RWL211:How to avoid making a bad impression with your team and coworkers when working remotely

As someone who's championed the remote work movement, I've learned that making a strong connection, especially during a first encounter, goes beyond just logging in. In this episode, we unpack how intentional presentation can build trust and credibility and why understanding your audience plays a crucial role in how you're perceived online.

Refer a Remote Work Expert As a Guest On The Show

Click here remoteworklife.io to subscribe to my free newsletter

Connect on LinkedIn

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, it's Alex from Remote Work Life.
I hope this finds you well,wherever you may be.
And today I want to talk aboutstaying visible and presentable
during virtual meetings tomaintain a sense of connection.
So, in case you don't know, I'musing these slots on the

(00:21):
podcast to give quick tips, sotoday's quick tip is all around
about staying visible andpresentable.
So, and again, if you're newhere, I just want to say thank
you for joining me.
You're very welcome and if you,if it's not your first time
here, please, you know, do getin touch and let me know if

(00:44):
there are any particular topics,subjects you want me to cover
in future editions of thepodcast.
And yeah, it's just, it's justgood to have you here.
So, as I said, we're going totoday explore the importance of
staying visible and presentableduring virtual meetings to
maintain a sense of connectionin a remote work scenario.

(01:06):
And for me, as an advocate ofremote work, I think this is
something that is important,something that I've always tried
to do, even in my early days ofremote work.
I've always tried to be visible.
I've always tried to be aspresentable as possible during
any meetings that I have,because, especially if it's with

(01:27):
somebody who is meeting for thefirst time.
It's always important to make afirst impression, a good first
impression, because that can bea very lasting impression as
well, and, you know, beingvisible, being presentable, can
help you to get off on a goodfooting.
So, you know, and I think,because the virtual connections

(01:51):
are so important, it's somethingthat I've always worked on in
order to build meeting, sorry,build sort of those connections,
to build trust.
And you have to be quiteconscious about how you do that
and you have to really thinkabout what some of the things
that you can do in order to, youknow, prioritize and build your

(02:14):
visibility to enhance yourpresentability in a virtual
meeting.
Because, again, as much as Idid my best in the early days,
my camera, for example, was notthe best camera, so it wouldn't
necessarily show me in the bestlight, or I didn't necessarily
position my desk in the bestposition in order to take

(02:38):
advantage of natural light, soit would often, or the picture
would often, appear to bedistorted, or you may not be
able to see me properly, so thattoo can create a sense of doubt
, sometimes in the mind of theperson who is on the other end.

(02:58):
So, being intentional andthinking about what to do in
certain situations can isimportant.
So here are four things that Ican I think you can think about
and consider when it comes toenhancing your visibility,
enhancing your presentationduring your virtual meetings.

(03:20):
So number one is I don'tnecessarily like using the word
professional becauseprofessional is.
I guess it brings to mindsomething quite specific For me.
It brings to mind shirt, tie orformal office wear, that sort
of thing Because professional.

(03:40):
For me, though, the modern daymeaning of professional I is is,
uh, work, wear that's or youknow, whatever, whatever you
wear, that is aligned with the,the, the audience that you're
targeting, or is aligned with,um, the, the people that you

(04:02):
work with, and generally that ismore of a sort of a, an innate
thing.
So more often, not these days,you see people, um, people who
may have gone to work in certainties in even like 20 years ago,
and now going to to work insimilar jobs, um, with something

(04:26):
more casual, and there'snothing, absolutely nothing,
wrong with that.
But I think you have to, inthat way, know your audience,
because there may be certainmeetings that expectations might
be that you wear a certainthing, and that doesn't
necessarily chime with me, Idon't think you should judge
somebody based on what they haveon, but sometimes, in some

(04:48):
scenarios, depending on, let'ssay, you're working in the
financial services or you'reworking in legal, there are
sometimes expectations in thosesectors in terms of how you
might dress, not necessarilysectors that I'd want to sort of
align myself with.
If that is the case, um, butand that's not to say that the

(05:13):
financial services sector or thelegal sector don't have sort of
areas where it's a bit lessformal, but yeah, um, I guess
I've gone the long way aroundsaying that I think you have to
know your audience andunderstand what, what it is that
you need to wear, how you needto present yourself in order to,
um, in order to, I guess,appear professional.

(05:37):
So, um, that's number one.
Number two is a visibleworkspace, and by that I mean,
as I was alluding to before, ishaving a well-lit area.
So have, don't have the, forexample, the sunlight behind you
, because that will distort thepicture.

(05:58):
That will, I guess, um, meanthat you're less visible.
It'd be more difficult for theperson to see you.
So, having natural light comingfrom in front of you, ideally,
or, failing that, if you've gota light, sort of like an
artificial light that can, Iguess, simulate or, yeah,

(06:18):
simulates daylight somethingthat can help to help you look,
help you appear more visible.
That's number two.
So number three is engaged bodylanguage.
So by that I mean it could besomething as simple as just make
acknowledging whoever it is onthe other end of the, the video

(06:42):
stream.
Acknowledgement can can come indifferent ways, but I think
sometimes it's it's not easywhen you're on a video call with
somebody and there's no sort ofbut let's say that the, the,
the uh, the video is off, forinstance, or the video is.
It's probably a bit moredifficult, isn't it, when you

(07:05):
can't understand the person'sfeelings, a person's body
language, because then you don'tget any sort of immediate
feedback as to how theconversation is going.
So if you're engaged in somehow, somehow with the conversation,
then that puts the other personat ease, even if you're sort of

(07:29):
typing something as they'regoing along, that will help you
to appear engaged.
So there's different ways ofengagement.
It's not necessarily justalways body language, but if you
can engage somehow, somehow,then that can help you to create

(07:49):
that sense of visibility andpresentability during a virtual
meeting.
So number four on my list isactive participation.
So, again, there are oftenmeetings that I would have
external meetings with coachingclients where the camera might

(08:10):
be off completely.
They refuse to turn the cameraon.
Or if the camera was on, or ifthey were, even if it was just
audio, for example, there'd beno participation, there's no
active participation and iteventually just turned into a
monologue.
Now that is off-putting to youknow.

(08:35):
Let's say you're part of a teamand you just leave your camera
off, for example.
Or if, okay, not everybodywants to have their camera on or
can have a camera on, let's sayyou don't contribute in any way
, shape or form to thatparticular meeting.
That doesn't build trust, thatdoesn't build a sense of you

(08:58):
maintaining a sense ofconnection with the people that
you are working with.
So you have to find a way ofconnecting with the people that
you work with when you'reworking on a remote basis
Because, again, as I said, thatbuilds trust and that's team
building as well.
So active participation isreally important key.

(09:21):
So I hope that has helped insome way, shape or form.
Let me know if you can think ofany other ways in which you can
stay visible and presentableduring virtual meetings in order
to maintain a sense ofconnection.
I'm sure there are lots morethings that I haven't mentioned,
but I've just mentioned a fewjust to get your thoughts going

(09:50):
going, and if you have foundthis, this, uh, this episode
useful, please do considersharing with your network, share
with your connections, andleave any sort of reviews or
comments as well.
Please and uh, I look forwardto speaking to you in the next
episode.