5 steps to building connections through a screen

The pandemic changed the way we work around the world. Whether you’re currently working in an office, from home or on a tropical beach, chances are you regularly have to grapple with the joys of video calls. 

Connecting on a human level may seem harder through a computer screen, yet it’s more important now than ever. The problem is that while our ‘new normal’ may have helped some become overnight experts in running meetings through a screen, in my opinion, most people still have a lot to learn. 

Video calls may offer efficiency and remove geographic barriers, but lack the possibility of leaning on body language and ample small talk, which prove essential in many professions. Take my role, where quickly establishing a rapport with clients is key. I spend the majority of my day in meetings, so connecting through a cloud meant I had to re-learn how to make contacts feel comfortable doing business with me. 

Here are my tried-and-tested tips for establishing a connection with the person on the other side of the screen. 

Start your meeting off on the right foot by considering your invitees’ schedule and location. In my experience, the best time for a video meeting is in the morning—say about 9.30-10.30am—or mid-afternoon, on Monday through Thursday. Most companies I work with avoid meetings on Fridays because they want to have one day each week for internal tasks. Lunchtime can be a stressful time for people working from home with kids, and late afternoon is when people might be wrapping up urgent tasks for the day. 

Respect the other person’s time zone, and don’t let your meetings go for longer than an hour. Video meetings can be intense; you don’t want the other attendees to feel exhausted at the end.

Nobody likes delayed video meetings, or being the one to arrive late because of connection problems. When scheduling a call, ensure that everyone invited is familiar with your chosen platform. Don’t forget to inform them if there is a complicated log-in system that may take time to set up. 

Online, small talk may not come naturally and you won’t have much time to get to know the people in front of you. Well before the meeting, do an online search for articles or other content the person may have written, then go to LinkedIn to check if you have connections in common. Reach out to any shared contacts to find possible conversation starters that could help you engage more deeply. 

After that moment for initial chitchat, you need to be ready to discuss the main topic on the agenda a couple minutes into the call. This makes it even more important to prepare well. It is essential that you have a very clear idea of your message before logging on. Make sure in advance that your information is accurate and that you know how to present it, and when. 

If you’re running the meeting, you should lead with a defined schedule for the call, but also for the next few weeks or months, whatever the timeframe of your project. Know the deliverables to be completed, and be ready to present a detailed plan. Without body language and ambience to lean on when feeling unsure, it will be painfully obvious if you don’t have a clear vision of what needs to happen next. A defined action plan will help your contact feel more confident in your abilities and may help remove any insecurities created by the physical distance.

As Market Management and Commercial Distribution Director at Euler Hermes in Brazil, I enjoy the opportunity to avoid São Paolo traffic to get from one meeting to the other, and get more done. However, successfully managing virtual meetings has certainly been a learning curve. It takes careful planning and a healthy balance of relationship building and efficiency. When done well, virtual meetings can be just as fulfilling as physical ones – at the end of the day, we’re still connected, just in a different way.