Essential Tips for Efficient Online Meetings
The life of a project manager involves running all kinds of meetings. If you want to be great at your job, knowing how to run an engaging, focused and productive online team meeting is a MUST. Having facilitated hundreds of virtual meetings for project teams, I’ve discovered a few techniques that make all the difference.
Keep reading for my essential meeting tips!
Tip 1: Engage your team on screen
Virtual meetings can leave you feeling like you’re talking to a wall, especially when team members have their cameras off. Body language is such an important part of communication, so set the expectation early that everyone should have their camera on.
This helps you gauge reactions and keep the team engaged. If someone isn’t participating, maybe assess whether they truly need to be in the meeting.
Use polls, chats, or reaction emojis to keep the conversation dynamic, or if you have a larger team, use breakout rooms to encourage more detailed work in smaller groups.
Tip 2: Keep the meeting focused and on time
One of the challenges of online meetings is keeping everyone engaged and on track, so set clear expectations around the meeting duration. Don’t let it drag on longer than necessary – and stick to the agenda.
As PM, it’s up to you to steer conversations back to the main topic if needed. Setting time limits for each agenda item can help keep things moving along.
At the end of the meeting, summarize key decisions and next steps, and follow up with an email to reiterate action items and deadlines. That keeps everyone aligned and ensures the team knows what’s expected of them next.
More tips for effective virtual meetings
These are just a few of my strategies for running successful online meetings. If you’re interested in more detailed tips and techniques, check out this video I created that dives deeper into the subject.
It covers:
- How to move past awkward and loosen the mood
- Setting your meeting tech up for success
- How a great agenda leads to great outcomes
Follow me over to YouTube and we’ll keep chatting about this!
Want to go beyond basic virtual meeting techniques? Consider joining my SLAY Project Management course, where I provide templates, tips, and techniques for managing every project with confidence
Adriana Girdler, PMP | Creator of Slay Project Management™
P.S. Check out what one of my students said recently about SLAY:
“… offers practical, ready-to-use templates for writing professional emails, project charters, scope statements, project checklists, and meeting checklists. While these tools are often covered in theory in other courses, Adriana goes a step further by demonstrating how, when, and where to use them effectively in real-world projects.” KS
