I had the pleasure of meeting Steve Campbell (real estate agent and Team Leader for the Keller Williams Real Estate office in Everett, Washington) on a flight to Austin. We’ve keep up over the many months and he recently posed a good question to a common frustration!

When facilitating a conference call, how best do I make sure everyone is orderly and not talking at once since they cannot see each other?

First, stop facilitating the call. There is a big distinction between facilitating and leading a call. For Steve, he IS the leader for the office. Give yourself permission to jump in and be a part of the group.

There are three positions to lead a group from: in front of the group, from the middle of the group, and finally, chasing the group trying to catch up with them! Everyone has as different comfort level and it is good to develop your comfort in ALL three positions.

Second, people are RARELY orderly. Steve works with real estate agents that are independent contractors. Real Estate agents live to be independent thinkers and not have anyone tell them what to do. So, we make the second change in mental frame: engage them from the first minute they join the call. The really top agents (Bernice, my wife, works across the country training and coaching the best real estate agents in the business) have a short and practical fuse — make it real, make it worth my time, and make it short. Steve will have to keep them engaged by making the call practical, to the point, and helpful in building their businesses.

Third, the magic weapon — establish a simple etiquette on the call so everyone gets on the same page when working together on the call. Think of this as training the individuals on how to be successful during a conference call. Over time, people will embrace the etiquette as ritual. Once the ritual is established, the participants will start to self-correct when they talk over each other. Yes, you read that right, I said self-correct! As the leader, it is time to stop working so hard. Control (see paragraph above) is both overrated and unworkable.

Did I say this was easy or that Steve would implement these recommendations in one or two calls? No — it will take time, patience, and persistence (remember that he IS trying to herd cats here!).

Thanks for the question Steve and I’m confident you’ll get things sorted out in short order. Have you got a question or a challenge you are facing? Post it as a comment or send it to me directly.

Posted by Byron Van Arsdale
Author — 16 Secrets to a Great Conference Call
ConferenceCallTraining.com

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