Tips for Teleconferences and Telephone based communication
I, like many others in the globalized business world, spend much of my time on the phone. In particular, chairing and minuting teleconferences, often with a mixture of native and non-native English speakers. Here are my top 5 tips for effective telephone-based communication:
- Summarize discussions succinctly and simply at the end of every topic and confirm that key participants understand the agreement(s).
- Be conscious of posture and speak from the diaphragm. Standing up also helps with voice projection: a thespian approach to enunciating assists with getting your message across.
- Smile as you speak! A friendly tone of voice puts everyone at ease, and we can discern when someone is smiling even without any visual cues.
- Further to point 2, speak more slowly and clearly than in a face to face situation. This allows for noise and lag from VOIP connections and transatlantic (or further!) distances.
- Don't be afraid to confirm what you understand by paraphrasing someone else, and asking if you're on the same proverbial page.
I'll have more tips on cross-cultural communication in a later post.
Excellent points, I like the comment about the "hearable" body language, very true and reminder that slouching in the chair is not a good idea even when the video camera is off.
ReplyDeleteFurther to point 4, I also recommend to speak in more simple terms than you might in a face to face communication, since you won't notice immediately if your counterpart doesn't understand an expression (and I learned a few new words from this blog post, too :-))
Thanks for your feedback, Klaus!
ReplyDeleteI think I'll be talking about issues that strike me concerning video conferencing, in a later post.
Likewise for "simple" terms - I have views on what constitutes "simpler".
Although I'm cognizant of my diction being somewhat abstruse,I hope it hasn't been excessively vexing for you. ;)