How to Make Virtual Meetings More Effective?

As you and your teams navigate working remotely, we’re publishing weekly tips for leading virtual meetings and best practices for presenting virtually.

For this week’s tips, here are 3 best practices for optimizing your virtual meetings.

1) Your delivery matters.
Remain composed; pause, make eye contact, sit up straight. Amplify your energy; gesture and express enthusiasm. Speak TO your camera so you are making virtual eye contact with your fellow meeting attendees.

2) Ask questions often.
Use closed questions to take the group’s temperature and open-ended questions to open-up the discussion. And remember, don’t be afraid to call on people — this will keep everyone engaged and you’ll avoid those awkward seconds of silence.

3) Recognize and leverage ideas.
Expressing appreciation and highlighting someone’s ideas is a sure-fire way to get them to contribute again. It also demonstrates that you are listening and value their input — once again, reinforcing their purpose in the meeting.

Look for our next batch of tips for leading virtual meetings and presenting virtually next week.

If you have a virtual communication topic that you would like for us to address in a tip, let us know; we’re here to help.

Originally published at https://www.mandel.com.