In the effort to “break it if it isn’t broken” we sometimes roll past best practices as we experiment with new ways of doing things. The advance in technology has given us high speed downloads, iPhones, Blackberry’s, smart phones, cell phones, iPods and other mp3 players, laptops, 24/7 access to Solitaire, PDAs, email, text messages, RSS feeds, blogs, and of course, tweets! When leading a conference call or presenting your product via webinar, you might ask yourself:

“How will this (fill in the blank) piece of technology support my ability to communicate AND engage with my participants?”

People praise athletes for their ability to accomplish amazing results when they are  “in the zone.” We are not talking about consuming high quantities of Mountain Dew or Red Bull and playing Grand Theft Auto 4 for 10 hours straight! Picture Tiger Woods in competition or the Dali Lama in meditation. Your focus is only on one thing. There is no multi-tasking.

Question:

If you approached your conference call or webinar with the same single-minded focus as Tiger Woods and all of your technology was disconnected, what could you accomplish?

It would be easy to dismiss this question as a nice theoretical exercise and go right back to the status quo. So let’s make it a bit more competitive just to see who has the guts to give it a go? I challenge you to lead one call or webinar where you have no distraction from technology.

Step One: lead a conference call (or webinar, teleclass, etc.), as you would normally do so. This is to establish a firm status quo in your mind as to how you divide your attention between technology, participants, IM or text messages, and your presentation. Write down your observations including any feelings you had during the presentation.

Step Two: lead a conference call (or webinar, teleclass, etc.), with all technology off other than essentials. If you are on a conference call, put your computer to sleep, turn off cell/smart phones, and even clear your desk of everything except what is needed for the call. If you are leading a webinar, have someone else drive the presentation so you can completely focus on the participants. Again, write down your observations and feelings.

Step Three: compare and contrast your experiences from Step One and Two. What was the difference? Did cutting out all other distractions improve your ability to lead and obtain results? Was your level of self-confidence higher or lower in Step 2?

Rarely do we change our behaviors or try something new in the absence of pain or frustration. This is the silver lining of the current financial mess – status quo is completely disrupted and we have the chance to review our strategies, assumptions, and behaviors. In 2009, your ability to confidently lead great meetings via conference calls, webinars, teleclasses, and virtually is more important than ever. Congratulations for taking on any part of this exercise. Testing your skills and then growing them to meet your expectations will see you experiencing more success in leading any type of meeting.

Would a model help you understand how to lead effective phone, face-to-face, and virtual meetings? You’d be surprised at how easy it is to run great meetings.

Posted by Byron Van Arsdale
Twitter: @headset
Author – 6 Principles of Powerful Conference Calls
ConferenceCallTraining.com

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