In today’s digital age it is more common than not to work with people across multiple geographies and time zones. Whether you’re a management consultant for a firm or a freelance business consultant, you have or very soon will be asked to facilitate client meetings. 

It is almost like a rite of passage for a new consultant to lead a client meeting with more than 20 attendees.

Technology has made it so easy for us to do this. With easy apps like Zoom and Skype, conducting these meetings is a breeze…….so one would think. Don’t get me wrong. The technology we have today is great, but it can’t control the one factor that, if left unchecked, can turn your conference calls into disasters.

Human behavior.

This accounts for derailing conference calls more than 80% of the time. Yes you can have technical issues like static and the occasional echo and login trouble during calls, but you can get past those quite easily. It is more likely the actions you (and the participants) took before, during and after the call that truly impact the successful outcome of the meeting.

Here are a few tips to make sure your online meetings are a success: 

BEFORE the conference call

·       Make sure you send out the invite well in advance. It can get very difficult to plan around everyone’s availability, especially for larger groups of attendees. 

·       Be mindful of the difference in time zones across teams when scheduling the meeting. People across different geographies, and hence cultures, can get sensitive and protective about their ‘out of office hours’ time. Choose a time that is most convenient for all.

·       Include the outline of the agenda in the body of the invite email or as an attachment. If it is an online workshop, send the program details or list of speakers by topic and time slot.

·       Track the responses to the invite and confirm participation from attendees that respond ‘tentative’. Have a list of must-attend participants and if possible, reschedule the meeting so that the maximum number of such participants can attend. So you don’t lose your mind doing this with larger groups, ask participants to propose times that are more convenient in case of a conflict, and work from there.

·       If the date of the meeting is far out, re-confirm attendance by sending a reminder closer to the date of the event. Remember, this is not an offer to reschedule the meeting again. 

·       Does the meeting need advance inputs from participants or from other teams? Make sure you gather inputs from the responsible parties prior to the meeting and organize in a presentable format to walk through during the session.

·       If you are facilitating a meeting where most of the content or meat of the discussion comes from individual speakers, confirm which topics each speaker will cover, how much time is needed (and budget a few more minutes), and confirm their attendance.

·       In case you need to share documents that participants need to read through prior to the call, share these pre-reads 24 hours prior to the meeting as a courtesy to all participants 

·       Double-check the online meeting link to ensure it works and can host the number of people (especially on video) without any technical snags.

DURING the call

·       In most cases, meetings start with participant introductions. Depending on the number of attendees, you may want to ask participants to keep introductions short (less than 1 minute) or even avoid them altogether to make the best use of everyone’s time.

·       As a facilitator, set the context for the discussion by going over the agenda for the meeting. Ideally this should only take a few minutes. Also use this time to lay down the ground rules for the meeting if required (e.g. ask people to identify themselves before they share their thoughts or ask a question, encourage interactive behavior)

·       Recap the progress made till date and invite relevant speakers to present the details. 

·       Monitor the discussion and keep it relevant to the main objective of the meeting. It is very easy for conference calls to turn cacophonic and it is your job as the facilitator to, very diplomatically of course, stop any off-topic discussions. Use the mute button – for yourself and your participants, to control the conversation, if required.

·       Encourage interactive behavior from attendees by inviting more participants to share their thoughts. It is best not to put anyone on the spot but is fair to ask for more thoughts / questions / concerns from the attendees as a group. Alternatively, you can circle back to a topic if that person was cut off in an earlier part of the conversation.

·       At appropriate times during a meeting, it may be helpful to connect the dots for all attendees and summarize what has been discussed so far. If the meeting is less than an hour, just confirm the next steps with participants towards the end of the meeting.

·       Make sure you nudge participants to assign accountability and confirm owners for the next steps. Unless you have the names of responsible parties and set timelines for follow up, your meeting has no outcome and essentially has been a waste of everyone’s time.

·       Depending upon how engaged you are in facilitating the meeting, assign someone to take notes or do it yourself. Capture key takeaways from the session and responsible parties for follow-up.

·       Get clarification on the next steps you have recorded so far and whether a follow-up meeting is required.  

AFTER the call 

·       Send out minutes from the meeting to all participants and ask for feedback/clarification on key takeaways and next steps, especially the responsible parties assigned.

·       Depending upon the time assigned for each takeaway, follow-up with the responsible party after a few days/weeks to get updates on progress.

·       Arrange a follow-up meeting with the same group of participants, to discuss progress on next steps as a team, if required. This will depend entirely on the nature of the meeting and whether it is ad hoc or falls into an annual, quarterly or monthly cycle.

Common pitfalls during online meetings

·       Not starting on time. We have all been guilty of this one time or another. Not opening the teleconference line on time sends out signals of unprofessionalism and may impact the seriousness with which participants approach the call. Log in a few minutes early to check if everything is working as needed.

·       Not using the Mute button. The Mute button is your BEST friend during telephonic conference calls! It can save you from background noise that participants may unconsciously create. E.g.: Breathing too close to the phone, tapping fingers, typing. Which is also to say that these are mistakes to avoid as a participant in conference calls.

·       Proximity to the microphone. Speaking too close to the microphone can make your voice sound muffled. Speaking too far from the mic may make you sound faint to the audience.

·       Volume control. There is a huge difference in addressing a large audience in a room vs. on the phone. While you may be focused on projecting your voice and talking louder in person, this is counter-productive during telecalls and just makes you sound aggressive.

·       Not muting the audience. This is a no-brainer but remember to mute the audience if it is a large group being addressed by a few speakers. I can’t list how many teleconferences I have attended where someone was at the airport, going into the shower, eating a salad loudly, yelling at their spouse or trash-talking their clients/colleagues!

·       Bridge line not working. This is the bare minimum that needs to be right but you would be surprised HOW many times people don’t bother to check if their bridge line is working prior to a big teleconference. It sends out very poor signals to your audience and just shows a lack of preparedness on your part. 

·       Not having the relevant participants. The attendees for any telecall have to be relevant. Make sure you do your research to determine who the key stakeholders for a particular discussion are and include the appropriate levels. E.g. If there is a detailed discussion on code change to a particular data table, do include the developers but not the head of IT. If there is a call on the chart of account details, do include the Finance accountants but not the CFO.

·       Group Size. Make sure you have the appropriate number of people on the telecall. A teleconference with limited speakers addressing an audience could have hundreds of participants. On the other hand, conference calls where most attendees are expected to participate in the discussion should be limited to a maximum of 15 to 20 people. Having too many people on the call just creates confusion, interruptions, and people talking over one another.

·       Forgetting you are on video. This gets the most laughs and can be cute but very avoidable. No client wants to see a bedhead in pajamas, so if you are expecting to be on a video call, make sure you and your space (even if it’s a corner in your room) are presentable. Alternatively, put a sticker on your camera to avoid any video bloopers!

 You will rarely have a call that will be perfect, but keeping in mind the above factors can help you get pretty close.

So, which of the above mistakes have you seen on telecalls or video conferences and which ones have you made? Write to me at punya@byondgood.com.

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 Punya is a former management consultant with 15 years of experience at 2 Big4 firms, serving top Fortune500 clients. She has lived and worked in 6 countries and changed 3 careers working across several industries. Punya is passionate about coaching new and aspiring Consultants to succeed in Management Consulting.