Category: Professional Development

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Five Tips to run Successful Virtual Meetings

World leaders across the globe have recently chaired their first ever digital government meetings. Many Managers and employees are also leading and taking part in virtual meetings via apps such as Zoom, Teams, Skype or GoToMeeting. A number of staff might be doing this for the first time or the first time in a long while.

What can you do to ensure that your next virtual meeting runs smoothly?

This article will explore 5 tips to give you more confidence to lead productive and successful virtual meetings during the new normal: 

  1. Get everyone involved

Rather like in face-to-face meetings it’s critical that people taking part in the virtual meeting should be active participants. If not, there is no reason for them to attend.

An effective way to start your virtual meetings is using a short ice-breaker activity, such as asking everyone to share something positive that happened to them in the last week.

You should also use participants names as much as possible at the start of the meeting to engage their attention. As American self-development guru Dale Carnegie once said;

“Remember that a person’s name is to that person, the sweetest and most important sound in any language.” 

  1. Check the tech works

Some of your team will have more experience than others with virtual meetings and different levels of comfort with the technology. Be sure to provide clear instructions about how to join the meeting and think of common challenges people might face so you can predict problems before they happen.

Ideally you should ask participants to test their microphone and camera in advance of the meeting to reduce the chance of wasting valuable time with technical issues when the meeting starts. 

Person In Front Of Laptop On Brown Wooden Table
Issue-free tech = issue-free virtual meeting!

  1. Have a Plan B

Technical issues are unavoidable at times, so be sure to have a back-up plan in case there are too many problems with the platform you are using to conduct your meeting. This might mean having your colleague in IT or someone technically competent on stand-by to problem-solve any technical difficulties or to switch to another communication tool if your Plan A is not working. 

  1. Keep them brief

Similar to a daily scrum in Agile working methodology, a 10-minute daily virtual huddle can sometimes be long enough for team members to understand the plan of attack for the day. If necessary, you could have one slightly longer meeting each week. Overall, it’s best to keep virtual meetings as short as possible.

  1. Use video

Always ask all participants to turn on their video during virtual meetings. While you can’t meet face-to-face for the moment, seeing a video of the people you are communicating with is the next best option. Using video also has the added bonus of making sure that everyone is paying attention as you can see their body language and facial expressions!

Photo of a Surprised Woman
Seeing body language and expressions via video is important!

Conclusion

The ability to lead both face-to-face and virtual meetings is an important soft skill in a successful Manager’s toolkit.

During your next virtual meeting on Zoom, Skype or Teams try to use these five different strategies to increase your teams’ productivity. As a result, you might also find that motivation and engagement improves!

Also consider sending your staff on a virtual training course to help them brush up their skills and improve the way they run virtual meetings.

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Ten Tips for Managing Anger and Aggressive Behaviour

At time we are all faced with people who are displaying anger and aggressive behaviour. It can be, at best, uncomfortable and, at worst frightening and potentially dangerous.

In Ten Tips for Managing Anger and Aggressive Behaviour, we’ll look at ten things that can be done when confronted with this type of behaviour to minimise the risks for all those involved.

Managing Anger and Aggressive Behaviour
Over assertive communication skills
Tip One: Be empathic and non-judgemental.

You are only seeing the output of the person displaying these behaviours. It could be that, underneath, what they are dealing with is the most important thing in the world to them.

Remember the iceberg theory. A large percentage of what drives behaviour is hidden. We should never assume we fully understand. Instead we should listen, empathise, be non-judgemental and pay attention.

Tip Two: Respect personal space.

Allowing personal space tends to decrease a person’s anxiety, can help with conflict resolution and de-escalate angry or aggressive behaviours. Try and allow at least half a metre between you and the other person. If you must enter a person’s space to provide care and attention, be sure to explain what you are going to do and why.

Tip Three: Use non-threatening, non-verbal communication.

Be mindful of your gestures, facial expressions, movements and tone of voice. Keeping your tone and body language neutral will go a long way towards defusing the situation.

Tip Four: Avoid overreacting.

Remain calm, rational and professional. Whilst you can’t always control the other person’s behaviour, you can have a direct impact on whether the situation escalates or diffuses. Pay attention to your breathing, tone of voice, body language, choice of words etc.

Tip Five: Focus on feelings.

Evidence and facts are important but it’s how a person feels that is the likely driver behind angry and aggressive behaviour. Watch and listen carefully for the person’s real message. Empathise and ask questions that show you are at least trying to understand.

Tip Six: Ignore challenging questions.

In situations where a person is displaying angry or aggressive behaviour, they might use challenging questions as a way of getting a reaction from you and, thereby, justifying, in some way, their actions. It’s very important to recognise this and avoid where possible.

Ignore the challenge but not the person. Bring their focus back to how you can work together to solve the problem.

Tip Seven: Set limits.

Give the person clear, simple and enforceable limits. Offer concise and respectful choices and point out the consequences of not respecting these. Choose words, tone and body language carefully whilst doing this.

Tip Eight: Choose wisely what you insist upon.

It’s important to be thoughtful in deciding which rules are non- negotiable and which are not. In the workplace you may have some flexibility over which rules always need to be adhered to and which are more guidance based.

Tip Nine: Allow silence for reflection.

The power of silence. Silence can be an extremely effective communication tool. Allowing a person who is displaying angry or aggressive behaviour a period where they can reflect on what is happening can often be enough to help them calm down or at least start to behave a little more rationally.

Tip Ten: Allow time for decisions.

Most of us understand, usually because we’ve learned the hard way, that making decisions during times of heightened emotion usually isn’t the best course of action. When a person is angry, or displaying aggressive behaviour, it’s important to give them time to think more clearly and, therefore, make better decisions about what to do next.

During this post we’ve focused a lot on the importance of body language when faced with a person showing angry or aggressive behaviour. Enjoy this short video which provides more information on the subject.

Further Reading:

An article providing more information on how to recognise the signs of aggressive behaviour in the workplace.