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| Dear Meeting Guru,
"What are some effective ways to lead
a teleconferenced meeting?"
El Dorado Hills, CA
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Blessed Meeter,
Below you'll find some tips and techniques for facilitating your next teleconferenced
meeting.
| Before the Call |
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Try to plan ahead and let participants know the date,
time and expected duration of the meeting. Be sure to provide all printed
materials (agenda, background information, etc.) to participants in
advance. It’s important that participants come prepared to every
meeting, so define what you expect of them and provide some ideas on
how they can do this.
Also, with teleconferenced meetings, it's imperative that all attendees
arrive on time. Highlight the importance of this when you e-mail the
meeting information to the them.
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| During the Call |
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Always take roll call first. This lets everyone know exactly
who's in the room. If some of the meeting participants haven't met previously,
take some time to let each participant introduce himself and explain
why he is attending the meeting.
Next, outline the agenda and highlight the objective of this meeting.
It's probably a good idea to define the meeting ground rules and expected
behavior during the meeting. For example, ask participants to speak
naturally, identify themselves when speaking, pause for others to
comment and to spell out unusual terms, names and numbers. Basically,
you should explain the importance of communicating as clearly as possible
to avoid confusion.
During the meeting, try to direct questions and comments to specific
individuals or locations. This way you can avoid having several people
talking at once. At the end of your meeting, choose a date and time
for your next teleconference call, if necessary. If you're going to
have another meeting, assign action items or follow-up tasks for the
participants.
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It’s honorable that you are attempting to learn
more about this technology, since many individuals have no desire to learn new
things. As the wise philosopher Confucius once said, "If a student is not
eager, I won't teach him; if he is not struggling with the truth, I won't reveal
it to him." In other words, by inquiring about new things, you will become
a wiser and more knowledgeable individual.
Until next time…may good meeting karma always
be with you!
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