Conference calls exist for one purpose – to improve the productivity of the participants!

In Part 1, I forgot to state an assumption. Knowledge workers employ specialized knowledge, creativity and energy to accomplish project milestones. Delays or impediments (i.e. see any Dilbert comic strip by Scott Adams) that prevent the timely completion of project milestones increase frustration and the sense of being “unproductive.” Removing delays or impediments has the opposite effect.

As a conference call leader, you directly impact the energy and creativity level of knowledge workers. Your conference calls either speed up or slow down the ability of your participants to accomplish milestones. How?

Productivity is broken up into three categories: before the call, during the call, and after the call. Each participant enters onto your conference call with a certain level of energy and creativity. Participants will exit your call experiencing either a boost or decline in their level of energy and creativity. The more energy and creativity a person has, the greater their level of resourcefulness.

If you want to accomplish your agenda items, goals, and project meetings faster, you must lead conference calls in a way that consistently boosts the level of energy and creativity for each person on your call.

What could you accomplish if people consistently left your conference call with higher energy and creativity than when they had joined the call? What expectation would your participants have for your next conference call? How much less energy (and sometimes creativity!) would you need to spend if your team looked forward to upcoming conference calls? Going one step further, imagine what would happen within an organization if the majority of the conference calls provided a consistent boost in the level of energy and creativity of all participants?

Posted by Byron Van Arsdale,
ConferenceCallTraining.com

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How many times have you heard a presentation begin with a bold question like “How many of you want more (or less) ______?” The intention is to grab your attention yet something quite different takes place. Whether you are attending a conference call, webinar, or face-to-face presentation, the experience for the participants is universally the same – some agree with the statement and some do not. The people who do not agree with the statement mentally switch off and start multitasking. Instead of engaging the entire group, the bold question has the disastrous effect of dividing the room at the very outset of the presentation. This is not the way to grab the attention of your participants!

Asking the bold question IS a great strategy. If you want to fully leverage this strategy, you must ask both sides of the question. In fact, I go a step further to insure connecting with each person by asking the third side of the question.

Here’s an example. “How many of you are completely satisfied with your time management skills? Ok, how many of you are not completely satisfied with your time management skills? (Now, ask the 3rd side of the question.) And, how many of you are not sure whether you are or are not completely satisfied with your time management skills?”

I ask this last question with levity and a definite smile in my voice. You’d be surprised how many times people respond affirmatively to this third choice! At this point, I know for certain that I’ve engaged every person.

Thanks to LR for inspiring this post.

Posted by Byron Van Arsdale,
ConferenceCallTraining.com

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Conference calls exist for one purpose — to improve the productivity of the participants!

As a conference call leader, you do have to accomplish agenda items, move projects forward, close sales, build alliances, handle media challenges, update analysts, etc. Yet all of these are secondary to the actual purpose of a conference call, which is to improve the productivity of everyone attending the call. Why?

The more resourceful or productive you feel, the more you accomplish. The same is true for everyone attending your conference call. If you accomplish your call objectives yet diminish the sense of productivity of your call participants, their collective level of productivity will drop after your call. What is the cost to an organization when this happens? How excited (read: resourceful or productive) do you think this same group will be when attending your next conference call? Get the picture?

With regard to conference calls, productivity is broken up into three different categories: before the call, during the call, and after the call. We’ll look more closely at how leaders impact productivity in these three categories in my next post. Until then, look in the mirror and ask yourself how your leadership style is impacting the productivity of your participants.
*raison d’être

Posted by Byron Van Arsdale,
ConferenceCallTraining.com

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As a conference call leader, you have a short period of time to accomplish the stated agenda. Here is one of the best strategies I’ve heard for quickly getting participants aligned and focused on being productive.

Participants, and even conference call leaders, have developed a bad habit of conducing side conversations during a conference call. One example where this is an important strategy to employ is during a negotiation by conference call. Yet, for almost every other type of conference call, side conversations distract participants and substantially decrease the productivity of conference calls.

Here is a simple way to stop side conversations. Use and adapt the following script for your own calls. When starting your call, tell everyone on the call that there will only be “one meeting” today. Side conversations are not allowed. If you have something to say, share it with the entire group or do not share it at all. Side conversations create distractions that reduce productivity. The only time you will hear me say “one meeting” is when side conversations are taking place.

During the call, when you hear a side conversation, quickly say “one meeting” as soon as you can. You do not need to say anything more than “one meeting” as long as everyone on the call was present when you first introduced the idea at the beginning of the call. Be careful to minimize any disruption to the current flow of conversation among the participants. Be prepared to say, “one meeting” for as long as it takes to change the behavior!

When you are leading a conference call where part of the group is in a central location around a speakerphone (read why this is not a preferred approach) and you are NOT present in the room, give someone else the responsibility to call “one meeting”.

Practically speaking, this is an ingrained habit that will be tough to eliminate. If you are a manager or executive, you can quickly command this behavior from your subordinates. On the other hand, if you are a peer leader, you will need to slowly and tactfully train your participants to eliminate this behavior. Rest assured that other conference call leaders will appreciate the smallest effort you make to eliminate costly side conversations.

Thanks to CV from Seattle for this excellent strategy. Do you have a strategy or comment that will help others lead powerful conference calls? Please help other leaders learn from your experience.

Posted by Byron Van Arsdale,
ConferenceCallTraining.com

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