Tip of the Week: How to Make Your Remote Meetings More Impactful

We’ve seen firsthand how the shift to remote work has revolutionized business operations. However, one area still causes friction for many business owners: the virtual meeting. A poorly executed remote meeting isn't just a time-waster; it can drain productivity and disengage your team, damaging your company culture. Today, we outline a few tips that show that with the right strategy and tools, your remote meetings can be even more effective and engaging than their in-person counterparts.

Let’s take a look at four ways that you can improve your remote meetings:

Define a Clear Objective

The most common killer of effective meetings is ambiguity. Without a defined purpose, discussions can quickly spiral into tangents. Before sending the invite, ask yourself, “What is the point of this meeting?” The answer should be clear. To make it more effective, distribute the agenda at least an hour before the meeting. Include an estimated time limit for each item. This can help participants stay on track and allows them to prepare their thoughts beforehand.

Mandate Camera-On Participation

Non-verbal cues are vital for communication, trust, and engagement. When participants leave their cameras off, they are often silently multitasking, which diminishes the quality of the discussion. You’ll want to set a cultural expectation: unless there's a technical limitation, cameras should be on. Encourage your team to dedicate their full attention, just as they would in a boardroom. Some good practices to follow include using features like raise hand to encourage low-barrier interaction.

Use Collaborative Tools During the Meeting

Don't just talk at your team; work with them. The biggest advantage of remote meetings is the ability to instantly collaborate on digital documents. Stop screensharing slides for long periods. Instead, switch to a shared cloud document. Have participants contribute simultaneously to brainstorming lists, document drafts, or sticky-note polls. Choose a person who is not the meeting leader to capture action items in a shared document and write down relevant questions from the meeting. This frees up the leader to focus on facilitating the discussion.

Conclude with an Action Recap

A meeting without clear next steps is a conversation; and conversations don’t often end up with results. The final few minutes are the most critical for ensuring accountability. Before signing off, dedicate a couple of minutes to a final action recap. Verbally review all decisions made and assign every next step to a specific person. You’ll want to immediately distribute the final action item list—complete with assigned owners and deadlines—via email or your project management system, if you have one. This transforms verbal agreements into trackable tasks, ensuring momentum continues long after the virtual room closes.

Your organization’s remote meetings are a reflection of your company's operational discipline. By moving away from passive listening and embracing focus, you'll find your teams are more productive.

If you would like more useful tips and tricks, return to our blog soon.