Effective communication is necessary for any business to succeed. Without it, there would be no way that your team would work in harmony and cohesion. There would always be confusion and misunderstanding affecting the progress of the project. A key trait for effective communication is to be an active listener. In the era of digitalization, remote working is becoming increasingly common. You would be witnessing more and more remote meetings than in-person meetings. Whether the session is over the phone or by video, listening and responding to it accordingly is vital. Remote Environment
For an effective remote meeting, you must be able to demonstrate engagement and commitment. By being an active listener in virtual conferences, you would not be lost if asked to put an input. It would help you stay on top of the discussion and help you understand in which way the debate is going ahead.
Moreover, you will construct an atmosphere where your teammates feel heard, acknowledged, respected, and eager to contribute to the discussion. In the corporate world, active listening is an important skill and is a display of your competence. We will discuss how to communicate with team members both online and in-person successfully. Using strong interaction and active listening skills, you can become much better at handling meetings.
Use New and Updated Tools for Collaboration and Communication
When changing the way, we work, we need to change our communication methods as well. You can’t expect to communicate effectively and instantly through emails. Emails are something in the past as new tools are now replacing them. Tools such as Skype and Slack can quickly and easily help you interact with your remote team instantly. Also, you can call someone if you feel that you can communicate in a much better way on a call. Furthermore, it offers you the option to make a group call as well.
If you want to get more people on the call, you can easily add them. However, there is a limit to the people you can add to a call. But don’t worry, as tools like Zoom allows you to hold meetings with as many people as you like. Additionally, there are many employee monitoring software that can help you track the progress of the project. You can assign a task to an individual or the entire team. You can monitor the progress of the project or add a comment for your feedback. The most prominent tools are Jira and Monday.com, but there are many others available out there.
These are just a couple of the tools that remote teams could use to interact and communicate with each other. Though each one has its advantages and disadvantages, these tools can pave the path for smooth communication.
Give and Take Regular Feedback
In a meeting, there could be a point where you might not understand something. Or you were unable to interpret the fact that the other person was trying to make. And for this reason, you should give and take feedback. As an employer, you must address the appropriate concerns, ask the right questions and listen to the answers by the people. By listening to the responses, individuals working remotely do not feel like their questions or concerns are unheard. It will help them to stay productive, allowing them to remain constructive and responsible.
No matter how much you interact with team members, a remote workforce can fail if they are not heard. It will be more challenging to communicate with you in a remote location if your staff is not willing to do it at all. Most importantly, you must ensure that everything has been shared with clarity.
There is nothing wrong with checking if everyone is clear to everyone regarding the contents of the meeting. You can ask at the end of the session if all the people are on the same page.
By checking for clarification, you would also make your employees feel heard and understood. Also, it would increase the probability that individuals are entirely aware and comfortable with the next steps. Furthermore, feedbacks reduce the chances of having to do more work due to uncertainty and misconceptions.
Pay Attention to Body Language
When we talk about listening skills, your body language plays tell the entire story. The way you sit and even the slightest movement means a lot about your level of concentration. Though it can be challenging to judge a person’s body language in a remote setting, your facial expressions can be enough to feel your body language.
Nevertheless, body language is vital to show that you are actively listening and paying attention. A slight nod would indicate that your engagement in the meeting. Also, try to blink your eyes. Many people tend to stare with their eyes wide open.
It is something that you should avoid. It would send a negative signal that you are trying to fake being attentive. In simple words, you need to behave naturally. Don’t try something new as it would send a different message than what you want to send.
Get Comfortable with Silence
Having to sit in silence during a discussion is agonizing and excruciating for the majority of the people. However, there is nothing wrong with it. Silence is the best way to focus on an essential part of the meeting. Effective listeners provide relaxation for people to communicate with their feelings and emotions. By doing so, you will allow them to self-reflect and absorb knowledge at their own pace.
There is nothing wrong with having silence during a meeting. When there is silence, good listeners should not panic, fearing that something is not correct. If you feel the need, you can always address silence and ask for other people’s perspectives. And if they open up about it, you should welcome their viewpoint even if they disagree with you.
Wrapping Up
As businesses now understand the potential that remote working is offering, they are now adopting it. Many sectors such as education, medical, and many more are now hiring remote teams. And why not? The benefits that it offers are unmatchable.
You can a hire dedicated remote team from any part of the world without worrying about visas. Moreover, you can significantly cut back on costs such as rent, utility bills, and many more. And these are just a few of the benefits that remote working offers. And not just employers, employees are also happy with this model. Though you would face a few challenges initially, you would find yourself in a much better position in the long run.
So, this is the chance for you to adapt to remote working and hire a remote team. With the diversification, you would get a cutting and a competitive edge over your competition. And if you are struggling with something in the process, you can always take the help of a remote agency. There are many remote agencies out there that can set up a remote team for you in no time.