If you’re new to leading or participating in a remote meeting, you may not know how to behave. In this article, we’ll look at remote meeting etiquette.
Teams can make their own rules. The key is that those rules are clear, agreed upon by all, and helpful.
If you don’t have any rules in place right now, I’d offer the following eight rules as a few good ones on which you can build others. You can discuss and modify them as you see fit.
Arrive 5 Minutes Early
Getting logged in, adjusting your camera and microphone settings always takes more time than you think. You need to be ready to go at the scheduled start time.
Nobody likes waiting around until everyone gets their act together. 5 minutes before the scheduled start is a good time to begin logging in.
This means, of course, that the meeting organizer should have the conference “room” up and running no later than 5 minutes early.
Focus Only on the Meeting
Remote doesn’t equal multi-tasking. Just because people may not be able to see you, doesn’t mean you open another window on your screen and work on your email. You’re in the middle of a meeting. That’s where your attention needs to be.
Be Camera Ready
Everyone knows you aren’t working in the office, but that doesn’t mean you can totally disregard the look and sound.
Wash your face. Comb your hair. Put on a decent shirt. Bare feet are fine!
Make sure the background visuals are something you’re comfortable having your coworkers see. They don’t want to look at a kitchen full of dirty dishes.
Also pay attention to the lighting on your face. If there’s not ample light, you won’t look your best on camera.
The place you do the call should be free of distractions. Noisy coffee shops or a TV playing in the background aren’t helpful. Kids yelling, dogs barking, and your neighbor’s lawn mower are also going to create problems.
If you can’t control all the noise, you can mute yourself when you’re not talking. Just remember to unmute when you want to interject.
Finally, eating and drinking is rarely a good look.
Make “Eye Contact”
This is hard to do when on a video call, especially when the camera isn’t right where your visual cues are. If you want to talk directly to someone, look into the camera, and say something like, “Jenny, thank you for agreeing to check with HR on that idea.”
By saying the person’s name, everyone is clear who you are directing your comments to. You might think it’s obvious, but to everyone else it’s a mystery. They can’t see where you’re looking.
When others are talking, keep looking up and use your active listening skills. Doing your best to show them you are listening will help you be a better listener.
Jump In and Speak Up
When you enter the call, announce yourself. Without budding in mid-sentence, a simple “Good morning everyone. It’s Tom.”
If the meeting is already underway, then you should wait for a break in the action or until the meeting leader asks, “Who’s joined?”
Whenever you want to add something to the conversation, it’s helpful to precede your comment with your first name again, especially if you’re not on camera or others on the call don’t have access to video.
If your meetings are large and chaotic, you may need a more controlled way for people to jump in on the conversation. Your conferencing tool’s functions might help. Perhaps you tell people to use hand-raising or chat to indicate they want to speak, and then the meeting leader can invite people in turn to say what they want.
Practice the Pause
In remote interactions, there’s always that weird moment when two or three people all start talking at the same time. This problem will never go away completely, but groups get better if they learn to not respond so quickly.
Take a breath before saying something. Sense whether there’s an opening for you to jump in and then do so. If you still get unlikely, pause again.
Have Documents Ready
If you have something people need to see during the meeting, have them ready to share electronically via the share-my-screen function or have them sent out prior to the meeting so everyone can access them as necessary.
There is nothing worse than trying to keep up when someone is describing a detailed document that I can’t see myself.
Share the Air
Some people are naturally quiet in person. That tendency typically gets stronger in remote meetings.
If you’re just the opposite, you can easily and happily fill the dead air. Fight your urge to do so.
Suppose the meeting leader asks for questions. You have five you’d like to ask. Go ahead cut loose with your first one and then wait until others have asked questions before asking another.
You could even help by saying the following after you get an answer to your first question, “Thanks, that helps. I’m interested in hearing what questions others have.”
Common Sense Isn’t Common Practice
If you’re thinking these are all common sense, I’d caution you that doesn’t mean everyone knows and practices them.
Making behavioral guidelines more explicit is a great way to begin having better remote meetings.
If you’d like help quickly building your skills as a remote meeting leader, check out my remote meeting coaching page.