Inspired by our Annual Professional Presentation Week (February 12 – February 16, 2024), the CSE Team has created a blog series to highlight important topics related to the various aspects of professional presentation. These will be published throughout the month of February (because one week just isn’t enough!), so stay tuned for more awesome Professional Presentation Content.
In this blog post, Alice Ain Rich, Associate Director, MBA Career Coach and Adjunct Professor, reveals her 3 P’s of Virtual Meetings: Presence, Practice, and Patience.
About Professional Presentation Week: Featuring several events and challenges related to various aspects of professional presentation, including: Professional Attire, Body Language, Interview Preparation, Online Presence, Networking Tips, The Video Interview, Small Talk Challenge, Personal Branding, and more!
Why your virtual meeting presence, recording yourself to practice, understanding the platform and being patient is what matters!
Zoom, Teams, Google Meet, Whatsapp!
The number of platforms where important meetings – career changing meetings – take place has grown exponentially in the past five years. While similar, each has distinct differentiators that take time, practice and patience to perfect.
Here are my 3 P’s for mastering virtual meetings.
PRESENCE
To create an effective presence, you need confidence, not only in your presentation content but in the look and “feel” of how you appear and sound.
Does your background match, compliment or distract? Are your clothes professional and not distracting? Have you practiced sitting up straight and looking at the camera?
Antonie Knoppers ‘93, MA’95, in his book Leading With Presence, quotes research that “Up to 90% of our communication is non-verbal”. Content, posture, body language and your voice all matter in a remote meeting.
Silence is golden. While a dog barking or a child saying something sweet can be a good tension reliever and make a connection to the interviewer, it only really works if it happens once, and briefly. Screaming at your dog to be quiet is not a good idea. Having a cat jump on your head in the middle of a sentence is shocking. Find a quiet, pleasant and distraction free space to have your meeting.
PRACTICE
If you have not used one platform over another recently, take time to practice and find a tutorial and best yet, practice with a friend.
Having an important meeting online without practice or recording yourself is like getting dressed for an event and running out without looking in the mirror or going on a trip without a GPS. Will you make it? Maybe. Will it be fun, not likely.
PATIENCE
Being kind to yourself and allowing time to get better is the third “P”. Think of planting a seed and yearning to eat the fruit. It is natural for most of us to want the fruit right away, but it takes time. You have to water and provide the right conditions for the seed to grow and eventually reap the rewards.
It is the same with mastering the skill of virtual meetings. It is going to take time, so acknowledge with positivity when one meeting is better than the last. Your goal may be to control nervousness or have notes more easily accessible, and if you are not perfect one time, that is okay.
Be your own coach, use positive self-talk and don’t criticize yourself too much.
Get performance ready with the 3 P’s: Presence, Practice and Patience and find success!
