John Chen is CEO of Geoteaming, a provider of virtual team-building exercises, and the author of “Engaging Virtual Meetings.” He uses ENGAGE as a mnemonic means of remembering six steps to defeat virtual meetings fatigue.
Engage and interact with every attendee. Greet all of your attendees as they arrive and check in with those who haven’t said anything for a while. Of course, this assumes that your audience is a controllable size to greet individually.
Never lead a meeting alone. Assign another team member or an attendee roles (with training) such as monitoring chat or muting and unmuting participants. This allows the host to focus on attendees.
Good looks. Nothing fancy here. Look good. Wear bright colors — company gear if possible. Turn on your lights. Clean up your background.
Air traffic control. Help find a way for attendees to communicate without stepping on each other’s auditory toes.
Get productive with virtual tools. Arrive on time. Plan. Value each other’s time. Make decisions everyone buys into and document those decisions. Attendees will be more engaged and feel valued if you can host productive virtual meetings.
End your meeting on a high note. When you end positively, attendees are more likely to come back and more likely to be engaged. Ask for feedback. Do a cheer. Play a video. Celebrate success. Say thank you. Then log off.
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