"When people are trying to be dominant, they will, they will take up important resources. Okay. So the important resources around us are things like time, volume, not only volume of voice, but volume of space, how much space they take, how much volume in their voice they might take up within the conversation. How much of that conversation? How many words are they taking up against? How many words are you taking up?" Mark Bowden, Body Language expert
I recently worked with a colleague who loved to dominate the conversations. Aside from barely leaving people any space to enter any comments. I realized after my conversation with body language expert Mark Bowden that as part of this dominance, he would also take on the "space" as he was the only one who would use the camera in a virtual meeting. That action left us in the meeting acting as spectators for the speech.
I decided to turn on my camera as well and use my expressions to signal I wanted to interject. That seemed to do the trick as it became a conversation, well, close to. Having the communicate effectively with colleagues in a remote work set up is challenging, especially if cameras are off and we may not be able to see the body language. While the preferences to have cameras on or off vary per a recent informal poll I did, we can figure out ways to improve communications as remote workers.
Here are a few:
- Allow additional moments of silence during meetings as there might be audio delays
- Seek opportunities to allow others to lead meetingS
- Use chats to share photos or break the ice
- Be as clear as possible on expectations of work
- Here is some helpful information.
What else would you recommend?
