The conversation about how to master virtual meetings is more relevant now than ever. With the recent shift in communication technology, some of us have found ourselves scrambling to recreate the ease of in-person conversation, but to no avail. Listen in to our latest conversation with Lauren Sergy, author of Unmute: How to Master Virtual Meetings and Reclaim Your Sanity, and learn how to contend with the greatest seismic shift in business communication since the onset of email.
TAKEAWAYS
- When meeting in a virtual setting, we need to amplify our expressions and tone of voice so that the people on the other side of the screen can pick up on what we’re saying.
- Effective online facilitators are very good at keeping control of the conversation, keeping people focused, and making everyone feel like they’re part of the discussion.
- To include those who are working remotely, plan out your interactions so that you specifically invite them to speak.
- You engage people by learning how to be on camera in a manner that makes people want to watch you; it’s much more about how you signal your interest to the audience than what tools you use.
GUEST AT A GLANCE
Lauren Sergy is a sought-after speaker, coach, and expert in business communication. She is passionate about enabling teams to enjoy effective communication both in the workplace and on the remote front. Her practical insight is evident in her recent book, Unmute: How to Master Virtual Meetings and Reclaim Your Sanity.
A QUICK GLIMPSE INTO OUR PODCAST
🔊 Podcast: Transform Your Workplace, sponsored by Xenium HR
🎙️ Host: Brandon Laws
📋 In his own words: “The Transform Your Workplace podcast is your go-to source for the latest workplace trends, big ideas, and time-tested methods straight from the mouths of industry experts and respected thought-leaders.”
CONTEXTUAL COMMUNICATION
Effective communication is built on context. And whenever we’re interacting with someone, we’re picking up environmental cues from all around us. According to Lauren Sergy, all of that information — whether we realize it or not — “floods into our brains and affects how we hear them and how we interpret what they’re saying.”
After all, an in-person conversation is pretty straightforward. “You’re sitting across from the person. You can make eye contact. You can read their body language. The room that you’re sitting in and what the person is wearing provide some of the context for what to expect from the conversation and how you’re supposed to relate to them.” But as soon as you put yourself in front of a camera, all of that goes out the window.
“Now,” Lauren explained, “we’re looking at people’s environments which are different from ours. We’re looking into different rooms which throw our brains off a little. The eye contact doesn’t work in quite the same way. And we know that we’re supposed to look at the camera, but our minds want to look at the faces. So we have to make the decision to look away from our screen and up at the camera. We have to consciously bring our gestures up into where the camera can see it.”
This results in the feeling of having to “be on” for the entire meeting. Put more than one meeting back to back, and we’re exhausted by lunch. So, is there a way to relieve some of the pressure so that you can get back to communicating effectively? According to Lauren Sergy, the answers are in the details.
PODCAST EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS
Amplifying Expression and Tone
“We can’t see nearly as much nuance as we could if we were sitting in a room with them, so that can make a really big difference. What I’ve found is that what people need to do when they’re on camera is slightly amplified — what their expressions are, what their tone of voice is doing — so that it’s just that much easier for the people on the other side of the screen to pick up on what they’re saying.”
Managing the Conversation
“Effective online facilitators are very good at keeping control of the conversation, keeping people focused and on track, and making everyone feel like they’re part of it. And part of that is the performance skills. They will do things like make ‘direct eye contact.’ Their eyeballs are locked onto their camera aperture, and that has a very real effect in terms of how the people who are participating respond to you. […] That creates a much more intimate connection and can actually help people keep their attention on the screen instead of wandering off to their email.”
Engaging the Audience
“I think that a trap that we’ve fallen into is in-person speaking when talking about virtual meetings. Organizers will ask, ‘How are you planning on engaging people? What tools of engagement are you going to use?’ And then, of course, we automatically think, ‘Oh, tools. Gizmos, gadgets, apps. But you create engagement by creating something that is engaging and by learning how to be on camera in a manner that makes people want to watch you. So it’s much more about how you signal your interest to the audience than what tools you’re going to use.”
The Hybrid Issue
“Whenever you’re dealing with a hybrid situation, there is going to be that element of separation that can’t really be ignored. To include those who are working remotely, plan out the interactions so that you specifically invite them to speak. Otherwise, people who are in the room will take over. Those who are in the room together aren’t doing it deliberately. It’s just that their brain is in in-person mode. What really helps is to have a person who’s driving the meeting, running the agenda, queuing the conversation, but also a helper whose entire job it is to watch that chat box, to look for the hands being raised, to pay attention to the people on screen, and then to flag the person driving the meeting.”
Seeing the Light
“The first non-negotiable is that you need enough light. Lighting increases any camera’s ability to perform for you. So if your camera is super grainy, if you can’t get a decent image going — which is distracting for you and the other people on the call — you probably need either more light or better-directed light. […]
Dressing to Impress
“The rules of attire are entirely dependent on who you’re meeting with and the context of the meeting. If you are speaking to a client, or if you’re speaking to people that you need to send a very specific professional message to, then you want to dress accordingly — definitely up your game. If you are speaking to someone higher up on the ladder of your organization, I don’t like ball caps because they block your face, and they encourage hunching over, so it messes up your body language and your facial visibility. But aside from that, think of how you would dress if you were usually seeing these people in-person, and then dress like that.”
Making Eye Contact
“When I’m speaking on camera, 70% of the time I’m looking directly at the camera lens, and 30% of the time I’m looking elsewhere. If I need to go off-camera to pay attention to a document or look something up, I’ll tell my audience. You just tell them, ‘I have my document open right over here. Let me have a look at that.’ And now they know that whenever you’re looking away, you’re looking at their document because you told them.”
LEARN MORE
Go give Lauren Sergy’s book, Unmute: How to Master Virtual Meetings and Reclaim Your Sanity, a read. You can find it at unmutebook.com, or you can check out her website at laurensergy.com where you’ll get access to tons of communication resources.