Guide to Effective Video Meetings Maintaining Your Personal Brand While Working From Home
Preparing Your Space Not everyone works from home in the same manner; however, everyone does need to have an appropriate work space set up for video calls – especially external calls. While sharing the space with your spouse or pet may be endearing on an internal team call, the same cannot be said for a client call or any other external meeting. While everyone has adopted more casual and flexible arrangements while at home, we must also remember that we are representing our company and brand while hosting calls. Please ensure that you have set up the appropriate work space for a video meeting. Keep these things top of mind as you design your space: Consider what is being seen: the term beauty is in the eye of the beholder is never more true than when staring into a person’s home environment on a two-hour call. Make sure that the picture behind you is appropriate and professional. Having a business call while someone stares into your open closet or bathroom, becomes mesmerized by the ceiling fan circling behind your head or watches as your spouse/children/pet comes into view, does not set up a professional atmosphere for the call. If you have no other option, go off video if you have an urgent need to speak to someone in your home to keep distractions for the rest of the audience at a minimum.
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Consider how you are being seen: the wrong camera angle can be very unforgiving. Everyone should be mindful to adjust the height of their laptop/webcam to capture the image at eyelevel, not underneath the subject’s chin and to tilt the camera to only capture your face not the ceiling. If you do not have a stand for your laptop, simply stack books and use that as your stand. Additionally, be sure to do a test run with your lighting to ensure that it comes across on screen in the appropriate manner. This article gives excellent examples of how much a difference lighting and backgrounds can make: https://www.pcworld.com/ article/2048057/how-to-look-fresh-and-professional-in-web-meetings.html Image from : https://appleinsider.com/articles/20/03/27/how-to-make-video-conferences-more-bearable-for-you-other-participants
Preparing Your Technology It is understood that everyone is doing the best they can while working exclusively from home offices. Coupling work-from-home arrangements with homeschooling for students across the globe means home networks can sometimes be working overtime. But as the old adage goes, if you fail to plan, you plan to fail. Think about the following: Consider your capacity: for the most part, each of us is at the mercy of our own internet service provider’s bandwidth; however, sometimes there is a reason to prioritize the activities taking place in your household to ensure you are maximizing your capacity. If you know you will be part of an external client call at a certain time, it might be best to ask family members not to stream movies or games at that time. Consider the timing: if you will be part of a video conference, ensure that you are dialing in via your mobile phone so that the video streaming piece of the meeting is able to function more efficiently. With the global demand on bandwidth, it is imperative to dial-in to calls early. Calls can take up to five full minutes to connect, so in order to not be late, you should dial-in at least 15 minutes prior to the call time for external calls. Another helpful tip is to set up a private group chat with your internal counterparts to share timely communications during the external meeting. Consider the functionality and tools: once you have connected, double-check all the features of the video conferencing software. You should easily know how to mute your line, share your web camera and share your screen. If you do not understand any of the functions, please reach out to L&D for directions on how to access training via our LMS system. There is nothing worse than having a complete technical failure in the midst of an important call. Look no further than these examples: https://interestingengineering. com/15-side-splitting-examples-of-people-failing-during-video-conferences Can we all just echo, “Poor Jennifer!�
Preparing Yourself Last, but definitely not least, is to get yourself in the right mindset for an important call. While norms are more casual and relaxed during this unique time, everyone must remember that you are still representing your personal brand as well as Altair’s to everyone you meet with. Key things to consider before hopping on a call: Consider dressing for success: wearing casual clothes is fine for most internal calls; however, when participating in a video call, stepping up your routine to include business casual attire will make you feel more confident and prepared. Keep your clothes and accessories simple and professional with no busy prints, oversized jewelry or anything that could be distracting during the call. Consider your on-camera persona: this is it – you are ready for your close-up. Remember to look into the camera when speaking, not at the video feeds. Try to keep multi-tasking to a minimum when on a video call as you can appear distracted and disinterested to other participants. Finally, smile. A smile and nod can ease tensions and encourage others as they are presenting. Successful video calls take proper planning and preparation, but you can master video conferencing with the advice presented in this guide and summed up here: https://www.owllabs.com/blog/video-conferencing-etiquette
Happy Meeting!