust, and we only trust people that look us in the eyes.
Ellen Reddick
I am a consultant, writer, and former senior executive with more than 25 years of experience in the technology industry. I am the managing partner of Impact Factory Utah a firm that provides strategic consulting, executive coaching, and speaking services to CEOs and management
teams as well as a certified mediator and facilitator. I bring a broad base of experience in people management, sales, process improvement, customer service training, project management, mediation and facilitation.
