Work at improving the structural flow of your video meetings.
Is your presence in a Zoom room meeting hurting your company’s brand? Maybe it’s not Zoom’s fault—maybe you are just bad at meetings.
“To think of the term business meeting with a positive connotation is like saying the holiday fruitcake is making a comeback,” says communications expert Cindy Skalicky.
She notes that for decades, the word “meeting” has been synonymous with boring, inefficient and wasteful. Zoom and other online video meeting platforms have not helped.
“It’s possible the word ‘meeting’ may never be thought of in a positive light again,” adds Skalicky. “Talk about a brand image problem.”
Skalicky’s company, On Point Communications, has helped company founders raise millions of dollars in venture capital. She has personally trained executives at Microsoft, members of the Young Presidents Organization (YPO), and entrepreneurs pitching deals to the longest-running angel investor club in the United States on how to win multi-million-dollar deals.
“In recent years, we have experienced a significant and arguably semipermanent shift from in-person to remote or hybrid meetings,” notes Skalicky. “Virtual meetings are the norm—hours upon hours of face-to-screen meetings inside ‘Brady Bunch squares.’ It is no wonder the quality of meetings has not improved.”
When she is approached to work with teams on the need to run better calls and meetings, she offers three pieces of advice:
Improve The Structural Flow Of The Meetings. Clients often tell her: “Meetings aren’t structured well. Participants are easily sidetracked. Our point person goes down rabbit holes and doesn’t end on time. She or he can’t get control back and is steamrolled by others, frustrating everyone.” She says to try this: “The single most important thing you can do to kick off your call, is to verbalize an agenda in the first two to three minutes. Tell everyone what the plan is and what you hope to accomplish by the end. This relieves participants, provides a roadmap, and shows you’re in control and that you came prepared.”
Grow Executive Presence On Video Meetings. Clients frequently tell her: “Our senior level executives aren’t coming across as such. They lack confidence, are too lax, don’t look at the camera, and forget to pause. I want to reach into the screen to stop them, but I can’t. If you think about it, our brand is constantly on the line. We need to be more buttoned up.” She says to try this: “Remember that clients and team members look to you as the model of what to do. Small tweaks matter. Look into the camera to simulate eye contact, bring warmth and energy in your voice and volume, and know how to bring the conversation back to the agenda if it gets off track.”
Up Your Game If You Are Junior Staff. Clients also tell her: “We want to advance junior staff to new roles, but they don’t run calls well. It’s painful. They don’t listen to the client, they read the slides, and they can’t read the virtual room.” Her advice is to try this: “Eliminate filler words such as ‘um, like, so, and basically.’ These reduce credibility. Find smart ways to ask good questions. Lead with phrases like, ‘I’m curious, can you share more about…’ or ‘I know it’s our goal to X; can you expand on the strategy to Y?’”
“It's so important not to lose sight of the fact that junior and senior level employees are your brand,” says Skalicky. “When their executive presence is low, so goes the direction of your brand. The same is true when their executive presence is high.”
Brand image judgements and impressions happen fast, often in the first 30 to 60 seconds of a meeting. Skalicky says employers who offer soft skills training to their teams are providing much needed professional development. When employees feel valued, not only are you investing in them, but you’re also investing in maintaining and elevating your brand.
Bottom line: I doubt if the holiday fruitcake will ever make a comeback. But there is hope for improving your brand, one Zoom meeting at a time.
