Become a Hybrid-Meeting Expert

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Hybrid work is here to stay. And guess what? That means some Of your co-workers will be in the office for meetings and others will be, well…anywhere!

So knowing how to make a hybrid-meeting engaging is vital.

I spoke with top-rated virtual keynote speaker, head of editorial at Prezi, and LinkedIn Learning instructor, Lorraine Lee to get her top tips for being a hybrid-meeting expert.

Here are five highlights from our conversation.

 

1) Do more than the bare minimum.

Video fatigue is real and by this point in the pandemic we’ve all experienced it. And it’s hard to combat it. I’ve spoken before about how to schedule so you don’t overload your schedule with video calls and meetings to avoid this phenomenon.

But fatigue might stem from hybrid-meetings feeling like the same old thing. “You hop on video and you talk and there’s not really a lot of focus, and that’s that, and that’s why people are getting video fatigue or Zoom fatigue,” she added.

She suggests trying to incorporate slides and other tools, like Slido, Figma, and Prezi, to keep hybrid meetings engaging for all participants. (For more tool suggestions, check out our entire conversation here.) “Prezi has a feature called Onscreen Responses, where you can add texts, gifs, and stickers onto the screen in real time during your meetings to add a little bit more fun to meetings,” Lorraine explained.

2) Send prep materials ahead of time.

Of course, fun interactive additions to the meeting keep participants awake, but necessarily on-task. To set yourself up for success during a meeting, you need to prepare for the meeting.

“Anytime a facilitator can send prep materials or just some questions, food for thought ahead of the meeting, it’s going to make your meeting more productive,” Lorraine said.

This allows participants to come into the meeting knowing the goals. “They’ll be able to join the conversation, ready with ideas and to participate,” Lorraine added.

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3) Define how to participate.

You’ve sent out your prep materials. Everyone’s joining the meeting in person and over Zoom. You’ve got your slides and gifs all ready to go. You’re on auto-pilot now, right? Wrong.

Clearly define how to participate at the beginning of every hybrid-meeting.

“Making clear how you want people to participate is going to ensure that everyone can get a fair chance and speak up and feel included at that table,” Lorraine said. Telling people if you want them to raise their hand or use the chat, etc will cut down on people speaking out of turn.

Another great way to lead a hybrid-meeting is to ask the remote participants for their input first. “There’s something called proximity bias,” Lorraine explained, “we’re going to favor the people who are near us.” So it’s your responsibility as a hybrid leader to make sure your remote team has equal opportunity to weigh in.

4) Set specific deadlines.

Procrastination is easy, which makes deadlines essential. My remote team uses tools like Asana to set deadlines for everything we need to get done. Asana makes it easy to set specific deadlines with times and dates, but you can also do this in your hybrid-meeting as action steps come up.

“Be as specific as you can,” Lorraine said. Thursday is good. Thursday 12:00PM Pacific time is better. She also likes to ask her team about deadlines.

“Is this reasonable within your schedule… makes sure things get done and builds trust within a team,” Lorraine added. This way your team knows when to get something done and you know you’re not setting them up for failure by giving them an unrealistic deadline. Creating a positive team atmosphere is key to a leading a high-performing hybrid team.

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5) Learn “Virtual and Hybrid-Meeting Essentials.”

Three of my LinkedIn Learning courses as well as Lorraine’s course “Virtual and Hybrid-Meeting Essentials” are a part of the new Pathfinder Series “Mastering Hybrid Work”.

“My LinkedIn Learning course includes the essentials you need in terms of planning and preparing, how to derive engagement during the actual meeting and then what to do after the meeting’s over,” Lorraine said.

If you’re looking to upgrade your hybrid-meeting for your teams, check out the entire episode of Inside Scoop and start the “Mastering Hybrid Work” pathfinder series which is FREE until April 29th 2022.

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How To: Be Happier Working from Home

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As we learned in the past two years, working from home can be great. But it can also be difficult.

Organizing your home office can be tricky. I’ve created an entire LinkedIn Learning course all about how to do it right.

I get it. Sitting in a chair all day long can make your home feel small and confining. Plus anything from children or roommates to staring at that pile of laundry, can be distractions.

But instead of allowing your frustration to build, try these seven ways to increase your productivity by creating a happier home office environment.

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Secrets of High-Performing Hybrid Teams

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At the beginning of the pandemic, we went from mostly working in-office to working remotely overnight. Now that we’ve settled into our remote or hybrid work environments, it’s time to assess.

Is your virtual or hybrid team thriving? Or just surviving? Is the team you’re leading happy? Or will you be the next company to experience a wave of “The Great Resignation”?

So I asked speaker, best-selling author and founding president of Clear Concept Inc., Ann Gomez, to join me on my live-streaming show Inside Scoop, to spill the secrets of high-performing and happy hybrid teams.

Here are four ways to cultivate a great hybrid work environment.

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Live Boldly to Reinvent Your Life

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“New year, new you.” It gets thrown around a lot, but it’s time to really think about it.

Is it time for a new you?

What steps have you taken recently towards living the life you’ve always dreamed of? Have you been thinking about making a career change? Or have you been taking the steps to make it change?

My friend, author, journalist, and podcaster, Tamsen Fadal, joined me on my live-streaming show Inside Scoop, to chat about living boldly and the art of reinvention.

Here are four ways to get started reinventing yourself.

1) Declutter Your Life

You need organization to make major changes. And organization starts with my favorite thing…

Lists!

Tamsen uses lists to get her thoughts out and her priorities straight. “I really write down everything in my head and do a brain dump. I block out time every single day so I can declutter my head a little bit and then prioritize what’s the most important thing” Tamsen said.

If you don’t know your priorities (more on that here during my recent WPIX interview) and what you want, you won’t be moving in the right direction. If you’re not sure how to get started using lists to figure that out, I have a LinkedIn Learning Course “The Power of Lists to Get Stuff Done” that will guide you through using lists to improve your life.

Once you’ve decluttered and you know your priorities, you have to…

2) Be Honest with Yourself About Your Goals.

It’s easy to throw yourself into things and start working just to feel productive. “The scariest thing is to stop and really think about and assess what you want,” Tamsen added.

Ask yourself, where do you want to be a year from now? Don’t worry about what other people think. Where do you want to be?

Don’t start working until you have specific and exciting answers to those questions. “I think you really have to be honest with your goals and what it is that you want in the end because  sometimes we find ourselves working toward one goal, only to realize that wasn’t the end game,” Tamsen explained.

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3) Be Honest About Your Reinvention Timeline.

Once you’ve aligned yourself with the right goals, be realistic about how long it will take to achieve them. Be honest about how long tasks will actually take. You’re not going to launch a new content channel in a week. But you can decide what kind of content you want to be regularly creating in that long.

I asked Tamsen what your reinvention timeline should be. “Three months,” she said without having to think about it. “That’s a real established time to get a habit started or at least to achieve something and then go back and look at what you’ve achieved,” she added.

Taking the time to applaud your small accomplishments is important!,” she said without having to think about it. “That’s a real established time to get a habit started or at least to achieve something and then go back and look at what you’ve achieved,” she added.

Taking the time to applaud your small accomplishments is important!

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4) Celebrate Yourself to “Unlock Your Bold.”

Living boldly is something we’re all capable of doing. But that doesn’t mean it won’t be hard at times. Keeping a list (Yay more lists!) of your wins will help you stay motivated.

Even professionals as successful as Tamsen keep a list of their accomplishments. “Not only am I looking forward, but I’m looking back at what those achievements are. When you start building those blocks on top of each other, I think you can unlock that bold part of you,” Tamsen said about keeping her list.

Tracking your accomplishments will help you feel proud of your progress and encouraged to keep going.

For more tips on reinvention, check out Tamsen’s guide to “Unlocking Your Bold” and watch our entire conversation here.

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Graduating from Procrastination

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Procrastination. We all do it. Maybe you see it as a bad habit you’re trying to stop. Or you see it as an asset because you “work best under pressure.”

But if you always leave things to the last minute, is that really true? Either way, leaving yourself more time and systematically working on something can’t hurt.

According to a study at the McCraw Center for Teaching and Learning at Princeton University, “our reasons for delaying and avoiding [tasks] are rooted in fear and anxiety-about doing poorly, of doing too well, of losing control, of looking stupid, of having one’s sense of self or self-concept challenged.”

In short, we put tasks off that we don’t want to do. And we don’t want to do them because we’re afraid we’ll fail.

So how do we get over the fear? And get started accomplishing our goals?

Here are four steps to help you graduate from procrastination.

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