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PUT YOURSELF IN THE BEST LIGHT—LITERALLY. To look your best on video calls, find a source of natural light: It’ll illuminate your face without the harsh effects of artificial light. Aim to sit directly in front of your natural light source. If that’s not possible, sitting diagonal to it works as well.
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KEEP LIGHTING CONSISTENT. For best results, stick to one type of light. Ideally, your natural light source is bright enough. If it’s not, point a desk or task lamp at the wall in front of or next to you to get a diffused light that’ll mimic natural light. (This hack only applies to meetings; during the rest of your workday, use a combination of lights as needed so you can easily see what you’re doing.)
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COPY THE EXPERTS AND GET A RING LIGHT. YouTube stars and pro videographers rely on ring lights for great lighting every time. Like the name suggests, a ring light is a circle-shaped light that casts an even, flattering, shadow-free glow on your face. They cost between $20 and $200. Note that you’ll need to mount your camera at the center of the ring light. You can use your phone if you don’t want to spend any more money, or buy a webcam if you’re looking for a professional-level setup.
When you’re actually in the room, you’re typically more focused, more aware of how others are behaving, and more conscious of how your actions might reflect on you. Unfortunately, remote workers have to work harder to avoid distractions and gauge how others are feeling. Connecting via video call also means you have less control of what’s going on around you, like your dog’s barking, roommate’s music, or neighbor’s lawn mower. Although you can’t completely get rid of these distractions, minimize them with these tips.
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REMOVE AMBIENT NOISE WITH NOISE-CANCELING SOFTWARE. Once you install software on your computer that removes background noises, you’ll never again have to apologize to your coworkers for sirens, screaming children, banging pots and pans—or any other sounds that might disrupt your meeting. Try Krisp, which works with more than eight hundred apps (including Zoom, Google Meet, and Skype).
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TAKE NOTES THE OLD-FASHIONED WAY. Spare your coworkers from the sounds of typing by jotting down notes on a physical notepad versus a digital one. As an added benefit, this will help you avoid the temptation of your email or the web.
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SILENCE YOUR PHONE. Always make sure you turn off the sound before your meeting begins. Better yet, put your phone into airplane mode—or shut it off completely, if you struggle to stay focused. Seeing or hearing notifications pop up will take you out of the zone…and your coworkers will usually notice.
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DISABLE TEXT, CHAT, AND EMAIL ALERTS ON YOUR COMPUTER. Notifications on your laptop are just as disruptive as phone ones. Maybe even worse, because it’s easier to check them: All you have to do is click. Plus, you never know when you’ll need to share your screen—why run the risk of having your coworkers see a silly text from your friend or gripe from another team member? You can easily avoid these issues by turning off all notifications before you hop onto a call.
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DON’T HAVE REMOTE MEETINGS IN COFFEE SHOPS. Or any public place, for that matter. You shouldn’t discuss any sensitive information where strangers are in earshot. Even if the meeting topic is completely straightforward, the other meeting attendees might still feel self-conscious. Taking calls in public is also rude to the people sitting around you. And if those weren’t reasons enough, the coffee shop’s background noise is distracting.
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GIVE THE MEETING YOUR FULL ATTENTION BY GOING FULL SCREEN. During calls, remote workers need to be even more present than in-office employees. However, they’re also battling more distractions. To stay focused on the meeting—and just the meeting—make your web conference window full screen. Your participation, ability to stay focused, and memory of what you talked about will go up, since you can’t see your other windows. This hack will help you look engaged from the beginning of the meeting to the end, since your coworkers can tell when you’re checking your email if your eyes slide away or the light from your monitor flickers.
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HIDE YOUR OWN VIDEO ON ZOOM CALLS. Looking at your own face on video is distracting—instead of engaging fully in the discussion, you’re fixing your hair, thinking about your posture, or analyzing your facial expression. To get rid of your thumbnail on your screen only (meaning the other meeting attendees will still see you), right-click it. A menu should pop up; choose “Hide Myself.” If you want to get your thumbnail back, right-click again and choose “Show Myself.”
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PUT YOURSELF IN THE CONFERENCE ROOM WITH A 360-DEGREE VIDEO CAMERA. It’s tough to be the sole remote participant in a meeting. It feels like you’re interrupting instead of participating naturally, you have less presence than the folks physically in the room (literally), and you struggle to hear what everyone is saying. Enter the Meeting Owl from Owl Labs. This all-in-one camera, mic, and speaker sits in the middle of the conference room table and acts as your eyes, ears, and voice. The camera automatically focuses on the person speaking, so it’s easy for you to follow the conversation; plus, with multiple mics and an extended pickup range, you’ll never miss another word. The Meeting Owl is an investment, but it’s worth it if you’re the only remote employee on your team.
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CHECK (AND RECHECK!) YOUR SCHEDULE. To avoid last-minute cancellations or schedule changes, review your upcoming meetings, phone calls, and check-ins at the beginning of every week, looking for potential conflicts. (Depending on how often your schedule changes, you may need to do this throughout the week as well.) It’s more polite to reschedule or cancel two to four days out.
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REGULARLY AUDIT YOUR MEETINGS TO IDENTIFY THOSE YOU CAN STOP HAVING. Recurring meetings have their own momentum. Even if you don’t need to meet, you do because…well, it’s on the calendar! And once you’re in the meeting, people usually find ways to fill the space. To win back valuable time from unnecessary meetings, review your recurring ones once a quarter. Ask yourself, “Would I schedule this meeting if it didn’t exist?” If the answer is no, ask the host if they’re open to moving the discussion to chat or email by saying, “Hi (their name), To free up everyone’s schedules, what are your thoughts on replacing this meeting with a Slack or email update?” If you’re the host, send a message to all attendees: “Hi all, To give everyone (amount of time) back, let’s move this to (chat, email). Please let me know if you have any concerns. If I don’t hear from anyone, I’ll take this off our calendars.”
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REACH OUT BEFORE YOU SEND THE MEETING INVITATION. If you want to meet with someone outside your usual orbit—like, say, someone several levels above you in the corporate hierarchy or a peer you want advice from—ask in advance so they’re not surprised by a random calendar invite. Your message can be quick; think, “Hi so-and-so, I’m (your name) on the such-and-such team. I’d love to get your thoughts on X. Are you open to meeting for thirty minutes to chat?”
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KEEP A FEW MEETING ALTERNATIVES UP YOUR SLEEVE. The more creative you get with communication methods, the fewer meetings you’ll need to schedule. Here are a few ways to pass on information or updates without hopping on a call:
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AUTOMATICALLY UPDATE YOUR SLACK STATUS TO REFLECT WHEN YOU’RE BUSY. Once you’ve connected your Slack account with your Google Calendar or Outlook account, your status will change to “in a meeting” with a calendar icon during every block you’re booked. Colleagues can see at a glance whether you’re available to jump on a call. They’ll also understand you might take longer than usual to answer any messages. And you won’t have to manually update your status ten times a day as you jump in and out of meetings.
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AVOID “ZOOM FATIGUE” BY SHARING A “MEETING CHECKLIST” WITH YOUR TEAM. Zoom fatigue is a real thing: According to researchers Libby Sander and Oliver Bauman, virtual meetings require more mental processing power. You need to pay close attention to nonverbal signs like facial expressions, body language, and gestures that you’d normally pick up on and interpret subconsciously. You can’t look away, since you’ll look distracted or bored. Any audio lag can make conversations sound stilted. And you feel like you’re on display, since you never know who’s looking at you. To prevent “Zoom burnout,” share the following checklist with your team, either verbally or as a PDF that they can print and post near their desk. They should only schedule a meeting if they meet all of the following qualifications:
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DON’T CANCEL (OR EVEN RESCHEDULE!) MEETINGS THE DAY OF. While virtual meetings might feel more casual than face-to-face ones, they’re just as important. People carefully plan their schedules around meetings, so you’ll mess up their plans if you cancel or reschedule at the last minute. As a general rule of thumb, don’t cancel or move meetings scheduled within the next ten hours. If canceling is unavoidable, send a note to the other attendee(s) explaining why (you’re sick, you were just booked in another meeting at the same time, you have a personal obligation, etc.). If the meeting time is simply inconvenient, take one for the team and don’t change it, even if you have to reorganize your schedule to make it work.
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TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE EVENT INVITATION OR DESCRIPTION SO PARTICIPANTS KNOW WHAT TO EXPECT. The more advance information your attendees have, the better: They’ll know what to expect, and you’ll look organized and prepared. Along with the agenda, required prep work (if any), meeting length, and date and time, include whether you’re talking over phone or video. If it’s the former, include the phone number and meeting code, and if it’s the latter, let them know which software they’ll need. It’s also a good idea to specify whether cameras will be on or off.
Nothing derails a meeting more quickly than your video lagging, freezing, or disconnecting entirely. Fixing these issues eats up valuable time and throws you off-course. Use these tips to make your meetings run smoothly and help you keep your composure.
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DO A SPEED TEST. There are tons of free tools online that’ll let you test your Internet connection (just Google “speed test”). Running a test fifteen or so minutes before your meeting starts gives you the chance to troubleshoot the issue.
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RUN A TEST MEETING. Some web conferencing tools, like Zoom and Webex, let you do a dry run using their test site. Head to https://zoom.us/test or www.webex.com/test-meeting.html to check your video and audio connection. If you’re on Skype, test your audio by calling the “Echo/Sound Test Service” contact in your contacts list. Using a tool that’s not on this list? Start a call with yourself.
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MAKE SURE NO ONE’S WATCHING NETFLIX. If anyone else on your Wi-Fi network is eating up lots of bandwidth—streaming and gaming platforms are common culprits—ask if they’ll take a break until your call ends. This will free up your connection for the meeting.
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TRY A NEW ROOM. Believe it or not, metal objects, plumbing, and other electronics might be interfering with your Wi-Fi. Switch up the room you’re in and see if that helps the connection.
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TURN OFF YOUR VIDEO. Video freezes during your presentation to the C-suite or sales call with a potential customer? Don’t panic. Say that you’re going to turn off your video. (You may need to repeat this message in the meeting chat if your audio is having issues.) That’ll free up some of your computer’s bandwidth, which should improve the latency problems.
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CALL IN. If you’re still struggling with a weak signal after trying any (or all) of these other fixes, you might need to call in. Many web conference platforms will let you join a video meeting by phone. Let the other meeting participants know your plan, exit the meeting, grab your phone, find the meeting phone number and PIN (if it’s not in the invite, ask the organizer to send it to you), and dial in. You’ll be back in the discussion in less than three minutes.
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USE YOUR PHONE AS A MOBILE HOTSPOT. If your Wi-Fi is flagging and you don’t want to dial in, go to your phone’s settings and make sure your personal hotspot is enabled. Then go to the Wi-Fi settings on your computer and look for your phone’s name. You may want to charge your phone while it’s tethered to your laptop—using it as a hotspot will quickly eat up its battery.
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REBOOT YOUR ROUTER. Sometimes, the most effective way to resolve Internet issues is also the easiest: Simply turn off your router (or unplug it if it doesn’t have a power button), count to ten, and turn it back on again.
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ADD TIME ESTIMATES FOR EACH ITEM ON YOUR AGENDA. This best practice is even more important for remote meetings, where it’s easy for the conversation to go off the rails or the loudest participants to dominate. If you’d like specific people to talk and/or prep for different sections, note that too. Here’s an example of a well-written agenda:
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SAVE MEETING RECORDINGS TO A TEAM OR COMPANY FOLDER. To make information easy to find across your team, department, or company, put meeting recordings in a folder everyone has access to. Let’s say your employee misses your weekly all-hands—instead of bugging you for the recording, they can simply go find it in the folder.
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HIDE THE MESSAGE IN YOUR NOTIFICATIONS. If you’re going to keep the notifications coming while you’re on calls (which isn’t recommended but might be necessary for your job), update your settings so only the sender shows up—not the message itself. Imagine you’re sharing your screen and a Slack notification pops up from your coworker: “Did you read Kellan’s latest email? What’s a professional way to say, ‘All of these ideas are horrible’?” or you get a text from your partner: “How did the conversation with HR about your boss go?” At best you’ll be embarrassed, and at worst you’ll harm your work relationships. But these hypotheticals will stay hypothetical if you change your notification settings for all the communication platforms you use ASAP.
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MAKE MEETING AGENDAS A COMPANY-WIDE POLICY. Basically, if there’s no agenda, there shouldn’t be a meeting. Since an agenda is so critical to a well-run meeting, avoid showing up to or hosting conversations that don’t have one. Even a one- or two-sentence description of the meeting’s purpose is better than nothing. Institute a company-wide policy that all meetings must have an established agenda visible to every participant. If you can’t come up with an agenda, that’s a sign that you don’t need a meeting and can probably get the necessary info through other communication channels.
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ROTATE MEETING LEADERS. Anyone can play this role—in fact, you may want to rotate who moderates each time if it’s a recurring meeting. The leader is in charge of guiding the discussion, calling on participants, and sending out the recording or follow-up notes after. Having a leader does a few things: It keeps the meeting on track, ensures you hit all the discussion points you need to without going over time, and ensures you’ll remember to record and/or take notes. Rotating your meeting leaders means that everyone will have the opportunity to participate and practice important leadership skills.
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DESIGNATE A TIMEKEEPER. Do your meetings often run over schedule? Ask someone to be the timekeeper. This person is responsible for communicating how many minutes each participant has to speak and letting them know when they’re close to—and at—time. The timekeeper is essential for discussion-based meetings, large meetings (think eight-plus attendees), and meetings with strict agendas. It also improves the odds that everyone will get time to speak, particularly if some attendees are notoriously chatty or long-winded.
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RECORD MEETINGS BY DEFAULT. Even if you’re taking notes, it’s helpful to record your meetings. You never know when you’ll need to refresh your memory on a specific decision, catch another colleague up to speed, or rewatch an explanation of a tricky concept. The one exception to this rule: Any meeting where you’ll be discussing confidential or sensitive information should not be recorded. People are far likelier to speak honestly during unrecorded sessions. (That doesn’t mean you can’t take notes or refer back to statements they made during these meetings, of course.)
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SPEED UP RECORDINGS TO SAVE TIME. Tools like Zoom and Loom let you watch videos others have shared with you at faster speeds. Start with 1.5x, which is fast enough to save you a significant amount of time per meeting without making people sound like chipmunks. However, if you don’t mind the squeaky pitch, and you can absorb everything you hear, go up to 1.7x or even 2x. If you’re not able to attend a meeting and need to catch up on the recording later, this hack will help you zoom through the audio (pun intended).
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ENABLE AUDIO TRANSCRIPTION FOR INSTANT ZOOM MEETING NOTES. After you turn this feature on, you’ll get an automatic audio transcription of any meeting or webinar you record—with time stamps! Go to your portal and select “Account Management” and then “Account Settings.” Find the “Recording” tab and scroll to “Advanced cloud recording settings.” Check the box marked “Audio transcript.” (Note that you must be an administrator or account owner and have a Business, Education, or Enterprise license to use this feature.)
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REWATCH MEETING RECORDINGS AND PAY ATTENTION TO HOW OFTEN YOU PARTICIPATE. As a remote employee, make sure you’re visible and actively participating in (virtual) conversations. But striking the right balance is important: Are you overcompensating for being remote by speaking up too much and not leaving enough space for others? To get an idea of where you stand, rewatch meeting recordings and try to be objective. Maybe you’re dominating the conversation. Or maybe you’re on the other end of the spectrum and aren’t speaking enough. Ideally, everyone should be getting roughly equal airtime. Once you know where you fall, recalibrate if necessary.
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MONITOR YOUR SPEAKING STYLE. Rewatching meeting recordings lets you gauge how effectively you’re making your points. Look at the other attendees’ reactions when you talk. Are they nodding, or do they look confused? If it’s the latter, why? Is your language clear and concise? Do you use industry jargon or make references your audience might not understand? This exercise is a little uncomfortable, but your speaking skills will improve every time you do it.
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KEEP THE LIST OF ATTENDEES AS SHORT AS POSSIBLE. The more people on a call, the harder it is to manage the conversation. So, invite as few people as possible. In general, that’s two to four people for an open discussion, five to eight people for a guided one, and nine-plus people for presentations, announcements, and any other meeting where a few people are talking while the rest of the group is listening. If your invite list is longer than ideal, ask yourself if every person truly needs to attend—or if there are some people you can update afterward.
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MAKE MEETINGS AS SHORT AS POSSIBLE. The conversation tends to expand to fill the allotted time. If you have fifteen minutes to discuss something, you’ll take fifteen; if you have thirty minutes to discuss the same topic, you’ll probably take thirty. Always book the shortest amount of time you can. Worst-case scenario: You need to book a follow-up meeting. Not sure what “as short as possible” means? Use these rules of thumb:
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MAKE TIME FOR INTRODUCTIONS. Introductions help you ease into the meeting and are especially important for voice-only conference calls. At the beginning of the call, the meeting leader can kick off introductions by asking everyone to share their name and title. If the leader forgets, say, “Looks like we’ve got some new folks on the line—should we do intros?” or “I don’t think this group has met before. Can we do a quick round of names?”
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ROTATE THE ORDER OF SPEAKERS FOR RECURRING TEAM MEETINGS. Changing up who speaks first, second, third, and so on ensures the same people don’t always get stuck with the undesirable last speaking slots—which tend to be shorter than everyone else’s.
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PUT CHATTY TALKERS NEAR THE END OF THE AGENDA. If you notice someone is consistently talking too much—but you’re not in a position to ask them to be more concise—put their section at the end of the meeting so the rest of the speakers have a chance to talk first. For discussion-based meetings, call on them after others have spoken.
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CAP ALL MEETINGS AT ONE HOUR. It’s nearly impossible for people to stay focused and engaged for longer than sixty minutes. Plus, there are few topics that require this much time to discuss. Look at the meeting agenda and see if there are any sections that can be delivered in a different format, like a prerecorded video or a memo. If you’re doing an all-day discussion, retreat, or internal conference, cap individual sessions at sixty minutes and give people ten to twenty minutes in between to decompress and reset.
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KEEP YOURSELF UNMUTED DURING MEETINGS WITH FOUR ATTENDEES OR FEWER. It can make you look antisocial or disengaged to turn your sound off when it’s just you and a few other people. However, if you’re worried about ambient noise, ask the others, “Hey, can you hear (X sound) in the background? Is it distracting?” If they say yes, it’s fine to mute yourself for as long as the sound continues.
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TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE MEETING CHAT. You can quickly send your coworkers a high five, deliver information, crack a relevant joke, or ask the speaker a question without interrupting the verbal discussion. And if you’re more comfortable typing than talking, it’s also an effective way to participate.
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PLAY DISCUSSION TAG. This simple exercise helps everyone get a chance to speak. Once someone is finished speaking, have them call out or “tag” the next speaker. Ask people to raise their hands or use another visual cue to indicate they have something to say. The current speaker should prioritize people who haven’t talked yet. Discussion tag makes the conversation feel balanced and keeps things interesting.
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DIVIDE LARGER GROUPS INTO BREAKOUT PODS. Brainstorming and discussion sessions can spiral out of control when you’ve got more than five participants. To keep unstructured conversations productive, split everyone out into groups of two to five. If your meeting platform doesn’t support breakout sessions, create individual meetings for each group. After everyone’s gotten the rundown in the larger meeting, send them to their smaller pods to discuss further. If you need to regroup to wrap up the discussion, ask everyone to rejoin the larger group meeting.
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MUTE YOURSELF IF YOU’RE CONTRIBUTING LESS THAN 20 PERCENT OF THE TIME. Use this hack for presentations or larger meetings with a lot of people present. Unless you want to distract and frustrate your colleagues with random sounds, keep yourself muted on calls where you’re participating less than 20 percent of the time. The only exception is when someone is giving a presentation and you want to encourage them with auditory feedback, like laughter, snaps, claps, “hmms,” and so on. Just make sure you’re in a quiet place to avoid unwanted background noise.
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MUTE LARGE MEETINGS BY DEFAULT. If you’re hosting a large meeting, turn this setting on—it’ll prevent a flood of random noises as folks join. If you’re using Zoom, click “Participants.” At the bottom of the window that pops up, choose “Mute All.” Zoom will ask if you want to let participants unmute themselves; select “Continue.” If you’re using GoToMeeting, click “People” to open the list of attendees. At the bottom of the window, select “Mute All.”
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SHOW TWO TIME ZONES IN YOUR CALENDAR. This feature is helpful when you regularly meet with people in another office or location. It shows what time your meeting will be in your area versus your colleague’s area, so you can schedule a time that works well for you both. To turn it on in Google Calendar, go to “Settings,” click “Time zone,” check the box labeled “Display secondary time zone,” and then pick the appropriate one. You can even add a label, like “Erica—Dublin” or “Japan team.” To enable multiple time zones in Outlook, click “File,” “Options,” and select the “Calendar” tab. Then scroll down to the “Time zones” section and check the box labeled “Show a second time zone.”
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USE VISUAL CUES TO SIGNAL WHEN YOU WANT TO TALK. Seeing who’s about to speak is challenging when you’re not in the same room—plus, video typically has a small lag. Fortunately, you’ve got lots of alternatives if audio clues aren’t working. Try raising a virtual hand emoji when you want to say something, turning “mute” off (the other participants will see your screen icon change from “muted” to “unmuted”), or typing a quick note in the chat to get the leader’s attention.
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USE A FUNNY PROP TO INDICATE YOU WANT TO SPEAK. Perfect for an informal meeting, this hack helps you have a little fun while you come up with new ideas. If your team is having a brainstorming session, ask everyone to find a funny hat, costume glasses, or another type of wearable prop. When someone wants to talk, they put on their hat, glasses, and so on; when they’re done, they take the prop off. Not only will it be easy to run the discussion, but everyone will get a chuckle too. You might even feel a bit more creative and energized…essential elements of a successful brainstorm.
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TAKE YOUR WHITEBOARD TO THE CLOUD. In many ways, virtual whiteboards (like the ones you can create with Miro or Microsoft Whiteboard) are better than physical ones. You can add files and links directly to your digital board, have multiple people drawing on it at the same time, and, when you’re done, quickly and easily save and share it. Give everyone a link to the board and a prompt and ask them to add their ideas before your discussion; alternatively, for a “live” brainstorming session, schedule a call where you can all talk and update the board at once.
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USE AN APP TO FIGURE OUT THE IDEAL MEETING TIME. If participants are scattered across multiple time zones, look for a slot that’ll be convenient for as many people as possible. Ideally, it should fall during every participant’s normal work hours. If that’s not possible, prioritize a time that’s convenient for the maximum number of people or that avoids anyone having to wake up super early or stay online into the wee hours. To avoid doing a bunch of napkin math, use an app (like the free Meeting Planner tool from www.timeanddate.com or Miranda for iOS) to plug in everyone’s locations and get a list of suggested times.
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ROTATE MEETING SLOTS FROM MORNING TO EVENING. Sometimes you can’t find a slot that’s within normal working hours for every participant. When that’s the case, try to take turns getting the “desirable” slot—for example, if you meet at 9 a.m. your time and 6:30 p.m. your colleagues’ time, the next meeting might be at 7:30 a.m. your time and 5 p.m. your colleagues’ time.
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BE EXPRESSIVE. Because it’s harder for your coworkers to read your body language or facial expressions, hold your gestures a little longer and make them a little more obvious. And, if you’re on mute in a large group, your verbal response will go unheard. So if someone is presenting, nod to show you like their points. If they share good news, do a little dance, pump your arms, or clap.
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DON’T FORGET ABOUT HOLIDAYS IN OTHER COUNTRIES. If you’re working with an international team, your public holiday schedules will be different. Keep this in mind when you schedule meetings or map out project timelines. To add another country’s public holiday dates to your Google Calendar, go to “Settings” and select “Holidays.” Then add the appropriate country. To add multiple country holiday schedules to Outlook, click “File,” “Options,” select the Calendar tab, find “Add Holidays,” and check off every country you need.
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ASK FOR QUESTIONS EARLY AND OFTEN. When you’re not sitting in the same room with your coworkers, they’re shyer about speaking up when they have a question or comment. Counteract this by periodically saying, “Does anyone have any thoughts before I move on?”
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GIVE YOURSELF A SUBTLE GLOW-UP ON ZOOM. Zoom offers a discreet filter that’ll make your face look brighter and smoother. It’s a good hack to use when you’re short on time but need to look put together. To turn on this filter, go to “Settings.” If you’re on your desktop app, choose “Video”; if you’re on your phone, go to “Meetings.” Then check the box labeled “Touch up my appearance.” This feature will stay on by default, so if you only want it for one meeting, remember to go back and uncheck it after.
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RESERVE TIME FOR SMALL TALK. Spend at least five minutes at the beginning of every call shooting the breeze. It might feel unproductive, but without the watercooler conversations that happen spontaneously in the office, these five minutes are some of the most important of the meeting. Informal conversations help you build rapport, get to know your colleagues on a personal level, and create a sense of camaraderie. And when you need to have a difficult or sensitive discussion, it’ll be far more effective if you’ve built strong relationships.
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ALWAYS CLOSE WITH A FOUR-SENTENCE RECAP. This gives you a chance to clear up any miscommunications—which are more common during virtual meetings than in-person ones—and gets everyone motivated. Four sentences are perfect for summarizing what happened and what’s coming next. Try this formula: “We talked about A, B, and C. Our ultimate goal is Z. We decided (name/team) would do X by (date), and (name/team) will do Y by (date). We’re going to (meet again/check in on) Z day.”
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MAKE YOUR COWORKERS LAUGH (OR YOUR DARK CIRCLES DISAPPEAR) WITH SNAPCHAT FILTERS. Once you’ve downloaded Snap Camera (Snapchat’s desktop app for Mac and PC), you can select it as your webcam device in Zoom, Skype, Google Meet, Google Hangouts, and more. Amuse your team members with funny filters, or subtly touch up your appearance with beauty ones.
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PRETEND YOU’LL HAVE TO GIVE YOUR BOSS A CLIFFSNOTES SUMMARY OF THE MEETING. This strategy will help you stay engaged and, maybe more importantly, focused on the conversation’s highlights. Feel free to actually take notes.
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PREP QUICK “SOUNDBITES” FOR SMALL TALK QUESTIONS. It’s a guarantee: Every Monday morning meeting will start off with the question “How was your weekend?” Come prepared with a few one-liners to share with your colleagues; for instance, “I went hiking with my dog,” “I started a fantastic new show,” or “I made pasta from scratch.” With these ideas up your sleeve, you won’t end up saying, “My weekend was good; how was yours?” Instead, you can spark an interesting conversation and get to know your coworkers and their interests. On Wednesday, think of two or three responses to “Any fun plans this weekend?” to keep the conversation going.
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SAY OTHER PEOPLE’S NAMES TWICE PER RESPONSE. Acknowledging them by name shows respect; plus, it makes you look more engaged. Just don’t go overboard—if you’re dropping someone’s name every other sentence, you’ll seem disingenuous. As a good rule of thumb, use someone’s name two times in each response: once when you start talking, and once when you end. For example, “It’s Valentina. I’d like to explore what Patrick just mentioned. I’ve noticed… Curious to hear everyone’s thoughts, and thanks for bringing that up, Patrick.”
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LEARN HOW MUCH YOU’RE SPEAKING WITH MEETING TRANSCRIPTS. You might suspect that you need to speak up more often—or, on the flip side, that you hog the limelight. You can review a recording of the meeting…unless your company doesn’t record or share all meetings, or you don’t want to listen to the entire meeting again. With software like Gong.io or Otter.ai, you can easily gauge your participation rate. Add one of these apps to your call (making sure you’ve gotten everyone’s permission to record). After the meeting is over, you’ll get an automated transcription of it. Learn instantly how many times you participated and for how long. As a bonus, you’ll have detailed, searchable notes of the meeting too.
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START WITH YOUR CAMERA OFF. If you’re not sure whether the people you’re meeting will have their cameras on or off, start the meeting with yours off. Once the other participants have joined, follow their cue: If they’re using video, quickly switch your video on too. If they’re not using video, keep yours off. This lets you avoid the awkwardness of being the only person on camera. You can even make this your default setting in your web-conferencing settings if you use Zoom. Go to the “Video” section of preferences and check “Turn off my video when joining a meeting.”
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NAIL IMPORTANT PRESENTATIONS BY PRERECORDING. Giving a talk to an extra-large or important audience, like the entire company, the executive team, or even a few hundred external folks? Filming it in advance ensures things don’t go awry: Your kids won’t burst into the room halfway through, your audio won’t lag, your video won’t freeze, your graphics will work…you get the gist. Streaming a prerecorded video also lets you answer questions live in the meeting chat. Not only will the presentation still feel interactive; this is also a better way to do a Q and A than waiting until the end or interrupting your talk track to answer questions.
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MAKE PRERECORDED PRESENTATIONS INCLUSIVE BY ADDING CAPTIONS. Filming your speech or demo in advance also lets you add closed-captioning and/or subtitles—which makes it accessible for attendees with hearing impairments or for non-fluent speakers. Video caption services like Rev, GoTranscript, and Scribie are fairly affordable, accurate, and quick. Of course, if you’re on a budget, you can also add captions yourself.
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WRITE DOWN YOUR QUESTIONS AND COMMENTS. And then wait for the appropriate time to jump in with your contribution. Once you’ve recorded your thought, you’ll feel less pressure to voice it instantly; you know you won’t forget what you were thinking. People can tell when you’re waiting for them to finish so you can talk, so be respectful and listen carefully to what they’re saying.
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VOLUNTEER TO WRITE UP YOUR TAKEAWAYS FOR THE REST OF YOUR TEAM. Going to a department or company-wide meeting? You’ll build goodwill with your team and give yourself a reason to pay close attention to the meeting (which can be difficult to do if you’re a passive participant). Try doing this for recurring meetings that not everyone can attend.
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MENTION YOUR NAME EVERY TIME YOU SPEAK UP IN A CONFERENCE CALL. For example, you might say, “This is Hazeem. Adding onto your point, Sadie…” or “Hazeem here. I’d like to give some additional context to what Sadie just said.” Saying your name ensures everyone knows who’s speaking—which is harder to keep track of than you’d think when there are several voices on a call.
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CREATE ONE MEETING “ROOM” FOR BACK-TO-BACK CALLS. If you’re meeting with a bunch of different people back-to-back, make it easy on yourself by creating one meeting for the entire time. Use Zoom’s or Skype’s “waiting room” features (found in “Group Management” and then “Meetings,” and “Meeting Options,” respectively) to let in each person you’re meeting with at the appropriate time. If they try to join the meeting before you’re ready for them, they’ll get a message asking them to wait until the host admits them. You can seamlessly move from one call to the next without worrying about finding the right link, entering the password, and so on. This hack is particularly useful for running interviews, sales calls, or customer service consultations.
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PROTECT YOURSELF FROM “ZOOM BOMBING” BY LOCKING THE MEETING ONCE IT BEGINS. All Zoom meetings are now password-protected by default, which has stopped hackers from crashing meetings and causing chaos. If you want to be extra careful, go to security settings once the meeting has begun and select “Lock Meeting.” No one else will be able to join, even if one of the attendees shares the meeting link and password.
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USE THE PRES FRAMEWORK TO GET TO THE POINT. It’s even harder to hold people’s attention over a virtual meeting. If you have trouble speaking clearly and concisely, try organizing your thoughts into the following categories. Keep it to a sentence or two for each point so you can move along quickly…and look highly organized.
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USE YOUR ZOOM “NAME TAG” TO KICK-START CONVERSATIONS AND BUILD RAPPORT. To update your meeting title, click “Participants,” find your name, select “Rename,” and then edit away. If you’re meeting with a bunch of people for the first time, you might want to list your team, title, and/or location. Or add a fun, work-appropriate detail about yourself. This is also a great feature to use in more informal situations: If you’re playing a team game, make your Zoom title your competitive persona, such as “Ava Attack” or “Carlin ‘the Champ’ Martin.”
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CALL ATTENTION TO THE TIME TO KEEP MEETINGS MOVING ON SCHEDULE. Listening to someone drone on and on while you watch everyone’s eyes glaze over and the clock tick down is excruciating. Don’t let it get that far—you’ll be doing everyone a favor. Next time a colleague is rambling, politely say, “Thanks (name). In the interest of time, should we (table this topic for now, have so-and-so give their thoughts, move to the next discussion item)?”
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PAUSE AFTER MAKING A POINT. Your powerful point will get lost if you don’t. However, when you’re nervous (or chatty by nature), it can be tough to stop speaking. Take a deep breath and force yourself to go silent so others can react.
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AVOID SMALL TALK BY USING UNIQUE CONVERSATION-STARTERS. Instead of asking people, “How’s the weather in your neck of the woods?” or “Planning any trips?” pose interesting, lighthearted questions like “What’s the last TV show you stayed up late to finish?” or “Settle a debate for me: Is a hot dog a sandwich?” Going beyond boring surface-level topics will deepen your connection—which will make the rest of the meeting more productive.