As today’s workforce becomes more mobile and diverse, the landscape of meetings as we know them is changing drastically. More employees are utilizing flexible schedules, spending part of their workweek at home, and workforces are also becoming diverse with employees in different geographic areas or even corners of the globe. Because of this, virtual meetings are becoming more of the norm and less of the exception in the modern workforce. And with that, it presents a host of new challenges for employees to keep these meetings productive for everyone involved. Take this video for example.

Anyone who has ever participated in a conference call or virtual meeting has probably had at least one experience like this! - had one yesterday :)

The next time you’re in charge of leading a virtual meeting, here are 7 tips to keep in mind to help make it worth the time of everyone involved.

Remember that Relationships Matter

When it comes to meetings of any kind, it’s important to remember that it’s not just all about business. It’s the people you’re interacting with and the cohesiveness of that group that can make or break the productivity of that meeting. If these meetings occur regularly with team members, make it a habit to work on improving relationships too and not just furthering matters of business. You may want to consider opening up the conference lines a few minutes early so team members can catch up with causal talk before the agenda begins. Or, as the meeting leader, you can even plan a few minutes at the beginning of each agenda to allow team members to update the group on what’s happening in their lives. Ask them about one of their other projects, how their family is, or what’s happening in their city or country. Working on building relationships with meeting attendees sets the tone for authentic conversation and a productive virtual environment where everyone feels like they’re part of a team.

Be Proactive about Potential IT Issues

There are a lot of different virtual meeting tools out there, and while you may assume that everyone who will be involved in the meeting already knows the ins and outs of your preferred meeting software, don’t take that for granted. Prior to the meeting, consider sending out a brief email reminding attendees about any updates they should make to their software beforehand, plugins they may need, etc. It also wouldn’t hurt to remind them that to keep things efficient for everyone involved, that they should have a fast/reliable internet connection, a headset or earbuds to prevent echoing, etc. The more you can do beforehand to prep attendees the more smoothly things will run during the meeting.

Create and Distribute an Agenda Beforehand

Making an agenda is also a crucial step to prepping for heading up any virtual meeting. Make a list of the topics you plan to discuss (along with any sub-topics or notes) and distribute them to attendees prior to the meeting so everyone can prepare accordingly and be more focused during the time you’re working together. For each topic you list, consider also including the answers to the following questions:

• Why are we discussing this topic?
• What are the ideal outcomes of this discussion?
• What do we need from participants for this discussion?

Sending out your agenda ahead of time rather than just reviewing it quickly as the meeting is starting will help keep things on track during the meeting and produce far more effective outcomes.

Plan Extra Time

When it comes to virtual meetings, you almost have to plan for the unexpected. Someone may be late joining in, another may have technical difficulties mid-discussion, and you may find that you need more time to discuss a certain topic than you had originally thought. As a rule of thumb, plan 20% more time than you think you’ll need for each topic on your agenda. Allotting extra time than you expect that you’ll need is always a good idea for meetings, and you can always end early if you’ve covered everything on your agenda. You’ll be hard pressed to find anyone who complains about a meeting ending early!

Set the Right Expectations

As the leader of the virtual meeting, it’s also important that you set expectations from the start about how you will be guiding the conversation. Make it clear that you will try to be firm about keeping the conversation on track and that you may call on people during certain conversations where their input seems appropriate. As the leader, it’s also a good idea to ask attendees to stay focused on the agenda at hand while leaving their other technology aside during the meeting, unless they have a good reason not to.

Encourage Participation

It’s common for most virtual meetings to have at least one “silent attendee”—the person who listens to the entire conversation, but only chimes in upon greeting or leaving the meeting. As you lead and direct the meeting, make participation paramount for everyone involved. Keep a chart of everyone who is attending the meeting so you can easily call on them by name. Whether you would like their specific input or just simply ask if they have any further questions about the topic, try to make sure that you’ve included every attendee by name at least once during the meeting.

Close Effectively

The way you close your virtual meeting can be just as important as the topics you discussed during its duration. Before you wrap things up completely, check for the following:

• Completion – Does anyone have something else to add to the conversation or ask if things were unclear about a specific topic?
• Alignment – Does everyone agree about where the conversation ended up?
• Next Steps – Is everyone clear about their actions moving forward?
• Value – Are you taking away something valuable from this meeting?
• Acknowledgment – Is there anyone we should acknowledge before ending?

With a little bit of planning and extra attention to structure, virtual meetings don’t have to feel like they’re a waste of time ever again. As the meeting leader, it’s your job to make sure members of your group feel included as a team, that they know what their role is in the meeting, and that everyone leaves the meeting feeling like their time was well spent. Do you have any other tips for how you make virtual meetings productive? Please share in the comments below.

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