Build Your Cone of Silence: 3 Tips for Trusted Virtual 1:1 meetings
Posted on April 26, 2021 by Anne Nicoll, One of Thousands of Leadership Coaches on Noomii.
Do your 1:1 virtual meetings offer a safe space, protected audio and sensitivity to schedules? Here is some practical advice for leaders.
Done well virtual meetings are very effective and bring tremendous value to both you, the leader, and your direct report. Keeping your team engaged and productive is a top priority and doing that virtually means you have to be deliberate and create opportunities for your team to interact within the meeting. Done poorly, the virtual meeting can backfire on you and create, rather than prevent, decreased morale and deterioration of business performance.
There is plenty of advice online on how to run great virtual group meetings. New tools like polls and virtual breakout rooms can help keep your team members participating actively during the meeting. Don’t assume that the same approaches will work for virtual, one-on-one sessions. Private and personal information may be shared in one-on-ones and it only takes one bad experience to erode years of trust and commitment. As a leader you need to be mindful of how to run a one-on-one meeting virtually to avoid pitfalls. How you approach these meetings can make or break whether your one-on-one sessions are anticipated or avoided. Consider these three factors when setting up for your one-on-ones – space, sound and scheduling.
Safe Space
Don’t we all love the option of appearing to be sitting on a tropical beach by posting a background photo from our long ago caribbean vacation? While the intention may be to hide that messy bookshelf, what message is being sent when a virtual background is used in a private one-on-one meeting? The person on the other end has no idea what is going on behind the scene, particularly, if there may be others in the room. Your employee’s comfort level will naturally increase when you deliberately reveal the actual space you are in and position the camera so that your employee can see you are alone.
Protected Audio
When working from home may people are living with others who may also be working at home. Participants in the call should ensure that their spouse, partner or child, are not passively participating in what is meant to be a one-on-one meeting. While sitting at your kitchen table might be a usual everyday workplace, it is not an appropriate setting if your employee can here that there is someone in the background clattering around. Also, some people may not have another space available. In those situations, a good headset, for both of you, would prevent others from hearing at least one side of the discussion.
Sensitivity to Schedules
Perhaps the most important factor for having effective virtual meetings is being sensitive to schedules and the constraints your direct may have to achieve privacy. The timing of the meetings need to provide the best opportunity for both of you to access private space. Maybe that is when household members can go out for walk for a little exercise, pick up groceries or walk the dog. A little flexibility in scheduling can make all the difference to have a mutually beneficial meeting rather than a stressful, unhelpful one.
The next time you book a one-on-one with your direct consider what your version of the “cone of silence” looks, sounds and feels like and ensure you are both comfortable with the set up.
Anne P Nicoll is an Executive and Leadership Coach based in Toronto, Canada.
Anne specializes in helping leaders define, enhance and live their unique leadership presence to build engaged teams and generate exceptional results.
Contact Anne at: anne@apnconsulting.ca or www.apnconsulting.ca
