How to Lead Remote Meetings Better

In the last few years, remote work adoption has grown rapidly, and COVID-19 situations have greatly accelerated it with new policies and new norms across many types of companies worldwide.

If you are leading such a remotely working team, you must be acquainted with how you can make it effective. If you lead remote meetings better in this new working situation, your team will surely keep up the good work.

Being a leader, you must be aware that remote work can aggravate an individual’s personal and cultural differences. Everybody has their preferences of doing work e.g., some people prefer working on multiple screens while others on a single screen are more productive with a truly structured day while few others need to take creative breaks. The universal solution doesn’t exist when it comes to working from home culture!

So, we have gathered a few tips that will help you lead remote meetings better.

Keep it shorter considering distractions. Rather than a long meeting with likely distractions, including pets, kids, partners, or technical issues, it’s better to plan it shorter.	Arrange only if it’s genuinely required If the meetings are pointless, most of the time, they turn out to be boring, not yielding any results and disturbing the actual work.	Unusual meeting length Fifty minutes long meeting is always more pleasing than a one hour or 20 minutes meeting instead of half an hour. This unconventional way will surely make the meeting more attentive.
Arrive at the defined ending Don’t run a meeting just to talk about the problem; why it is a problem, how it’s a problem, which is to be blamed, etc. Rather, conclude it with a solution.	Involve only the necessary team members Make sure that people who are more responsible for a specific task are the only participants and needlessly, not the entire team.	Be friendly with the annoyance of cultural differences. Because remote work may make it worse to deal with, specific training or orientation may help the managers in this case.
Communicate to pass on the realistic goals It could be hard to adjust and make out what is to be done exactly while working remotely. So, it’s very significant that you establish proper communication to manage everyone’s expectations.	Be open to suggestions. To be a successful remote manager, take feedback and suggestions from your employees. This will give you points of improvement regarding tools, technologies, processes, or managerial decisions.	Positive attitude While adjusting to this ‘new normal,’, positivity will keep everyone going, and it should start with you! Few positive words with your employees will make them more comfortable and composed and ultimately more productive.

This was about the ways to make common group meetings more effective. However, there are different factors that you should consider for the team meetings.

When you lead the team meeting, make it so valuable that even hard decisions can be taken that matter a lot for your organization. Such a meeting helps to build a strong relationship between your people and takes your business one step ahead, even during a crisis.

Here are the tips to lead a successful team meeting:

Start or end the meeting in a fun way. This will enhance collaboration with your team and set the trend of exchange. Adding rituals or ceremonies will surely make a big difference to lead better.	50/50 rule to encourage people to talk The meeting leader will talk for 50% or less time, and the other 50% will be for discussion or collaboration by other people.	Make sure that everyone gets attention. Nobody should get dominated by other people, especially a new team member who has abruptly started working remotely.
Try different approaches to make your team speak up Use chat to ask questions, alternate the leader of the meeting, use humor or even get informal so that your people talk.	Appreciate and motivate Appreciation from the manager, even for a small success, keeps your team members going.	Video conferencing followed by a culture. During your video calls with a team, you can plan to wear certain clothes depending on your culture.

Being a great remote leader, practice extra patience and compassion. Make sure you give enough time that is required to adjust to these work style shifts. Provide your team with all the information and resources they need for physical as well as mental well-being.

A well-planned remote meeting that considers all the above elements is vital to its productivity and collaboration. In work from home environments, meetings are very crucial to maintain a connection with your team.

A few statistics related to remote meeting:

• In March 2020, a 42% rise in the number of virtual meetings was observed, according to Doodle’s report. Group meetings and 1:1 meetings are both included in the report. (Doodle)
• 2.7 billion meeting minutes experienced in Teams on March 31, 2020, which is a 200% increase as compared to 900 million on March 16. (Microsoft)
• 87% of remote employees say they feel more connected and involved with teams and projects when using video conferencing. (Parmetech)

These stats show that remote meetings are gaining more importance than earlier and are essential during the ‘new normal’ of remote working.

To Summarize

Leading the remote meeting can be challenging but make sure that it is comprehensive, effective, and properly run to reduce dissatisfaction and build team cohesion during such critical times.