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The Worst Things You Could Do During a Professional Online Meeting

If you are fortunate enough to be in a position where you can capture a large audience and present to them, then you just need to be aware of all of the specifics that come with the responsibility. Many people can be uncomfortable or nervous when it is their time to present in front of others because speaking publicly can be hard. That being said, if you are going to relay facts and information then you can still accomplish a tremendous amount. Just make sure you remember the following points to avoid if it comes to a professional online meeting.

Feeling Comfortable Enough to Multitask

While meetings can be long and drawn out, there are also a lot of reasons that you should continue to pay attention to what is going on. At any point you could be called upon and you don’t want to be out of place. You also don’t want to be known as someone who is rude. Finally, people may even question why you are at the meeting in the first place if you aren’t going to be present mentally and if you won’t contribute to a better workplace.

According to Forbes, there may be many different strategies that you can do in order to get through a meeting of any sort, but if you aren’t locked in when it comes to an online meeting then you could be the individual who is seen and remembered for all of the wrong reasons. Try to stay focused on the task at hand and be able to offer limited input when you are able to. Multitasking may be a great way to get ahead in other facets of life, but when the only thing you are being evaluated on is your contributions, then you have to stay focused on the meeting itself no matter how boring it may be.

Invite People to Meetings Instead of Scheduling Them Out

Many of the best services you can find while using a cloud video meeting app like BlueJeans will not only let you be able to speak with others, but you can also schedule meetings in advance. And, while you may have to invite an additional party into a given meeting on short notice, you will also want to make sure you do whatever it actually takes to be able to stay organized. After all, when you think about the power of video conferencing then you will know just how convenient it can be with respect to avoiding the setup costs for any meeting. However, if you don’t think about scheduling out in advance then you really aren’t going about the full process of meetings as efficiently as you possibly can.

Pushing Your Own Agenda

According to 10 Minutes With, you can see that one of the worst things anyone can do in a meeting is to push their own agenda. On the one hand this can happen in a very subtle manner. However, it can also be a major problem and a detriment to the overall meeting for everyone if you have someone who continues to try and push or pull the flow of the meeting in a particular way. If you need to gather people and ask for input or you just want to have advice in certain areas, then you should think about having your very own meeting to solve your own questions and problems. When it comes to a meeting that you are a part of, however, it makes sense to let the presenters be able to do what is needed to move forward with their own agenda.

Get Into Arguments

If you are passionate about something, you have authority to speak on it, and you are vested in how the results come out, then you have more than enough reason to stick up for your ideas. However, you also have to be careful that you aren’t actually getting into arguments with people and that you aren’t losing your cool in front of all of your coworkers including your direct superiors. Getting into arguments never screams management, and it actually could signal that your communication skills are as low as your stress is high. Make sure you stay under control when it comes to disagreements and try to keep things civil.

While you can do a lot of good when it comes to video conferencing software and you can absolutely find some success in the realm of being able to do more with less, you also want to continue making sure that you won’t put yourself in a position that will hurt yourself or your managerial reputation. Make sure you understand everything that is going on in the meeting itself and just continue to look for new ways to actually add value instead of wasting that time.  

 

Yoav Farbey

Contributing writer to the Startup Magazine.