Communicating Your Best on a Virtual Platform

We’ve been communicating on virtual platforms for a few years now. Communicating across a technological divide seemed very odd initially. Familiarity has made it tolerable with some people even preferring the artificial construct. Whether you love it or hate it, we all have to use virtual platforms so this article provides some techniques to make you come across with more impact.

I’ve seen all sorts of things about what you should or shouldn't do on Zoom, Teams etc and you probably have too. So let’s divide virtual communication into five key areas:

1. You and the camera

2. You and your communication

3. Your virtual environment

4. Your audience

5. No camera

1. You and the camera

• Lower your camera so your head is almost at the top of the frame.
• Push your lap top backwards or sit further back in your chair so you have as much of your torso in the frame as possible. The body talks not just your head.
• Look either at the camera – which is the equivalent of looking directly into someone’s eyes. Or, look at the screen which may look like you are lowering your eyes depending on the distance between your camera and your screen. Looking at the screen will soften your gaze.
• Have the camera at the level of your eyes. Looking down at the camera makes you look superior and looking up plaintive. If you have a lap top you might need to put some books underneath it.
• Be aware of looking up and/or down while thinking. On a virtual platform this is very unforgiving and you will lose your audience. Keep looking outwards even when you're in thought.
• Don't gaze out of a window or to the left or right while you're talking or listening. You'll look like you’d prefer to be somewhere else and you'll lose your audience.

2. You and your communication

• Sit with your feet and knees hip-width apart. Imagine a cord from the top of your head pulling you upwards..
• If you're planning to participate in this meeting, don’t use the back of the chair for support, it will look like you’re leaning away from the screen reducing your impact and presence . It will also be harder to jump in when you need to speak.
• Don’t drop the volume of your voice. Imagine you are talking at a point some way behind your computer. This will keep your voice expressive and impactful.
• Gesture, by all means. We don’t have to see your hands. We will see some movement from the shoulders and your gesture will be heard in your voice.
• Beware of your gestures being continually high, with your hands parallel to your shoulders. This will make your breathing similarly high and shallow and reduce your cognitive coherence.
• Keep the spine, neck and head relatively still but not glued. The stillness will pull focus and make you look present and credible. In contrast, your energised and measured voice and gestures will provide the engagement with your audience.

3. Your virtual environment

Have you ever been intrigued by what you can see in the rooms where your colleagues are sitting? People and their environments are interesting. Sometimes much more so than work. If you have a pile of toys or laundry in the background, your audience will be thinking about it. If you have bottles of alcohol waiting for a birthday next week, they’ll be thinking about that too. Clear away what doesn’t serve you. Don’t give your audience cognitive overload! If you absolutely can’t move objects out of view, that would be better unseen, then blur your background.

4. Your audience

People tend to look more expressionless and bored on a virtual platform than they do in person. There’s also a tendency for everyone to become more passive and speak less. This can make for a challenging audience.

Seeing numerous faces staring at you blankly can also undermine your confidence. It can cause you to speak quickly to get it over and done with, rather than actively work for engagement and use the body, gesture and voice.

People would be delighted to be engaged at a presentation or a meeting. How many online meetings have you sat through that lacked direction and energy?

To get engagement can sometimes be hard work. If you want people to answer a question, you might have to:

• ask the question with good energy and volume
• look encouraging and friendly
• gesture with palms up
• wait....and sometimes wait....
• breathe and look relaxed and present while you're waiting

After you’ve asked a question, the long emptiness of silence might ensue. Breathe through it and hold that silence as long as you can. Someone is more likely to come in to fill the silence than not. Once, one person comes in, other people will follow as the group dynamic picks up speed.

If you keep talking out of desperation and to fill the silence, you're not facilitating other people to speak.

5. No camera

I am often told that my clients attend meetings where people leave their cameras off. I don’t know what to say about this other than it defeats the object of a successful and productive meeting.

Often, this behaviour has become a cultural trait of the company and will only be shifted by senior management modelling alternative behaviour and putting on their cameras and insisting others do the same.

Communication across hybrid teams and cultures can be particularly undermined by not putting on cameras. In these instances, meaning can be misinterpreted and basic information lost. On a human level, relationships fail to develop and a sense of belonging and purpose within the organisation is drastically reduced.

Conclusion

The above point, tips and techniques have been given in a proscriptive way for clarity. Use what you want and leave what doesn't work for you. However, if something doesn't feel right, it isn't always the wrong choice. Behaving differently, can always feel odd initially. One definition of communication is that it is the response it elicits. In this case, having changed a behaviour, do people perceive you as more impactful and are you meeting your professional outcomes more readily? So get feedback from people you can trust and give it a few weeks to get used to changes.

Communication Coaching in person or virtually?

For the advantages and disadvantages or having communication coaching in person or online please read Communication Coaching - in Person or Virtually?