Uncertainty about COVID has led to changes in customer decision making, a restructuring of the decision-making hierarchy, and a tendency for ‘wait and see’ or ‘do nothing’ to become the default approach.

Furthermore, as more people work from home, the initial novelty has worn off. Business leaders that fail to adapt their style to leading teams remotely are finding morale slipping and productivity waning. It is perhaps more vital than ever to put compassion and empathy at the forefront of leadership. Instead of adhering to tired stereotypes about home workers being happy and carefree, we should seek to understand that not everyone thrives in a more isolated environment.

Contrary to prevailing beliefs about home workers having a better work/life balance, in truth, a significant number are unable to ‘switch off’ – they feel uncomfortable, as though they’re cheating, by taking a break from the computer from time to time.

We have found that there is a ‘silent minority’ of people who feel isolated or burned out working from home. Lacking the guidance of understanding leaders, they often feel that they are kept in the dark and directionless, which is taking a toll on their mental health. Engagement levels have dropped in many businesses due to poor communications, a failure to communicate vision, and a lack of consideration to the Hierarchy of Needs.

The bottom line is that the skills that got us where we were at the start of the year are nowhere near sufficient to take us through into the next one.

That is why we at Robin Lines Associates have spent the year developing our remote training programmes. We have spent time listening to a variety of clients, developing bespoke programmes based on their immediate needs to get them over the initial obstacles and ensure that they are productive and well-set heading into this uncertain future.

We are confident that our programmes, specifically tailored towards Winning Business and Keeping People Engaged in the New Normal can add significant value to any business struggling in these difficult times.

You can find a brief rundown of our new programmes here. All of our programmes are modular and flexible to suit your team’s requirements, can be run over a variety of video conferencing applications, and can be scheduled in bitesize chunks to give your people proper time to absorb the content. We provide recordings of sessions on request, and we favour a practical approach using interactive roleplay scenarios to fully recreate sales and leadership in the new normal.

The post Leadership and Sales Training in the New Normal appeared first on Robin Lines Associates.

Take it Seriously

I’m sure we’ve all seen several amusing tales of online meeting mishaps, from the Spanish councillor who broadcasted himself taking a shower, to the poor Reddit user whose quirk of talking to his food caused significant embarrassment. Many of these unfortunate events occur because people are not taking these meetings seriously.

Sipping iced mochas while sat at your PC in the comfort of your home can lead you to let your hair down a little too much. You might be at home, but a remote meeting is still work and should be treated as such. Make sure you adopt a professional mindset from the off, close those irrelevant browser tabs and don’t leave the TV on in the background.

If you must leave the session temporarily, be sure to mute your mic, turn off your camera and inform others in the room. Type a message to let people know you need to go AFK for a few minutes. However, unless something is vitally important, try not to leave. Be respectful of other people and the time they’ve set aside for the meeting.

Impressions Count

In a similar vein, it’s essential to ensure that you are making a strong impression. Arriving at an online meeting in a football shirt, with a cocktail in one hand and a burger in the other screams that you don’t care. If you don’t care, why should anybody else?

Nobody expects you to don a suit and tie for a half-hour follow-up session, but smart casual should be a bare minimum. Keep any drinks at the desk to a glass of water or a mug of tea/coffee and leave the snacks for later. Remote meetings might afford you some leeway, but if you wouldn’t do it in-person, you probably shouldn’t be doing it online either.

Additionally, ensure that there are no distractions for others visible behind you. Where possible, find a spot where your camera looks out on a clean portion of the wall. When talking to clients, be mindful of anything in your room that could be offensive or viewed as insensitive if noticed.

Pay Attention

This is an area we’ve written about before, but it’s absolutely vital in online meetings. Too often, people become distracted in a meeting. They might start reading emails or become fixated on something they see out of the window. When this happens, not only does productivity start to drop but others in the meeting can become frustrated.

It can be easy to lose focus during an online meeting, but people will notice. Eliminate distractions in your workplace and give the current speaker your full attention. Take notes as you go, and always remain aware of your body language. The signals you’re sending out will be picked up on by others.

Where possible, look directly into the camera. While it may not always seem intuitive, especially if your video feeds are not in the eye-line of the camera, it will help you pay attention to what is being said. More importantly, it will ensure that the current speaker feels that you’re taking notice. This is especially useful when talking with prospects and clients, and helps bridge gaps and make video conferencing feel more personal.

The post Three Tips for More Successful Online Meetings appeared first on Robin Lines Associates.

In coaching, we primarily work face-to-face. It’s a people-oriented profession and working alongside those people has been seen as the best method for embedding new skills and developing talent. Remote consultations, such as over the phone or via Skype, have usually been considered as an extra, rather than the primary delivery method.

Therefore, it is fair to say I was sceptical about transitioning to primarily remote delivery. I had questions about the technology and whether I could adequately recreate the classroom experience. Would people pay as much attention? Would they consider it to have the same value? Would there be technical complications? A lot of concerns rolled around in my head. It has always been vital for me to feel that people are benefitting from the training I’m delivering. Could remote training really replicate the in-person experience?

Having been delivering remote programmes for several months now, I feel more confident to say that it could. There will always be times when in-person training is better. Larger groups or residential weeks cannot be delivered remotely. Teambuilding is best managed in reality, not virtual reality. Sometimes the key to unlocking somebody’s potential needs an unfiltered training experience.

More and more, however, I see the value of remote learning. The feedback from clients has allayed a number of my initial misgivings. The versatility of Break Out Rooms for roleplay and simulations significantly helps to make the remote experience more dynamic, while polls and chat encourage engagement. The technical challenges we’ve faced have been minimal, and mostly due to nothing more than a temporary blip in a delegate’s internet connection. Even these have been easy to overcome, as we can record sessions to view later.

Moving forward, I could see remote training have increasingly practical applications. Bite-sized sessions are not only more environmentally friendly, but they are also more cost-effective for both the client and me. Businesses need no longer set aside whole days for some training sessions when smaller groups could be managed in a more staggered manner. Productivity will only increase as courses need no longer be as intrusive on a delegate’s time. If several delegates are unavailable due to unforeseen circumstances, it’s not as problematic as it is with in-person. We have been able to provide additional follow-up sessions quickly, ensuring nobody is left behind in their training journey.

As I write this, sitting in a room on a hot day, I’m reminded of those times a group of us have sat in an uncomfortable office in the middle of summer. While we might not be able to cool down everybody’s home, there is an additional comfort factor in being able to work with an iced-latte and a nearby desk fan. People always work better and learn more, when they’re comfortable.

Our brand new LMS allows us to create supplemental materials, such as pre-work and post-work, to add even more value by challenging and developing people beyond the sessions themselves. We can even better tailor our post-session development work more to the individual, delivering additional learning materials that take into account a person’s needs and goals. Our LMS allows us to see, at a glance, how our delegates are progressing, where they thrive and where they struggle. We can evaluate an entire group’s understanding of the materials and deliver our findings confidently to business leaders. Combined with our E-Learning Platform, we can offer additional low-cost training courses, on-demand, to our clients ensuring a steady stream of valuable materials to facilitate success.

Although we found ourselves in this position out of necessity, by forcing us to confront the limitations of the way things have always been done means that we can now confidently find new ways to do the same thing. In-person training will always have its place in the coaching world, but I am not ashamed to say that I have transitioned from sceptic to believer over these past few months. I truly believe that, in time, remote training may no longer be delivered out of necessity, but become the default for a lot of programmes.

The post From Sceptic to Believer: Remote Training and the ‘New Normal’ appeared first on Robin Lines Associates.

In our previous article, we looked over the basics of video conferencing, but how do you make your meeting a success? Today we’re going to be looking at methods to keep people engaged, particularly in team meetings.

Maintaining Order and Encouraging Contributions

It’s important to keep people engaged. The best way to do this is to ensure that everybody can contribute. That can be difficult when it’s hard to know when to speak. For those trying to listen, there is nothing more frustrating than several people talking over each other. Fortunately, many video conferencing platforms have anticipated this problem and provide different ways to allow people to contribute while simultaneously keeping things ordered.

For example, in Zoom, there is both a text chat feature and raise-hand function. This means that people can type out their thoughts, comments and questions on the fly, or raise their hand if they want to say something in voice chat.

You should make an effort to understand the functionality of your video conferencing system and create a set of simple guidelines to let people know the process for contributing to the meeting. Distribute these guidelines a few days before the meeting to give people the chance to learn and understand them.

Encourage People to Mute their Mics When They’re Not Speaking

Some video conferencing platforms allow the room leader to mute the non-active speaker. If that functionality is unavailable, it’s best to encourage people to use ‘push-to-talk’. Alternatively, they could use any available software mute or the physical mute button for their microphone. This helps not only to keep the chat free of coughs or other interruptions but typical background noises such as music, outdoor sounds or pets.

Encourage Contribution

To prevent people’s minds from drifting, it is good practice for the facilitator to regularly canvas opinions from the group. You can encourage them to type an answer into chat, or go through them one-by-one to allow them to speak. However, you do it, taking the time to enable people to speak up not only aids overall meeting engagement, but it can also help overcome the nerves of some who are perhaps more self-conscious about video conferencing than others.

Read the Room

It’s good practice to ask that everyone has a webcam available for a video conference. Some people might have good reasons for not having one, such as working on desktop computers which are not always sold with cameras included. If possible, however, it’s best to try and encourage these people to get a camera or even send them one if practical.

The reason you want everyone on camera is two-fold. First, it helps mitigate some of the isolation your people may be experiencing working from home. They can see some friendly faces and have more honest and open interactions with each other.

Secondly, it helps you to read the room – to identify who might be distracted, upset, confused, etc. You can keep an eye on people’s facial expressions and body language to assess where people are. If you get the sense that somebody is feeling left out of the conversation, you might want to try and be more proactive in including them. Should someone not be paying attention, you may want to ask if they can stick around for a private one-to-one to get a sense of whether they need additional support.

Try to Keep it Short

Particularly when dealing with larger groups, you want to try and prevent people from taking up large chunks of time speaking. We know that some people are naturally more verbose than others, so people must try and get to the point quickly.

You also want to keep the meetings as short as is reasonable. It’s uncomfortable to stare at screens for too long without a break. If you simply must have a longer session, factor in natural breaks every half-hour or so to allow people to stretch their legs, grab a coffee, nip to the toilet or attend to their families. You will find meetings are far more productive when you can keep people relaxed.

Seek Feedback

When the meeting is concluded, ask everybody who attended to send some feedback about the meeting. Make sure they include any difficulties they may have had, such as problems hearing certain people, keeping up with the different opinions being expressed, or anything else that may have dampened their experience.

You will also want to confirm that they understand any measures agreed upon in the meeting, or any assignments handed out.

Use the feedback to work to tailor people’s experiences for the next meeting, and you’ll soon be able to engage in remote sessions with more confidence.

The post Video Conferencing Tips for a Successful Meeting Part 2 appeared first on Robin Lines Associates.

As with an in-person meeting, the first thing you need to decide upon is what you wish to achieve from the meeting. Are you delivering a product demonstration and pitch? Perhaps you’re negotiating an already existing offer? You could be meeting a new client or contact within an organisation for the first time. You may also be conducting a meeting with your team members.

With the meeting’s purpose firmly in mind, you should begin preparing for the call. Ensure that any documents, information, PowerPoint slides and similar items are ready and rehearse the content of any pitch or speech you need to give.

If it’s a team meeting, make sure that you circulate an agenda, preferably a couple of days before the meeting to allow your people to comment or contribute to it.

Be Punctual

When running a remote meeting, you must be punctual. Try and ensure that you are in position at least fifteen minutes before it begins. This gives people confidence that everything is working at your end, doesn’t leave other early-birds sitting around staring at loading screens, and importantly, it allows you to thank everybody for attending as they filter into the room.

Small Talk

Try and set everyone at ease with a little bit of small talk. Have an icebreaker ready. Understand that this is the perfect time to start trying to engage people in the meeting by asking questions. If it’s a team meeting, give people a chance to let you know how they’re coping, particularly during the current health crisis.

Presentation Skills

We all know that when you’re working from home, it’s easy to let things slide a bit. Perhaps rather than wearing your typical work suit, you’ve adopted the heavy metal t-shirt and jogging bottoms approach? That’s not a problem when you’re flying solo, but a meeting is a team affair. If you’ve decided to start growing out your beard or haven’t been able to visit the hairdressers for a while, at least make yourself presentable.

If you’re meeting somebody for the first time, perhaps a new client or contact, then it is even more critical that you make a great first impression so go the extra mile to make sure your appearance is up to scratch.

You should also ensure that your room is well lit, with no distracting elements in view of the camera. A few typical items like a coffee mug or picture frame are acceptable, but if you’ve got a Pulp Fiction poster on your wall or a pet tarantula behind you, then you might want to consider moving things around a bit.

Body Language and Speech

55% of all communication is non-verbal. Think about what you’re like when you’re on the phone. You might be fidgety, you might pull faces, or you might slouch or otherwise appear to lack confidence. During video conferences, it’s often easy to forget that other people can see us. You should treat the meeting as though it was an in-person meeting, and adopt the same body language that you usually would. Avoid appearing too casual, and be mindful of what you are communicating to the other participants.

When it comes to speaking, you should have a good quality microphone that you can get. While many laptops come with built-in microphones, you often find that these are of poor quality. Similarly, cheap and cheerful headset-mics are usually cheap for a reason. It is worth investing in good quality equipment. While it is not currently feasible to test devices in-store before you buy, make sure that you check out reviews of different products.

Equipment

You also need to consider that many of your attendees may not have good quality headsets and microphones. They may also have network problems that cause stuttering or lag. Consequently, you need to speak clearly and concisely, and possibly slower than you might typically speak. Don’t sound condescending if speaking slower than usual; try and maintain a positive pitch and tone, and after key points, ask everyone whether they understand.

Finally, remain upbeat and try to remember to smile and give a warm vibe through your facial expressions. You want people to be and stay engaged throughout, and that won’t happen if you look like you don’t want to be there.

The post Video Conferencing Tips for a Successful Meeting Part 1 appeared first on Robin Lines Associates.

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