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It seems more natural, somehow, to bring all of the manners and common sense that you have learned over your lifetime to a meeting. However, don't leave all those skills behind when you participate in a teleconference. Teleconferencing carries social expectations as well, and the rules must be followed for your conference and your performance to be a success. When members of a meeting can't physically see each other, sometimes they feel that the situation is casual and doesn't require them to pay strict attention. Don't let this person be you! If you are inattentive or inappropriately casual, you can be sure that other members of the teleconference will notice it, and the meeting will most likely suffer because of your lack of attention. It is important to pay attention and be informed about the social norms of teleconferences. Remember the basics, and apply them to teleconferences. Think about how you would act and speak during a meeting with other people. Then, think about how you would behave during a teleconference. Can you take your behaviors from the teleconference meeting and transpose them straight into the meeting room at your office? Would it bring a smile to your face? Would it make you chuckle? That's your clue. We should definitely remember a few tips. One of the most obvious tips is be on time. While easy to run to the phone while grabbing your coffee and a bagel with the phone wedged between your chin and shoulder, don't. Make sure you're seated at your desk just as you would if you were physically at the office. Rushing about and getting settled in comes across in an amplified way to the other members of your teleconference. Second, organize all the materials you will need to refer to during the call. Do this ahead of time on your desk in a way that will be easy for you to find and access. You will have a few minutes to check over your organization while you are waiting on the line for everyone else to join the call. Third, listen to the ground rules of the teleconference as the person in charge lays them out at the beginning of the call. Follow cardinal rules of conference calling, especially to let others finish speaking before you jump in with your thoughts. Sometimes it can be hard, not being able to see the other callers, but with some practice and by paying attention it will become natural to you. Fourth, it takes a little time to get communication flowing smoothly during your conference call. Once it does, you can judge when it is appropriate to enter the conversation and interject your ideas, without anyone feeling that you're dominated the conversation or interrupting. When you're teleconferencing, the most important thing is that the other participants hear your ideas and remember you as a valuable player who brought a lot to the meeting. After all, using our measuring stick of imagining what this behavior would "look" like in a face-to-face meeting, wouldn't your goal be that you were seen as a significant contributor to the meeting? Of course, you want to make your mark at the meeting. The same is true for teleconferencing. You're not just on a telephone call, as it were. You are at a meeting and want to have as your goal to adhere to expected teleconferencing manners and social norms while at the same time, make an impact related to the goals and outcomes of the meeting. Daiv Russell is a management and marketing consultant with Envision Consulting in Tampa, Florida. To learn more about teleconference etiquette, check out audio-conference-calling.info. While organizing your team check out our Team Building activities.
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meetings, mangement, teleconference, conference call, project management,
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