During the crisis, the decision to work from home is the best thing to do but it doesn’t mean it doesn’t come with any consequences. There are many challenges faced by business leaders when they have to lead their team remotely especially those who are really new to this kind of environment. Struggling to find balance in the beginning is normal. However, you can still do your best to optimize remote meetings with your team members.
Building teamwork during virtual meetings
Teamwork is essential for business because there are so many things to deal with to achieve the common goals. Virtual gathering can be efficient because it saves time, energy, and money especially during the pandemic. However, some problems may also arise with this work environment. Building teamwork might be more challenging due to various issues.
Make the meetings to be more interesting
Fill the virtual experience with something more fun to have. It doesn’t have to be something grande or costly. You can just ask your team members to wear their funniest shirt for the virtual gatherings. It can make the meeting even more enjoyable because everyone is in a good mood since the beginning.
Small talks
Open the meeting with a small talk where you can check on your team members. This shows that you care about their well-being especially during the pandemic. You can just have a small talk with your team members regarding to their favorite foods so far, or what activities they enjoy the most to fill the day after work. These simple things can create sparkles to the entire meeting.
Don’t get sidetracked
Sometimes, there are so many distractions during virtual meetings with your team members. Staying focus on the matter at hand can be challenging. You may get easily distracted with the conversation you have when one of the members lost internet connection. Thus, it is highly recommended to make plan of the entire meeting from the beginning to the end. What things to discuss and goals to achieve after meeting should be planned out thoroughly.
Inform what team needs to prepare beforehand
It is also highly advised to let your team members what they need to prepare before the meeting for example through emails. There you can send them logistics and purpose for the meetings. Therefore, your team members will be more prepared with the meeting. If the purpose can actually be achieve just via email, then you don’t necessarily have to gather everyone for a virtual meeting. Make sure that every virtual meeting is purposeful.
Point someone to be leader of the day
To make the meeting more organized, you can point out someone to become the leader of the day. Their role is to control the situation and make sure everyone has the equality to participate in the meeting. A situation even during virtual meeting can turn into a chaos when everyone wants to talk at the same time. Even if you are the business leader, you can point out someone be it junior or senior in your team to take role as the lead of the event.