Leading at a Distance

CHAPTER 6“You're on Mute”: The Ultimate Guide for Hosting Virtual Meetings

Many companies were surprised by how productive employees could be when everyone was suddenly forced to work remotely during the pandemic. There are some obvious reasons for that, such as the elimination of commutes. But there's one overlooked factor as to why remote work can be so productive. When run well, virtual meetings can be startlingly efficient.

That's one of the lessons David Calhoun, CEO of Boeing, shared he drew from his early months as a full-time remote leader. Boeing is a global company with a headquarters in Chicago, large manufacturing facilities in Washington State and South Carolina, key stakeholders in Washington, D.C., and important customers all around the world. As CEO, Dave needs to meet with people in all these places, and even for someone with access to his own 737 aircraft, the logistics and travel time can be daunting.

“Video meetings are amazingly effective for the personal efficiency of a CEO,” he said. “You can waste half a day on logistics going to and from [in-person] meetings, but now you can call any meeting and get it done. I can reach more people by far than before and more quickly. I can do six or eight substantive meetings in a day, when before I would have had to travel for each one.” And it's not just about reducing travel time. When everyone worked in offices, simply scheduling a meeting with an internal Boeing team could take days because of the challenge of ...