What Do You Do If You Can’t Come to a Meeting?

Leadership and Marketing Update from H. LEINER & CO.

You call in, right? Wrong. Video call in instead!

You may not want to be seen on the screen but it is a much more powerful tool for productive and engaging meetings.

3 benefits to video calls:

1. Meetings take half as long: When meetings are done over the phone, multitasking begins to happen. The person’s computer screen is too inviting and they have too many deadlines to make so they start typing an email or brainstorming ideas for their next program and only listen to the meeting with half an ear. When you ask their opinion, they were not completely focused so it is difficult for them to answer clearly and intelligently. Many minutes are wasted reviewing things that were already said and providing clarification about issues already discussed. With video calls, you see the other person, so they are forced to give their full attention to the meeting, allowing the meetings to be more efficient and take much less time.
2. Engagement and understanding improve: Nonverbal cues that you get when you speak to someone in person are lost over the phone. Video calls are not perfect, but they help decipher some of the nonverbal communication cues, allowing you to better understand what the person is thinking. Seeing the person also causes them to stay engaged and focused throughout the entire meeting.
3. Alignment increases, along with better decision-making: Getting everyone on board with the decision is extremely important for effective decision-making. The main way to do that is by listening to each person’s opinion and sincerely working it into the decision. The person over a video call will be more inclined to offer insight and give their opinion than if they were on the phone where no one could see them, because they feel more part of the meeting. This then causes them to accept the results of the decision more easily.

With convenient technological video call forums, such as Zoom and Skype, this is a step that will guarantee more productive and engaging meetings!

(Harvard Business Review)