Virtual events—panel discussions, conferences, fundraisers, investor meetings and town halls—are now standard. The screen has become the primary stage for leadership communication.
But visibility is not the same as impact. In a virtual setting, credibility has to be signalled more deliberately. How do you communicate competence, build trust, and deliver a strong brand experience without physical presence?
The fundamentals are unchanged: clarity, composure, and purposeful messaging. The difference lies in execution. To succeed, you need to adjust your tools and behaviours to fit the medium. Here’s how to do that well.
Make it Personal
Virtual settings often feel impersonal. Many leaders, even those with experience speaking or facilitating discussions online, find it unnatural and awkward to build a connection when they have no in-person audience at all.
- Firstly, arrive to your online meeting early. Greet people as they pop up on the screen and engage in a bit of friendly small talk to improve the personal connection.
- Encourage people to turn on their video function, if possible, in order to improve that connection. Let them know in advance that video is preferred so people can prepare to feel comfortable and presentable on video.
- Use people’s names when referring to them and encourage them to participate. If you know they have cultural shyness (whether it’s corporate culture, hierarchy or national norms), tell them at the start that you are keen to hear input from all.
Convey Warmth and Presence
When hosting an online meeting, you have to adopt an engaged, active persona in an environment that doesn’t often lend itself to that. There are a number of little things you can do to create warmth virtually.
- Ensure your video camera is eye level with you. Make sure the angle of the camera on your face is at a comfortable level for others to see you.
- Make “eye contact” with your participants by looking directly into the camera at the top of your screen as often as possible. This can be hard to remember to do as you’re likely to be looking at their response on your screen.
- When looking at the camera at the top of your screen, remember to show a warm smile and convey a friendly, engaging vocal tone. Aim to smile about 20% more than you normally would since you can’t rely so much on body language to make your message appealing. It may feel like acting at times, but as long as you have a positive intent, this is often necessary to achieve a warm, inviting environment.
- In more informal interactions, you could open with a relevant personal story, a poll question, or ask people to write in where they’re calling from. These will create a personal vibe that’s more aligned with that setting.
Red Shoe coaches help you make deliberate choices in communicating your executive presence. Contact us to learn more.