Program Manager

3 Rules of Videoconferencing Etiquette This is a time where many employers are allowing employees to work from home. Some of us love it and others not so much. If you want a chance to shine and open the door for an ongoing flexible schedule, three rules of etiquette apply: 1. Sit up straight and focus on the meeting. Intent listening sets you up to solve the voiced, silenced and silent problems. Position yourself to shine and have good posture while you’re at it. Posture shows confidence and grace. It also kicks your attractiveness up a notch. A little eye candy never hurt nobody. 2. Don’t talk to hear yourself talk. Dominating meetings with gibberish ain’t it. Add to the conversation and aim to contribute. “Give and it shall be given unto you.” Avoid asking questions that will put your boss on the spot. If you have a question about your individual work situation, wait to discuss one-on-one. If you have feedback that will help the team by all means articulate a confident recommendation or ask thought-provoking questions. The answer might solve a company or departmental issue. Otherwise, hold onto your silence, focus and open up those ear canals until you cook up something yummy to share. 3. Show your face. Sure, videoconferencing has a feature to hide your face but please use it sparingly. If your goal is to shine and achieve more flexibility, accountability is showing up—with your face not a selfie, avatar, name or sunken place square. I’ve actually almost gone into the sunken place gazing at that square, and you will be judged if your boss takes that journey too often. The sunken place is for extenuating situations, and shade throwing moments. In the latter case, it’ll keep the shade contained. Besides, the visual helps connections and moral during this time. If you don’t like your surroundings use the settings to change your background. If you don’t like your hair—do it—before the meeting. 4. Bonus rule: Avoid throwing shade in the meeting even if someone else is the antagonist. It looks ten times worse on videoconference and you don’t want to depict a RHOA reunion at work. Nip the shade by inviting the other person to take the convo offline, at a later time. That way you avoid the stigma of throwing shade and you politely check the antagonist without looking played. Instead you slay, all day. Armed with the rules of videoconferencing etiquette, will you keep ‘em or sweep ‘em?