HBR Guide to Remote Work

CHAPTER 15

Elevate Your Presence on a Video Call

by Joel Schwartzberg

Videoconferences are becoming more routine for a wide range of business purposes, from staff meetings to brainstorming sessions to major announcements. But communication tactics that work well among colleagues in a conference room may not translate seamlessly to Brady Bunch–style quadrants on a computer screen. Organizational behavior professor Andy Molinsky recommends seeing virtual meetings as “an entirely different context, not simply an in-person meeting or a class on a screen.”¹

Elevating both your point and your presence in a virtual meeting requires not only engaging in videoconference-friendly tactics but also disabusing yourself of potentially detrimental misconceptions ...