And please, if you have two screens, don’t look sideways at the other screen for the entire meeting it’s very unnerving for the others! While you will lose some information at times because you’re not constantly watching the reaction of your audience, you will benefit from forming a much stronger connection with those you’re speaking to. We have yet to find a real way to emulate eye-contact in the virtual realm besides looking into the camera. While this can be a little off-putting for you and take a while to master, the effects are significant. Want to make someone feel that you’re really talking to them? Then we recommend looking into the camera, and not at the screen. Sit up, align yourself, keep your neck long and relaxed and speak with purpose. It certainly won’t help when you’re trying to rally your team or convince an important stakeholder. Think – when presenting in person you wouldn’t do so whilst casually seated. Your breathing suffers from a slumped posture, and so does your voice, but also, others will read your posture as being non-engaged, non-committed, non-motivated etc. The effects are debilitating not only for yourself, but also for others. As we’re all sitting at makeshift desks and dining tables these days, the tendency is for many to slump and, as a result, we have terrible posture while working online. Try to have alignment while you’re sitting in front of your laptop.
Here we outline five practical solutions:
So, what exactly can you do to make your virtual meetings more effective and engaging? What are some easy to apply methods to infuse yourself and others with some much-needed energy and focus for yet another video call? In our new book Leading with Presence: Fundamental Tools and Insights for Impactful, Engaging Leadership, besides extensively focusing on Presence, the book also identifies a number of ways in which you can help to prevent the dreaded Zoom fatigue and re-energize your online meetings. Unless the light suddenly changes or we see furtive glances from participants, we have no idea what they’re doing or looking at, and if they’re really paying attention to the presentation we’re giving. As the speaker leading the meeting it can be particularly disconcerting. Once that happens it’s all too easy to lose the thread of the discussion going on around you. Those delightful plings and chimes that accompany a new text, email or twitter alert cry for our attention, and most of us are only too willing to give it its due, quickly looking away from the camera to a second screen or a separate web page opened furtively in the corners of our screens. Multitasking: We find this, perhaps, the hardest part of online communication the temptation to look at, and respond to the many online notifications popping up in front of our faces.
We can always see ourselves, however small the screen may be, and it’s unnatural and unsettling – not to mention highly distracting.
#HOW TO CREATE A ZOOM MEETING FULL#
The Mirror: Imagine having a meeting or giving a presentation and those you’re communicating with are holding a huge mirror next to them where you can see yourself on full display? How odd and disconcerting would that be?! Well, that is exactly what is happening in our online meetings. This can be confusing and exhausting for all involved. We miss so much vital information in online meetings, that we readily have available when meeting people face-to-face, that we are unable to recognize when to change our approach to better engage others or respond effectively to those we are conversing with. It is even harder for managers whose expertise lie in running their organizations and teams, and not in analysing body language. However, as we’ve been teaching online for at least a year now, even we have noticed how hard it is to read non-verbal cues through a screen/video link.
#HOW TO CREATE A ZOOM MEETING OFFLINE#
We, as Presence practitioner experts, have been teaching Presence offline (face-to-face) for years, and can detect in mere seconds which participants are engaged, enthused, resistant, tired, confused etc. One key problem is that we’re no longer able to effectively read body language.