During any meeting its of high importance that you remain respectable not only to yourself but to all participants also in the meeting. If you are becoming a distraction during a meeting, the chances of you being asked to leave is high.
To assist you we will be highlighting some key areas of video conferencing etiquette that you need to know:
1. Be Yourself
There’s a common misconception that meeting are always serious. Depending on the agenda of the meeting, not all meetings are as gloomy as they seem. If you are in a meeting, try to be yourself, obviously, keep professional, but there’s nothing wrong with sharing a little joke to break the ice in the meeting.
2. Be Courteous
At the beginning of any meeting, it’s important that you introduce yourself to all participants and become familiar with the other participants in the meeting. Doing so, every time you need to speak or refer to a participant you will be able to name them. Either forgetting names or even pointing at participants can be insulting to the participants in the meeting.
3. NO Distractions
Commonly face to face meetings are generally in rooms where you won’t get distracted unless it’s of high importance. If you are in a video meeting, make sure that there are no distractions around you. Make sure that you are in a location which is quiet, clear your desk of everything, turn your phone on silent or off if you have to.
4. Speak With A Clear Voice And Keep The Your Volume Down
It’s of importance that when you speak, you speak clearly and at a volume which all participants can hear you.For some reason, you always get that one person who the habit of speaking loudly over a microphone. Alternatively, prior to your video meeting, rehearse with someone in the same location as you for them to judge if you are speaking too loudly.
5. Minimize Movement And Maintain Eye Contact
I have been in a few meetings where participants forget they are in a video meeting and instead of putting their focus on the camera/meeting they get distracted very easily and move all the time. If you are in a video meeting, although you are not having a face to face meeting, its important that you still face the camera as if you are having a face to face conversation with that participant.
6. Dress Accordingly
Even if you are at your home, having a video meeting, its still important that you wear something that’s presentable for the meeting, and something that won’t be a distraction. Recently we published a blog highlighting what you shouldn’t wear during a video conference. Its simple items of clothing which can become the biggest of distractions. Be very careful what you are wearing. If you love wearing jewellery, rather don’t wear jewellery unless its one simple item. There have been cases where some participants would wear so much jewellery it becomes an audio and visual distraction.
