Why should you turn on your camera?
I have been working as a remote leader for 2 years and at this time I created some hacks to help me stay connected with my teammates. For example, In our meetings, I usually try to have a fun and easy conversation. But no matter what I do, if I and my teammates have the camera off. Why? the answer is so simple. Nonverbal communication.
Gestures and facial expressions speak much more than words. Albert Mehrabian, the pioneer in body language research in 1950 studies, published a transferred interpersonal communication message in the following proportion:
- 7% — verbal (words only)
- 38% — vocal (including tone of voice, speed, rhythm, volume ) and intonation)
- 55% — Nonverbal (including gestures, facial expressions, attitudes and other information expressed without words).
Assuming that 55% of communication including gestures and facial expressions, you are working remotely and don’t like to turn on your camera, you are losing 55% of the information.
For example, feeling faces. Understand how the interlocutor is feeling will help you to create a rapport and demonstrate that you really care and want to help.
The best way for managers to drive team performance is by focusing on reducing affinity distance. Try switching most remote communication to regular video calls
In this article How to Collaborate Effectively If Your Team Is Remote by Harvard Business Review, discusses that communication without body language impacts misinterpretations that create anxiety that can become costly, affecting morale, engagement, productivity, and innovation. In the article, they suggest having more video calls for establishing rapport and creating empathy. But they forgot to emphasize that if you do video calls with the camera off your calls was worthless.
Here, in the Resultados Digitais, we always motivate people to turn on the camera during our routine meetings. By the way, this year we created #matrix an Open Source project to motivate people to do meetings as quickly and easily.
This has been helping us to keep people connected to each other and has been one of the success factors in growing people working remotely on our teams around Brazil and around the world.
Is that you? Do you feel different or not when you have a call with the camera on? let’s comment :)
