Organizing Effective Remote Team Meetings

Meetings are essential for the effective running of any business. One of the main things that meetings help to do is to ensure that everyone is on the same page about what is happening in the company. Just because you are managing a remote team does not mean that you should not hold meetings. If anything, you should have more regular meetings. To have the best meeting with positive results, here are some of the best practices to keep in mind.

1. Ensure the right people are in the meeting

Hold a targeted meeting and ensure to invite the right people. Don't invite someone who doesn't need to be there, as this will be a waste of their time. If you are not sure whether someone needs to be there or not, call them and let them know what the agenda of the meeting is and ask them if it is relevant to them.

This means that you should have a clear purpose for the meeting and already know what the agenda of the meeting is. This ensures that the meeting is productive since the people who are involved would be more likely to contribute, as the subject of discussion is relevant to them.

2. Use the best technological tools

The effectiveness of a remote meeting will largely be affected by the type of technological tool that you choose to use. The right tech tools allow you to schedule inexpensive calls whenever you want. There are many great tools that you can use.

Make sure that you choose an audio conferencing service that will give you high-quality sound. If your participants can't hear you during the conferencing call, what is the point of having the meeting? You should be able to get high-quality sound whenever you make a call to avoid disruptions to the meeting. With good quality sound, participants will be able to talk as if you are all in the same room. Poor quality sound can hamper the success of a remote meeting.

3. Allow everyone to talk

Some people might talk too much and other people might not say a lot or they might say nothing at all. It is important that you give everyone a chance to talk. Check in on the participants from time to time to ensure that they are still with you. Some participants might have been cut off due to a technological hitch and you might go on with the meeting even without noticing this. So, keep tabs on everyone during the meeting.

You can do this by asking different participants for their opinions or input during lulls in conversations. Alternatively, you can let different people lead different parts of the meeting.

4. Check time-zones

When deciding the meeting time, take into consideration the time zones where your employees are based. No one would want to hold meetings in the middle of the night or too early in the morning. So check with the attendees about what times would work best for them. Also, give them a few alternatives to choose from before making your final decision as to what would be the best time to hold the meetings.

5. Be prepared

Prepare the necessary documents and information that you need to present in the meeting. Also, let all the participants know what the agenda is in advance so that they can also be prepared. This will lead to more productive discussions.