Call Control in a Hard to Control Virtual World - Part 2

Part 2: Call Commander and Chief.

Ray: Hey Dan DeRail, how are you today?

Dan: Hey Ray, doing well…hope you are.

Ray: I sure am. Thanks for joining the call. You’re a little early so I am going to wait a few minutes for other folks to log in before we start.

Dan: No Problem. Hey Ray, while it’s just us, I wanted to let you know, I know this call is about Widget 22 but about 5 minutes into the call I am going to interrupt the meeting to talk about data integrity and how we need to focus on that instead of implementing new widgets. Just wanted to give you a heads-up.

Ray: Thanks for the heads-up, Dan. Let me ask you, is it possible to not do that, just so we could keep the call on track?

Dan: Understood, Ray. No worries. I will save my comments for a better time.

…

Wouldn’t it be nice if all your conference call participants were as transparent as Dan here? If so, we could prevent conference call catastrophes before they happened! Unfortunately, this is not the world we live in. But there is hope! Below are a few things you can do to ensure you are the Call Commander and Chief during your conference calls.

(Before we begin, if you have not done so, please take a moment to review Part 1 “Virtual Conference Call Preparation.” From time to time, I will make references to it to tie everything together….)

OK, so you decided a virtual call was necessary. You conducted some side discussions with your participants to set expectations, and you hit ‘em with the P.A.N. by including the Purpose, Agenda, and Next Steps when you sent out your meeting invites. EXCELLENT WORK!

Now, before you log-in and show your new cool virtual background, check out the 3 B’s to becoming a Call Commander and Chief:

1. Be Early

Always be the first person to your call. I always join a call I am leading 3-5 minutes early. And in the few cases where I am running late, I have a team member log-in to welcome attendees and let them know that I am on my way. Joining your call early does a few things: first, it gives you time to work through any technical audio and camera difficulties (not that this EVER happens, right?); secondly, it allows you to greet every attendee as they log-in so you know who has joined and can chat or email whoever may be missing; finally, when you are early, it allows you to set the stage for the call.

Here is an example of what I mean by setting the stage for the call - be the first person to speak and address the agenda of the call and anticipated start time:

“Thanks everyone for joining today. We, along with the product team, intend to discuss and gain approval for what is needed to implement Widget 22 by Q4. We are still waiting for a few more people to join and will get started in 1 minute. In the meantime, if you are attending via phone only and unable to see my screen, please pull up the document that I sent at 2:45 pm and we will get started momentarily.”

2. Be Active

If you are hosting the call, and the only time participants hear your voice is when you start the meeting, don’t be surprised if the goal you desired to achieve is not accomplished by the end of the call. When I invite people to conference calls, I think of it like I am inviting people to my home. I would never invite someone over and then go away until they are ready to leave. I would be around them, asking questions, having conversations, validating, encouraging, etc.

When I say “Be Active”, I mean you should do is actively moderate your call. Here are a few examples:

• Promote Understanding with follow-up questions, i.e. “I think what Sue was trying to ask was when will the product team have the widget available. Is that correct, Sue?”. Or, if someone has a great point, Validate It, i.e. “Dan, you are right. If we proceed that way we may run into the same impediments as we did with widget 21. Good point”.

• Confirm and Control, i.e. “Let me interject for a second, because I know we have 15 minutes left in the call. Dan is taking the lead on data integrity for the implementation, correct?” In that example, I did two things: confirmed ownership of a task and controlled the call-time by reminding participants that we only had a few minutes left in the meeting.

• Don’t be afraid to take a topic offline. Here is an example of how this can be done: “Leaders, this is a great point that we should discuss, but in order to move forward with the approval process, I think this would be better as an offline discussion”. Let me give this disclaimer: your version of "being active” should be based on your personality, otherwise you may just “be awkward”. Take risks to figure out what works best for you.

3. BYE, BYE

This point will be short and sweet, like the end of your call should be:

Always, always, always, end your call with a recap of the Action Items discussed, who is responsible for each, and end with a closing salutation. If you have a lot of action items… just list the top five.

Here is an example: “It appears we are a Go for Widget 22. However, before we leave this call, let me recap the action items I jotted down. Please let me know if I forgot one... Action item 1, 2, 3, 4, 5… Lastly, I want to thank everyone for their time, and look forward to working more on this initiative together. Please have a great rest of your day. Bye, Bye.”

This only takes 30-45 seconds to complete, but it is critical for providing clear direction for what should be done between now and the next call.

Got all that?

You are now on your way to becoming a Call Commander and Chief!

Read on in Part 3 - “After Call Action Hero” (Bye, Bye).