How to lead and support an exhausted team

We remain in challenging times. Leaders must be aware of the landscape and issues impacting their teams and the people in their lives as we work our way through this.

Two of the most important things you can do are:

1. Lead by example - which means ensuring that you are managing your own stress and recovery cycles.

2. Make sure that your team are having their own downtime and recovery periods.

A great read from HBR with recommended action points for all leaders.

Working with the noises and sounds in your home to present at your best

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Now that we’ve improved how you present yourself visually on video calls and meetings, we need to address sound, how you can reduce any noisy interruptions to your calls and meetings while working from home.

Interruptions

It’s essential to set yourself up for success in managing interruptions during your calls and meetings as they are sure to happen.Partners, spouses, children, pets, and other unexpected interruptions can happen to any of us. Your partner is checking what time you’re finishing, the doorbell, a pet, or your children coming in to say ‘hello’ to you during a call.It’s easy to manage and to reduce the impact of these interruptions with sound with a few simple approaches.

Sound

The biggest advice I can offer in regards to sound is that we all need to learn to use the mute button like a ninja.Figure out if you prefer to use a software or hardware mute switch, and always use this approach. Only take mute off if you are speaking.

Mobile phone, home phone, and tablet

For all calls and meetings put your mobile, phone, or tablet on silent.A useful backup in case you forget to put your phone on silent is to make sure that you have a suitable professional ringtone and alert sounds. Some things can be hard to undo. Hearing your ringtone, or message alerts during a presentation to the Board, that is hilarious on the weekend, is not something you should allow to happen to your career.I repeat, put your devices on silent.[/vc_column_text][us_image image="7268" size="us_600_400_crop" align="center" meta="1"][ultimate_spacer height="32"][vc_column_text]

Doorbell

There are times where I am in a call where I cannot pay attention to someone at my front door. I am lucky enough to have a doorbell that lets me turn the sound off when I am going to be a presenter on a call. If you are not so fortunate then the overarching rule of being on mute at all times, and being ready to mute like a ninja, is your best approach.

Children

Our children are the love of our lives and the centre of our world. They are the most important thing in many of our lives and why we do a lot of the things we do.If your children are older enough to follow instructions, then I recommend that you discuss with them what is an emergency, and what isn’t. If there is an emergency, I’ve asked my children to come in and stand silently at the side of my desk until I speak to them.This approach has enabled me to go on mute and ask them what is up. I can then decide a course of action, and tell my children what to do. This approach has worked for me once or twice and has been necessary so as not to disrupt a call or meeting.If you have younger children, then the best approach is to ensure that the person who is caring for them while you are working is prepared, and preferably can take them outside for their hour of exercise during your most valuable calls.Failing that, be prepared to mute like a ninja.

Unavoidable interruptions

No matter how much advice you take, or preparations made, there is always the chance of an unavoidable interruption. If you are interrupted unavoidably ensure you are on mute and turn your video off. Combined with being on mute, you can resolve many things with minimal disruption to a call or meeting.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]

Technology

Using technology to solve problems is a great idea. From noise-cancelling headphones to shield you from noises around your home, or to reduce the noises from your home being picked up by your microphone while presenting and off of mute.

Wireless headphones

Bluetooth headphones are a huge plus as they allow you to move around more freely. Should you need to get up and move to another room temporarily, or accept a delivery while on mute, you can do this easily with Bluetooth headphones.I have found my Trekz After Shocks to be a great solution to my calls and meetings. They are discreet and sit over your ears and can be ideal for use while presenting. The battery also lasts for a full day of use.[/vc_column_text][us_image image="7267" size="us_600_400_crop" align="center" meta="1"][ultimate_spacer height="32"][vc_column_text]

Noise-cancelling headphones

Noise-cancelling headphones such as those by Apple, Bose, or Sony are fabulous at removing environmental noises that are around you, helping you to focus on your work. However, they do not remove noise from the microphone while you are on a call. Be cautious here as you may think everything is peaceful and tranquil; your fellow participants will hear more than you anticipate.

Noise-cancelling microphone

Noise-cancelling microphones such as those from Plantronics or Jabra are used in call centres to soften and reduce the ambient noise that is picked up by your microphone. I have used these in a small office environment but have not yet found one that works as well as I hope.

Artificial Intelligence noise cancelling

An alternative to a hardware solution is the option to try a software solution with your current setup. Krisp is a software utility that positions itself between Teams and your existing microphone and headphone to use artificial intelligence to filter out unwanted noises.You can download Krisp from Krisp.ai for both Windows and macOS. It has a free trial, and then a monthly subscription fee. I have tried this recently on a Mac and found it useful in its use of AI to remove background noise, but it was temperamental on the machine I was using when I tried to join another call. But, it has a free trial, and as they say, your mileage may vary.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]

Conclusion

In these uncertain times for us all, working from home has been an enormous success in keeping businesses moving. I want you to be confident that you are presenting yourself at your best, and positively progressing your career. I hope this series has been helpful to you and given you some strategies and approaches to improve your situation.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Featured image by Jason Rosewell on unsplash.com[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

How to be present yourself professionally in a Teams video call or meeting

To present yourself at your best in Teams calls and meetings, you should use the resources that you have have to maximize how you are presented.

Sight

It is important that we can see your shoulders and face. You should position your camera so that you can visually own the space, with your head and shoulder being presented in the stream you are sending.

Position your laptop so that the camera you are using is as close to your eye level as you can. For those who have their laptop camera in the hinge of their laptop this may be something you only do for the most important meetings or presentations. Open your laptop screen as far as it will naturally go, and using books or other objects, prop up the back of your laptop.The rest of us can use a stack of books or a box to raise our camera height for key calls and meetings.

Remember, you are the only person who will see the props and tools you use.Anything that will help to present you better, and that cannot be seen on camera, is a viable approach.

Lighting

Light should be in front of you, and behind your camera. Ideally, you will be able to sit facing a window or other source of natural light to present at your best.If natural light is not an option that is available to you, place a lamp or other light behind your laptop, tablet, or smartphone camera. Like many people your desk may be facing a wall.

In this situation your best approach will be to bounce light from a lamp off the wall. You can do this by aiming the light at the wall, and adjusting the position to maximise the light reflecting on to your face.If the light coming from your lamp is too warm you could order a new lightbulb from Amazon with a higher Kelvin rating to get a light that is more white.

Standard light bulbs tend to be available up to 6,000 Kelvins. In my experience something around the 4000 Kelvin range will give a cooler light.

Your background

In my earlier post in this series, How to present yourself at your best in Teams, Microsoft Teams, like Zoom, and other Video platforms has a feature to replace your background image.This is very effective at either blurring, or removing your background from your video stream.

This is a great feature that you can use as an equaliser in terms of our sudden need to be visible from home, without revealing everything.If you find that the remove background feature is not a useable alternative, for your most important calls, turn your desk so that you back is against a plain wall.If you cannot turn your desk, remember, if you place your laptop on a suitable surface, you can sit with your back to a plain wall, without the desk. No-one will know.

Be engaged

If you have taken the effort to present yourself professionally, front and centre, it is important that you are engaged in your call or meeting.

Pay attention and remain focused on the meeting you are in.I attended a webinar last week in which one of the presenters kept using his iPhone while the other speakers were presenting. It was easy to tell he had an iPhone as he held it in view of his camera for us all to see him using it while the other presenters were speaking.

If you need to keep track of an issue on your phone place your phone on mute and hold your phone next to your camera or laptop screen. This way you can discreetly view the incoming messages with only minor sideways eye movements.Prop your phone up as needed. You must keep your phone out of view of the camera.

If you're presenting yourself with confidence, you can pull off pretty much anything.

– Katy Perry

Grooming

We are all now in some stage of lockdown and restricted personal movement. Some of us had more time to prepare than others. I know I wish I had gotten a haircut closer to being locked down. But that was 8 week ago, and even with a haircut I would still have 2 months of growth to account for.It’s important that you present yourself as well groomed as is relevant for you and your profession.

For those of use working remotely and using Teams our careers have not stopped. How you present and carry yourself through this period has the potential to have an impact on your career. I think it’s worth trying to make it a positive one.

Clothing

Our dress code while working remotely is another area where you can impact positively on the impression that people have of you. While the Financial Times recently suggested you could lose your tie (Keep the blazer, lose the tie - the new rules of home workwear), they still recommended a business shirt and suit jacket, or blouse and jacket, for important meetings.

In many other meetings an open collared business shirt or blouse is perfect. The overarching advice from the FT was to maintain the standards of your workplace.

Conclusion

We’ve now covered issues around how you are presented visually in video calls and meetings. In the next post in this series I tackle how we are heard, and what others can hear from us during our calls and meetings.

Be sure to come back for the next post in this series on presenting yourself at your best in Teams video calls and meetings.

Working in a full house - the most important thing I've learned so far

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Like many of us I am working from home, which is not unusual for me, as I often work remotely or from home. What’s new is that my entire family is here in the house with me, all the time, and I’m unable to go outside as I wish. This has benefits, and challenges, that are unique to the situation we all find ourselves in.I also know from all the online meetings that I’m in a lot of us are getting used to having our children around us while we work. Having our 9 and 8-year-old children around all day has reinforced a couple of things we learnt as new parents in helping the kids get organised and focused on the task at hand. That is the importance of having a routine.We have had routines in our house for everything from our mornings, bath time, dinner and bedtime routines, and what we have for dinner as a family on a particular night of the week. These things have been important as we have moved internationally four times in the last 9 years. We have always had the same process in many areas, including the same family dish that we’ve had for dinner on a Monday night in four countries – which has been easier in some countries than others.At dinner time tonight in asking the kids how they are doing with school holidays and the COVID-19 lock-down they replied that they thought the daily routine was good. This was incredible to hear them offer this back and it made me realise that I am potentially missing a great opportunity for myself here.Right now, like many, I have extra time in my day because I do not have to commute to work each day. I also have three meals a day with my family. This is a perfect opportunity to tweak my own routines or put a positive new routine into my own personal life that supports me in my goals and fills in gaps where I have them.Business/career reading, writing, one-on-one time with the kids and my wife. Exercise, meditation, study, and reading for pleasure. These are some of the ideas I must tweak, or start, to improve myself.How could you use the current period of hibernation and restrictions on movement to improve your life? While we do not know how long this situation will last, it will end. You will regret not taking advantage of the opportunities that we do have right now. What could you achieve, working from home, during this period of hibernation? [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

3 great ways to host online meetings in Office 365 today

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]With the arrival of Covid-19 the ability to work from home is now a primary importance for many of us. Part of this is the need for our work life to continue as near to normal as possible. One of the biggest enablers of this for me is Office 365 and the resources it has for getting work done no matter where I am. For those in the Events industry involved in planning, hosting, delivering large-scale meetings and events we need to look at what our options are for online alternatives.As part of Microsoft’s promotion of existing features in Office 365 the Microsoft blog has just published ways to help Office 365 users host online meetings and events. These features are already available in the Live platform in multiple Office applications.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]

Online meetings in Yammer

For internal company meetings such as Town Halls, or Ask Me Anything sessions you can user Yammer to host. Yammer will allow for ongoing discussion and engagement and you can share content by screen-sharing or webcams.

You can use webcams and screen-sharing, or for more studio-quality broadcasts, additional production tools can be used.

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Streams

You can host internal meetings in Stream to deliver live or on-demand video for learning, training, or specialised topics.

Live broadcasts can be viewed in Stream or embedded on custom intranet pages or other hosting spots, and when the event ends employees can find them there later. These events also use additional production tools to enable studio-quality broadcasts.

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Online meetings in Teams

Live events can also be hosted in Teams and this is where Live events may feel most familiar to Teams users. Attendees can join from the browser, or the Teams app. If required, to preserve bandwidth, they can join as audio only. Microsoft have increased the number of attendees enabled to attend standard Teams calls to 250 attendees. This week alone Microsoft have served almost 1 billion minutes of Teams calls every day this week, with 44 million users - an increase of 12 million this week alone.In Team Live calls, enabled via the meeting type dropdown in the Teams Calendar, speakers and presenters can connect as normal in Teams and share via their camera and share screens with a few clicks. You can also use have a moderated Q&A session and the fantastic feature of live captions to for inclusivity and to improve enhance the experience for attendees.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]

Guidance and help getting started

Microsoft have shared some best practices and guidance on how improving employee engagement with live events to enable us to get started delivering live events today.They’ve also launched a service to assist with Live events and to start using these new event capabilities to create professional, and impactful virtual events.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]

Coming soon - PowerPoint Live

On top of all of this, the most interesting one to me is the new PowerPoint Live feature that is to be released soon. This is a new way of hosting meetings and presentations using the Live platform directly within PowerPoint.There is a great highlight video online here. To me, the key features of this new tool are:

1. It’s a native part of PowerPoint
2. QR code links to join the call
3. Automated subtitles
4. Automated translation
5. Attendee Feedback
6. Agency for attendees to recap on content

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Conclusion

I’m going to be jumping in to use some of these new tools that are at my disposal. Also, I can't wait to get my hands on PowerPoint Live. It’s an exciting time for technology and Office 365.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Working remotely using Teams and Office 365

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Like many others, I am now working for home as part of efforts to keep our colleagues and our teams healthy and manage COVID-19 infection rates. As a regular remote worker and user of Microsoft Office 365, this transition has been seamless for me.[/vc_column_text][us_image image="7294" size="us_600_400_crop" align="center" meta="1"][ultimate_spacer height="32"][vc_column_text]Using core elements of Office 365 such as Exchange and SharePoint to power Outlook, Teams, OneDrive, OneNote, and Planner means we have been able to continue without missing a beat. My telephone extension is also a Teams number, so I can still make and receive telephone calls as usual (with the benefit of emailed voicemail transcript and MP3 file).[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]For those who are new to remote work, the Microsoft blog has had several posts to help with this transition.

• Staying productive while working remotely with Microsoft Teams
• Working remotely during challenging times
• The top 9 ways Microsoft IT is enabling remote work for its employees

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]IT leadership and Microsoft deserve kudos for building a sustainable solution for businesses and teams of all sizes. I can work from anywhere with access to the tools and resources I need to deliver[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][/vc_column][/vc_row]

What's your role at work?

The IDEO blog had a great post today about physical office design. Well, it claims to be about office design but it’s not.

It zigs and then zags through office design, fit-out specifications, interior design, communities, collaboration, and the hidden roles that we, and our colleagues, play. Some of these roles are often not recognised until those who played them are gone. If we can identify and remember these roles, they could be built upon to improve results.

“... I think about all the potential we can unlock by holding the cultural and emotional components of work alongside legacy approaches to productivity and architecture. Our challenge—and our interest—is weaving those parts into a greater whole.”

— Marina Muun

I believe we live in an era where it is important to improve our connection to our communities and those around us. I think that this post from IDEO is one of the best I’ve read in a while.

What Comes After Open Offices? It Doesn’t Matter, As Long As Culture Comes First

Photo by Brooke Cagle on Unsplash