“Netiquettes Desk ” -Effective Phone Conference -For IT Professionals

During a conference call you hear someone say “What an idiot! Can you believe he actually said that?”… And then you hear the moderator requesting all to mute the phones!

Sounds familiar?

Regardless of whether a meeting is held in-person or over the phone or video, good etiquette shows respect to meeting participants as well as demonstrating professionalism and due consideration for the meeting topic or issue. Good conference call etiquette is essential for a successful and efficient meeting. Several factors such as the participants location whilst taking the call and background noise are vital to having a clear and productive conversation. Good etiquette often involves keeping distractions to a minimum and communicating effectively.

Phone Conference Etiquette :

Keep track of conference call dates/times : Make sure you know when your conference call is. Also ensure everyone needed to attend the meeting knows the date, time, Venue,  phone number and PIN

Call in to the conference line a couple minutes early. Try to avoid being late, especially if you know you will have to contribute to the discussion. No one wants to be the reason why the conference call discussion is held up, because they are waiting for you to arrive.

Be prepared to discuss the topic at hand. Agenda is a must. Do a little prep work or jot down questions that you would like to bring up on the conference call. After all, you want the meeting to be productive and not spawn other meetings because of lack of preparation. Send out the materials, if any, to the participants a day in advance so that they come prepared too.

Pay attention!  If someone asks you a question on a call and you don’t realize they are talking to you until the end of their question, it will be obvious that you weren’t paying attention. Don’t be the one who always has to ask the person to repeat their question, because SOMEBODY wasn’t paying attention.

  Mute your phone when you are not speaking

    Muting your phone will help you avoid embarrassing sighs, munching noises from eating your lunch, or other background noise.

Keep background noise to a minimum

Noise may be from standing outside in the wind, typing on your computer, pets barking just to name a few. It is best to find a quiet location for the meeting.

Be sensitive to the tone of your voice

Do not sound overly anxious, aggressive or pushy. Make sure your tone conveys authority and confidence. Don’t lean back in your chair when speaking.

Speak Clearly

Enunciate your words clearly while slightly smiling. Speak slowly; the person on the other end of the phone conversation needs to understand you.

State your name before speaking

State your role, company, or location after your name; This will help better understand the context of your comments

Define a clear leader / moderator of the call

The leader should be the ones that emails out the agenda ahead of the call, directs the conversation, makes sure everyone sticks to the agenda, pays attention to time, and sends any follow up action item emails or additional meeting invites.

Recap & send MOM

Before adjourning, do a quick recap to be sure that each participant knows what’s expected of him/her. Send out the minutes of meeting within 24 hours.

We are starting with an initiative “Netiquettes” in my organisation . This initiative will help each of us to improve on our common unintentional communication errors. This is very important initiative .

As we are spread across global locations, classroom training is not a feasible option, hence we have opted for such  initiative.

Few of my articles related to corporates Etiquettes are as below 

Instant Messaging & Social Media Etiquettes 

Please intiate such learning ideas within your team if you are working globally  and help yourself  in improving your communication skills. 

Thanks for reading !! good byee ....