Striking a fine balance between listening and speaking is the key to great communication conversation during an e-meetings. Conversations help build rapport, attract buy-ins, help get your point across succinctly and can be leveraged to get desired results.
Outlined below is a list of conversation winners:
- Focus on being understood: If people frequently tell you "I don't understand…” step back and evaluate your speaking skills. Do you dictate, sound patronizing or talk too fast? Practice speaking slower , calibrating your tone & vocabulary to suit your audience. Remember, it is not just what you say but how you say it that also matters.
- Exhibit great listening skills: Most people don’t focus well on listening; instead they are distracted or just waiting for their turn to speak. By displaying good listening skills, you build trust and show interest. Asking relevant questions, using positive gestures on a video-chat ( good eye contact, nodding, smiling) and picking up the thread of the conversation, shows you are ‘really’ engaged and empathetic to the speaker.
- Follow a 2-way dialogue: Conversation, like a game of tennis, is a two-way process. On a one-on-one call, use it as an opportunity it to extract other’s opinions and not just as a tool for telling them yours. View pauses & short silences as time to think and respond.
- Invite participation: Extroverts have natural flair for conversation but the real skill lies in including the quieter ones, who maybe struggling to get their point across on a 2 x 2 tile on your screen. While they have valuable views to contribute, its your job as a leader or the meeting organizer to ensure they are offered a chance to speak.
- Resist the urge to be a “know-all” manager: Despite all your success and depth of knowledge, accept the fact that you cannot have all the answers. So, wait for people to ask for your advice. Invite the junior-most person to contribute to the conversation and agenda item being discussed - you will be pleasantly surprised!
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