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Walking into a meeting, one carries a life time of learned socially acceptable behaviors and manners into the room. However, when participating in or conducting a teleconference, one must be aware of and adhere to the norms of professional etiquette expected during a teleconference.
There's just something about no one being able to see you that may lead to a false sense of casualness that then creates inattentive behaviors and communication that the other members of your meeting are more aware of than you realize. Actually, inattentive participants on a teleconference call are so very easy to identify and disrupt the flow of the meeting; while being completely unaware due to this perceived distance with the other members of the teleconference.
Having expressed the importance of being attentive as well as knowledgeable about the social norms of teleconferences, let us remember the basics and apply them to this new arena. Think about how you conduct yourself during an onsite meeting. Then, imagine your behavior when participating in a teleconference.
Could you take your behaviors from the teleconference meeting and transpose them right into the meeting room at your office? If that brings a smile to your face or makes you chuckle, that's your clue, and we need to take a look at a few tips to remember.
First and most obvious, be on time.
While easy to run to the phone while grabbing your coffee and a bagel with the phone wedged between your chin and shoulder, don't. Make sure you're seated at your desk just as you would if you were physically at the office. Rushing about and getting settled in comes across in an amplified way to the other members of your teleconference.
Second, have all your files and worksheets laid out on your desk, in an easy to access, easy to see order. Once the operator calls you to ask you to wait while the other participants are connecting will give you a few minutes to finalize this and be ready once everyone is live on the conference call.
Third, be aware that you will listen to the rules of communication, the format of the conference call, as they are usually laid out by the host of the call. A critical one to remember is to not speak over someone else and to allow them ample time to finish speaking. This one is sometimes a bit more challenging, since the visual clues are not there. But, with a bit of practice, this teleconferencing skill develops just fine.
Fourth, once you get the ebb and flow of communication during a teleconference call and are able to judge when someone if finished and how to jump into the discussion or present your findings when it is your turn, the bottom line during a teleconference is to be heard, to be remembered, to be an active participant who contributed to the meeting.
After all, using our measuring stick of imagining what this behavior would "look" like in an onsite meeting, wouldn't your goal be that you were seen as a significant contributor to the meeting? Of course, you want to make your mark at the meeting. The same is true for teleconferencing. You're not just on a telephone call, as it were. You are at a meeting and want to have as your goal to adhere to expected teleconferencing manners and social norms while at the same time, make an impact related to the goals and outcomes of the meeting.
Daiv Russell is a management and marketing consultant with Envision Consulting in Tampa, Florida. To learn more about teleconference etiquette, check out audio-conference-calling.info. While organizing your team check out our Team Building activities.
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