Professional rules of video calling

You sit in front of your computer screen waiting to start a videoconference with your colleagues. It takes a long time, so you read the newspapers that were lying on your desk while picking at your nose. Then you assistant runs into you office to give you a message from one of your colleagues stating that the whole team has been watching you the whole time and waits for you to join in the discussion. This accident of an unnamed bank director opens The Virtual Executive book by an American coach and writer Debra Benton. In the book, Benton deals with how to professionally prepare and behave during videoconferencing.

Benton points out to twenty major faux pas in video calling. These were published on the openforum.com website literally stating that the people with whom you communicate via video "hate you" when:

1. you not perceive people on the other side of the screen,

2. you seem bored,

3. you constantly check your cell phone,

4. you do not speak loud enough,

5. you cannot connect on time,

6. you do not prepare in advance and spend the first ten minutes solving technical problems,

7. you invite too many participants to the videoconference,

8. you speak too loud,

9. you not perceive your body language,

10. you are not smiling,

11. there is a mess around and behind you,

12. youou to devote to other activities while everybody is watching you,

13. you mumble,

14. you do not turn the sound off when necessary,

15. you disappears from the screen and reappears too often,

16. you disregard the delay in the transmission of sound and talk over each other,

17. you handle personal conversations sideways and do not even try to hide it,

18. you rustle too much with papers,

19. you gesture too much and point fingers on the others,

20. you eat and drink during the call.

-kk-