Running an engaging online meeting can be tricky at some times, especially after the crisis of the Coronavirus pandemic had forced some companies to apply the “Work from Home” process. Since we are done quarantining, some companies decided to start operating from the office, while others kept the working from home process going to avoid any possible COVID-19 infection.
If your employees are still working from home or if you are managing a freelancing team, then the only way to connect the whole team at this time is the online meeting and as we mentioned before, it can be tricky. To have a successful online meeting, your team members have to be engaged and active, and for you to have that, you might want to consider these tips.
1- Plan Your Meeting
Before starting your online meeting, you should plan what you will be doing in it. Create a checklist with the points you want to discuss and with everything you want to cover in the meeting. Prepare your questions and put in mind that you will dedicate a certain amount of time for your team to talk.
2- A Small Talk before You Start
Before discussing tasks and work, you should try having a small talk with your team members. Make it a social talk by asking about them and what they are up to; ask them about their mental health and if they are coping with the current circumstances or not.
Make them feel that you care about them more than the meeting.
3- Mutual Feedback
Whether your employees are full-time working from home or they are a team of freelancers, ask them for their feedback about work and you and give them feedback regarding their performance.
This will help your meeting to be more engaging, you will be discussing employees’ performance and how they can improve themselves and you will learn more about yourself through their eyes.
4- Each Department Should Has Its Meeting
Don’t put all teams together; you should dedicate a meeting to each department with its team. In other words, if you have a team of designers then they should have their meeting separated from other teams.
This will spare the silent moments that your employees will have when you discuss other team’s tasks.
5- Brainstorming
Brainstorming is always a good idea for holding an engaging meeting, making everyone think and share ideas, this will open many discussions between you and your employees and will make the meeting more successful since everyone will be creative and speak up their minds.
6- Engage with Your Team
To help make your team more engaged in the meeting, you have to engage with them. Focus on all the members in the meeting, try to notice who is engaging and who isn’t and include them in the discussion. Share your ideas and talk instead of just listening.
7- Assign Tasks
To guarantee that your next meeting will be engaging, you might want to try assigning some tasks to your employees so you can have something to discuss next time. You can create tasks related to work or tasks for fun and get their feedback next meeting.
This is why online meetings tend to be tricky and boring at times, but these tips might help you in creating a fun and successful meetings with your team.
