10 Tips for Keeping Control of Your Online Meetings

By Gihan Perera

 

 

Online meetings are pretty ubiquitous these days especially in times

of tighter budgets, saving time, and dispersed work teams. However, many people don’t know how to manage online meetings effectively. In this report, we give you ten tips for managing successful online meetings – whatever role you’re playing in the meeting.

1. Understand the technology

Of course, technology is the key difference between online meetings and in-person meetings. On the positive side, it can be very efficient (because attendees participate from their desk), but that gain can be wiped out by problems with the technology.

Do your best to be familiar with the technology and comfortable with using it. Make sure you’re using a technology that is intuitive and easy to use, because if you’re competent and confident with it, that will be recognized and rewarded.

People also interact differently when they are not all in the same room. Even on a video conference, there are differences in body language, posture, use of space, moving around, and even the seating arrangement. In most cases, an online meeting feels more approachable because people can’t use their physical presence to intimidate or coerce.

2. Know your outcome

Regardless of your role, the most important thing you can take into the meeting is a clear outcome. Knowing this in advance helps you keep the meeting on track. Even if you’re a junior participant, be clear about your outcome.

Ask yourself these questions to get clear:

• Who are the key groups at the meeting? • Who are the key individuals in each group who will influence the

others?

 

 

• What would you like them to think / feel / do / say after the meeting (in order for you to have achieved your outcome)?

3. Look, act and sound professional

It doesn’t take much to make a strong, positive impression in an online meeting, if you prepare well, position yourself strongly and perform clearly.

Preparation:

• Prepare and circulate reports ahead of time. • Write out and practice a presentation. • Anticipate questions and objections. • Test the technology if possible. • On video conferences, check your lighting, background and physical

appearance. • On audio or video conferences, use a headset for optimal sound.

Positioning:

• Check your name, title and other details on the agenda. • Ask the chair to introduce you in a certain way if appropriate.

Performance:

• Be polite but not meek. • Be assertive but not aggressive. • Be clear but concise.

 

 

4. Make your points clearly

Whenever you are called on to speak – whether it’s to present a report or answer a question – you know what you want to say, but the other participants don’t. So make it easier for them with a brief introduction:

• Make your point first, before you explain it or elaborate • Tell them what you want them to do when you stop speaking (take a

vote, approve your proposal, etc.) • If you need to make a number of points, put them in a clear

structure (e.g. “I’m going to give you three reasons for …”)

5. Answer questions confidently

Don’t get nervous and flustered when called on to answer a question. You’re being asked because it’s in your area of expertise, so treat it as an opportunity to contribute to the meeting’s outcome.

Write down the question as you hear it, so you can refresh your memory if necessary. If the question is vague or ambiguous, ask for clarification (e.g. “When you said ‘total sales volume’, were you referring to this quarter or the previous quarter?”).

Start your response strongly with a brief answer, then explain further. All the tips above for making your points clearly apply here as well.

Finally, don’t shoot from the hip! If you don’t know, say so. Confer with others, defer to somebody else, or offer to find out later.

6. Manage difficult or hostile situations

There’s a skill in managing difficult conversations, and a special skill in doing it in online meetings.

Know as much as possible

The more you know about what you’re likely to face, the easier it is to manage it effectively and still meet your outcomes. Know who will be attending, know what they really want, know who has the real power to

 

 

make decisions, know your walk-away position and BATNA (best alternative to a negotiated agreement), know who’s on your side, know your option if things get out of hand.

Get in early

This allows you to anticipate potential problems and plan for them, which makes it much easier to manage them. If you know you’ll be facing a hostile meeting, do more background research, ask individuals to share their views in advance, circulate proposals early, and try to gain agreement – even partial agreement – in advance. You might defuse – or even resolve – some of the difficult issues before the meeting starts.

Add formality and structure

Finally, add more formality when facing a difficult or hostile meeting, and take control at the start of the meeting. You don’t need to adopt formal meeting procedure (for example, motions, seconding, amendments, points of order, and so on). You just need to add a bit more formality and structure, so you can keep the meeting under control.

For example, here are some rules you could apply:

• All participants must speak “through the chair.” • Only the chair has control over turning microphones on. • Only items on the agenda can be discussed. • There is a strict time limit on agenda items.

7. Conduct board and committee meetings

These are different from other online meetings, and sometimes have important legal and regulatory consequences that you must get right.

Check your organization’s constitutional right to conduct a meeting by online meeting. Also understand the legal issues and consequences of conducting an online meeting (for example, all directors must be given

 

 

adequate opportunity to review materials and participate in the meeting). If you’re not sure, get legal advice.

Choose carefully whether or not to record the meeting. Important discussions and decisions should be recorded in the minutes, and it might be risky or inappropriate to keep a permanent record of everything else.

8. Keep control

Just because you’re not chairing the meeting doesn’t mean you can’t take a lead role in it – especially if the nominated chair isn’t doing their job.

If there is no chair

An effective meeting should have somebody chairing it, even if this isn’t a formal role. So if you call the meeting and nobody else is the obvious person to chair it, just assume the role of chair. And if you’re attending a meeting that nobody is chairing, offer to do it yourself.

If the chair is weak

In most business situations, you don’t want to make enemies by publicly and loudly criticizing the chair. Instead, you might be able to diplomatically take control, like this:

• Offer to take the minutes – which gives you permission to interrupt verbose or vague people.

• Offer to manage the technology – which allows you to subtly manage interruptions, allow certain people more (or less) “air time”, and so on.

9. Make clear presentations

There might be times when you’re called on to make a brief presentation or report during an online meeting. The most important thing to keep in mind is that you’re part of a larger meeting, so your presentation has to help the overall meeting outcomes.

 

 

When you prepare, be sure you know specifically what the group expects of you, especially in the context of the overall meeting. If you’re not sure, ask!

Know your outcomes as well, so they don’t get lost in the overall meeting outcomes.

When you speak:

• Start strongly: State your main point strongly, explain your structure (e.g. “I’ll give you three reasons …”), and be clear about what you want them to do when you finish.

• Keep it simple: Be succinct, stick to your main points, and don’t over-use technology.

• Take control: Be upbeat and energetic, speak quickly (but not too quickly!), and own the environment.

End your presentation strongly. Be clear about what you want them to do next, and finish on time.

10. Manage technology

Unfortunately, technology glitches are not a matter of “if”; they are a matter of “when.” Proving that you can manage these situations will do more than almost anything else to demonstrate your professionalism and authority.

Prevent potential problems

Use the most reliable technology available – for example, landline phones rather than cell phones, corded rather than cordless telephones, and reliable-high speed Internet. You don’t need the best technology in the world (and it might be outside your budget anyway), but these simple things can make a big difference to reliability.

Urge your participants to use the best technology as well, so they don’t have problems at their end.

 

 

If possible, test the technology beforehand. You can’t always reproduce the exact environment of the real meeting, but a simple test can identify – and prevent – many of the problems that could occur.

Manage problems that occur

Even with careful preparation, some problems can still occur. So anticipate them and be ready to manage them.

For example:

• If some people can’t be heard (because their microphone is not working), they can contribute via text or chat messages, which the chair can read out to everybody else

• If participants in video conferences have low Internet bandwidth, they might need to participate by audio only.

• If you’re making a presentation with PowerPoint slides, send a PDF version of the slides to all participants in advance, in case they can’t see the presentation when it’s live.

Recover gracefully

Sometimes, whatever you do, you can’t resolve the technology problems, and some participants might not be able to join the meeting at all. In the extreme case, you might even have to abandon the entire meeting.

If this happens, there might be some things you can do to recover gracefully:

• Record meetings as a matter of course, so you can send the recording to those who couldn’t attend.

• Have somebody taking the minutes, so important discussions and decisions are available to those who couldn’t attend.

• If you’re working to a deadline, don’t wait until too late to convene the meeting – so you can re-schedule it if necessary.

 

 

Finally, the best way to get better at online meetings is to participate

in more of them, and to participate more in those you attend. Don’t avoid online meetings because you’re uncomfortable and unfamiliar with them. Embrace them instead, and use them as an opportunity to make a valuable contribution – and improve your meeting skills at the same time.

 

 

About Gihan Perera Gihan Perera is a consultant, speaker and author, who helps thought leaders and business professionals leverage their expertise. He is the author of the book Webinar Smarts and co-author of the book Best Practice Conference Calls, among others; and Forbes magazine rated him the #5 social media influencer in book publishing. He blogs at GihanPerera.info and his website is GihanPerera.com.

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