Most companies have adopted a hybrid approach to work where employees work in the office some of the time and at home some of the time. Many companies, like the one I work for, also have staff all around the world so even if everyone is in an office, or studio in our case, video conferencing is still a reality.
At the beginning of the pandemic, everyone was forced to work from home, at least those who’s jobs permitted it. Leaders tried to be sensitive to and understanding of employees who didn’t want to be on video for whatever reason, including sheer video conference fatigue.
Things have changed since then. Working from home is now a choice for most employees, typically for a couple of days a week at most companies. And for global companies like the one I work for, it is often impossible to exclusively work with others in-person colocated in an office without also having to work with peers at other locations using video calls.
I wrote a blog post at the beginning of the pandemic entitled Video Calls: Amping up How you Show Up which has received an incredible number of views. Everything I said in that post still applies, especially for the days you’re working from home. However, the fact that working from home is now an option rather than a mandate makes several of the things I mentioned even more important. That’s what I want to focus on here.
A Thought Exercise
Have a look at this video clip of a clearly staged video conference call. Almost everyone is talking at the same time which is also something that happens on video calls but that’s not the reason I’m using the clip here.
Notice the friendly wave to set the tone, notice the man in the middle right and how expressive he is with his face and gestures, notice the woman on the top right who doesn’t say anything yet it’s clear what her reaction is to the call, and note that the man in the bottom center also doesn’t say anything but you can clearly see his facial expressions change in response to what is being said. Now imagine that one or more of these people didn’t have their video camera turned on.
Non-Verbal Communication
The words you say typically represent only about 7% of the communication. So if your camera is off, you’re unable to fully communicate and people are missing 93% of what you’re communicating. They’re missing your facial expression, body language, and in fact whether you’re even really there. You don’t count. People can’t see when you’re wanting to say something by looking at your facial expression so they just talk over you. When I record a podcast interview with a guest, I insist that we have our cameras on even though I don’t record the video because it makes communication more natural, fluent, and we don’t talk over each other.
How you Show Up
Notice too that everyone on the call is properly lit, shows up clearly in the frame, and that they’re looking at the camera. They appear much like they would if you were physically together. That’s the objective and the way you’ll unlock your influence in a hybrid world. I give specific guidance on how to achieve those in my previous blog post.
If you don’t have sufficient bandwidth to turn your camera on and you’re working from home by choice, either go into the office or get more bandwidth. You’re career success depends on it. If you have your camera off because you didn’t do your morning routine to get ready for work, do that morning routine. Your career success depends on it. Everything I’ve said regarding video calls from home also applies to the all too frequent need to be on video calls while at work to communicate with colleagues at other locations.
In-Person Part of Hybrid
I just spent a week in Austin, Texas at our studio there, entirely in meetings that were in person. It was awesome! While optimizing your video on conference calls will make a huge difference when you need to have those calls, let’s also acknowledge that it’s still not as good as physically being there and serendipitously bumping into a colleague who may have the answer to a question you’re working through, having coffee or meals together and getting to know each other outside of our work lives, and spontaneously gathering colleagues together to workshop an idea.
Modes of Work
I wrote a blog post entitled Hybrid Work and Mental Health: Let’s Design Modes of Work Right. As I point out in that post, I think hybrid work requires teams and individuals to intentionally design what modes of work they should do in-person and what modes are most appropriate for the work from home days. You should attempt to maximize in-person interaction during the days you’re in the office and reserve video calls with colleagues at other locations for your work from home days. Of course, you should also try to reserve heads-down uninterrupted work for your work from home days too.
The main points I’ve made in this post regarding video calls holds equally for your in-person and work from home days. Let’s all amp up how we show up and unlock our influence in this hybrid world.