With the recent push toward telecommuting and remote workforces, businesses can grow their headcount without opening new branch offices. Eliminating daily commutes can be a major boon for both businesses and their employees. A 2-year Stanford study found that remote workers were more productive than their office-based peers. Telecommuters were also half as likely to leave their company for another job.
Business leaders will need to address a few challenges to make the most of this opportunity and create a fruitful working environment for their remote workforce. Most notably: Keeping telecommuters connected to their office-based peers.
Screen sharing tools allow dispersed employees to work closely together, even when they are hundreds or thousands of miles apart.
Of course, a screen sharing session is only as good as the presenter leading it. Participants are more likely to zone out or get distracted if the presenter doesn’t have their complete attention. To make your online meetings as productive as possible, be sure to hone your presentation skills with these tips.
Don’t let your nerves show
Depending on the size of your screen sharing session, a presenter could be leading a discussion with a handful of people or coordinating a webinar viewed by hundreds of remote users. Facing a large audience could make anyone nervous, and some individuals might get butterflies in their stomachs at the prospect of leading a discussion with just a few coworkers.
But it’s important not to let your nerves get the best of you. Nervous energy can manifest in very obvious ways that distract the audience and make it seem like the presenter is unprepared. Tripping over your words, speaking quickly, and fidgeting are all tell-tale nervous signs. Although there’s nothing wrong with being a little anxious about a screen-sharing session, here are a few ways that may help them not shine through: take deep breaths and don’t rush through the presentation. Crack a joke or two to diffuse any tension you might feel. Record a couple of run-throughs of the presentation so you can scrutinize your body language and speech patterns.
The more mindful you are, the more at ease you will be. And that means you will be less likely to rush through a presentation or forget to cover an important action item.
Engage the audience
Screen sharing sessions should be collaborative, but it can be easy for attendees to hang back and watch the action from afar. Actively get everyone on a video conference involved, asking people directly for their input. Encourage people to ask questions about the material.
Once you make this kind of active engagement routine with your video conference calls, attendees will expect that high level of interaction and come to each online meeting prepared to contribute to the discussion.
Screen sharing software can be extremely helpful in this regard. Rather than try to describe a spreadsheet, slide deck, or other document over the phone, employees can use a screen sharing feature to easily show conference meeting participants that material, gather feedback, and make changes in real time. Staff members can also pass presenter tools to different stakeholders and get more accomplished during a meeting.
Cisco Webex has numerous features to assist onboarding, training, and cross-departmental collaboration. If you have a remote workforce, a video conferencing and screen sharing solution is key to keeping everyone in the loop and working together.Start your free plan today to discover how Webex can help you manage your remote workforce and get more productivity out of your telecommuting employees.
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