For most of us, Safer at Home means we need to work from home if we’re going to work at all. More importantly, many business associates prefer face-to-face meetings over emails and phone calls. This typically results in people who are otherwise stalwarts of professionalism coming off just a little less professional. This article will briefly address things you can do to enhance your professional persona in an era of teleconferencing.
As a general rule, you want to have some sort of professional backdrop during your teleconferences. Sure, you love your framed Bellinger jersey in your office, but unless you are involved in baseball, it simply doesn’t send the right message. If you don’t have the technical know-how regarding backdrops, consider redecorating your home office for the time being. It is in your best interest to make your work environment look like an actual work-environment rather than a place you work from when you are at home. Perception is reality, and you don’t want your colleagues seeing you as anything other than a superstar.
Next, give some thought to how you appear on the other person’s monitor; we’ve all seen up people’s noses while they FaceTime from their cell phone. Remember, we’re going for a professional look, and the inside of your nose is not professional. More relevant, you must avoid empty walls behind you – something is always better than nothing.
Don’t forget to dress for the occasion. Many of us may be currently spending our days in sweats and lounge wear, but when it comes time for a video call, put on that business suit, blouse, etc. (at least the top half!).
To put it bluntly, your professionalism in a video conference is entirely dependent on perception and putting effort into a high-quality look during teleconferences is incredibly important. On some level, if you haven’t done anything to spruce up what your colleagues are seeing, it may come off as amateur. Sure, it’s a bit ridiculous to expect you to be a professional at something you’re not a professional at, but it’s critical that you make an effort to look like your office was made for the new era of work-from-home.
Finally, nobody wants to hear your background noise. We understand your pets and children are home and they don’t really have a sense of boundaries when it comes to these things, but it certainly impacts the quality of the call – which, as noted above, reflects on your professionalism despite not really being an accurate reflection of that. As such, you should do your best to minimize all external noise during your teleconferences and place yourself on mute whenever you are not speaking.
The major takeaway from this article is this: if you are teleconferencing while working from home, go the extra mile to ensure that those conferences mimic what a face-to-face office meeting would be like. Have a clean background, don’t look like you just moved in, be organized, and don’t have excessive ambient noise.
At the Chernov Team we understand that knowledge is power, and knowledge of what is likely to be a part of the future workplace is powerful knowledge indeed. At the Chernov Team we know that whoever comes to the table most prepared leaves with the most, and the Chernov Team always leaves the table with the most.
