This first Host Leadership Hint in our new series comes from Pierluigi Pugliese, co-editor of the Host Leadership Field Book.

Even without giving any credibility to all the people insinuating we’re the whole day in video conferences with no pants on, our communication has undoubtedly become more casual: from the style of clothing we’re wearing while communicating, to the details of our kitchen as our background.

Actually it seems to us that this informality is actually helping business communication become more human. Yes, even the sudden appearance of a child asking his daddy to read a story while daddy is in a very serious management meeting…

Nonetheless, as a host for such a meeting you could (and, I dare say, should!) think of creating a proper space, even with the limited possibilities you have by staying in front of your webcam:

• Ensure you have a good audio and video: it will help you being understood better by the other, verbally and non
• If you need an agenda for your meeting, make it visible (shared document, shared screen, …)
• A space is something for everybody, so invite the others to participate to whatever shared document: share them so they are editable, make them living documents for the whole group
• Welcome people at the threshold – be there when they arrive: we will have more about the benefits of this in a future hint
• Help the other participants to solve their connection problems: from bad audio to mute when they are not talking to giving them feedback about their image (for example: if they have a window on their back, chances are their face will be too dark!)

To hear more from Pierluigi, join his 90 minute free online workshop on Wednesday 13 May 2020. Register now!

To get a new Host Leadership Hint every few weeks, register on the front page of hostleadership.com.