My top recommendation for leading online meetings is this: Give more space for silence when you’re inviting others to speak.
A few seconds of silence can feel like a long time to wait for someone to speak up. But remember, your internal “that’s long enough to wait before things get awkward” meter is calibrated to a lifetime of in-person conversations, not virtual ones.
In a virtual meeting room, you’re dealing with
- a lag between the time you speak and when others hear you,
- a person hearing you and deciding to speak,
- that person looking around the screen to gauge if they should talk or if someone else is about to, and finally,
- the person finding the button that allows them to come off mute, pushing it, and speaking.
By the time the people in your meeting have made it through these four steps, you’ve decided no one is going to participate in the discussion and moved on.
Double the amount of time you’re willing to wait for someone to speak. It’s hard at first, but you’ll find it’s worth it.
We’re still enrolling the January cohort of the Public Speaking Catalyst! Email me with questions or register now!
