Due to social distancing recommendations caused by COVID-19, virtual meetings are the new platforms to replace in-person interaction. Clients, stakeholders and employees are all using this tool to operate businesses, make new connections and maintain relationships. With everyone using this tool, how do you make sure your company isn’t causing virtual meeting burnout for attendees? Consider these three tips the next time you plan a virtual meeting.

3 Tips to Avoid Virtual Meeting Burnout:

Keep Your Meetings Short

Have agendas for your virtual meetings to ensure efficiency and keep them under 45 minutes. The average attention span for a meeting attendee is much shorter on virtual calls compared to an in-person meeting.

Use Interactive Tools

Virtual meetings are great to engage, but just seeing people on a call does not always equal true engagement. Consider adding interactive tools, visuals or even music intros during your next virtual meeting. Many virtual meeting platforms offer live polling to encourage attendees to provide feedback. Whiteboard features are also available for interactive team brainstorming sessions. A brief 5-minute interactive exercise can provide a memorable experience for your attendees

Go back to the basics

Conference calls are still a useful tool to connect with clients, stakeholders, and employees. Before sending out your meeting invitation determine your goals for the meeting. Can you achieve your goals without sharing a screen or seeing your attendee’s face? If the answer is yes, host a basic conference call. This will provide a break for the potentially numerous virtual meeting requests that clients and employees receive daily.

I’ve long been a fan of the insights of author Seth Godin. Last week, one of his blog posts spoke to me:

I used to ask, “If you stole Steven Spielberg’s address book, would it help you get a movie made?”

The point was that even if you had the phone numbers and names, calling them up and saying you’d stolen them wasn’t worth very much. The data has no value without trust and connection.

Now, twenty years later, all the address books have been stolen. Everyone has all the data. Identifying the right people (or spamming everyone) is easy and cheap.

Which makes the point even more urgent than ever: Without trust and connection, access to data is worthless.

– Seth Godin

The stolen address book

What are you doing to build trust and connection with your key stakeholders?

As the coronavirus has kept us all apart, finding creative ways to engage your stakeholders is more important than ever. Just because you may not be seeing them in person, does not mean they don’t need to hear from you.

Here are a few steps to make sure you are staying connected:

Identify

Take the time to identify your most important stakeholders. Are they your employees, board members, community advocates or donors? Key groups of individuals can make or break your success. Managing your key stakeholders includes identifying not only who to engage, but how and when to engage them. If you find yourself with some free time, make the most of it by reviewing your contact lists – and why not include social media friends and followers – to spark ideas. I bet you’ll find more than a few lost contacts or connections that could be worth rekindling.

Communicate

If you aren’t telling your story, someone else will. Whether positive or negative news, how you craft your story matters and people need to hear it directly from you, not someone else. Be factual, authentic and timely to earn the trust of your stakeholders – and the time of COVID-19 is no exception! Now is the perfect time to reconnect by checking up on old connections.

Measure

Finally, take a pulse of how you are doing. Seek input from others to see if your efforts are resonating. If they aren’t, you’ll need to retool your strategy. In lieu of in-person meetings, opt for video calls where you can. It’s always easier to read someone’s body language and expressions than trying to decipher over the telephone.

NP Strategy helps clients both large and small identify their key stakeholders and craft the right message for delivery to each unique audience. Let us know if we can help you!

The new world we currently live in is changing a lot of what we do and how we do it. We are no longer just matching outfits before we head into work, but we’re also making sure our new face masks don’t clash with our office attire. Another big change we’ve seen with a number of our clients is adapting events to the “no gathering of large crowds,” rule that COVID-19 has enacted.

Our team recently worked with two clients that moved their large annual events online and they’ve both been a success. They are each very different and the way they virtually adapted was different, too. However, their efforts and achievements were similar.

Here are 5 steps to turn your in-person event into a virtual success:

1) Provide ample time for guests to plan for your online event.

This allows for you to make sure they are watching, listening and not distracted. One of the events we’ve taken online was an organization’s annual retreat. This is normally a three day conference with numerous speakers, breakout sessions and evening dinners. When the decision was made to cancel the in-person programming, we quickly announced our efforts to bring the scheduled speakers into a bi-monthly webinar for nearly three months.

2) Provide something your in-person event might not offer.

Being able to bring your events online can actually be a blessing. Your speaker line-up can grow due to the ability for them to do the program from their living room. You don’t have to work around as many schedules or travel accommodations. For one event we brought online, we previously invited Georgia’s former Minority Leader, Stacey Abrams, to be a speaker for two years. This year, we were able to secure her as a speaker because no travel was necessary and we worked around her schedule.

3) Keep people engaged

The scariest part about changing your events from in-person to online is the engagement. Your speakers can’t look in the eyes of the audience. Have you ever told a joke to a webinar audience? It’s excruciating. On Zoom and WebEx, when you host a webinar, you can’t see or hear the audience unless specifically allowed but this feature also provides security to your event. However, you can provide numerous ways for the audience to be engaged. You can let your audience take polls to get an understanding of the sentiment of the audience. You can allow for an open dialogue of questions and answers. However, you want to make sure you’re able to allow the audience to ask questions, provide feedback and feel engaged in the program.

4) The time at an in-person event doesn’t always correlate online

When you’re changing your programming from in-person to online, you can’t expect the time to adjust one to one. So, if you’re taking a 3-day conference virtual, you can’t expect people to go online for three days straight. In the instance of our client, we took those three days of programming and hosted a conversation every other Thursday for nearly three months.

5) Have fun!

This is the most important piece of advice. Online events can seem tedious and time-consuming. However, you can make them fun. You can let people interact with your speakers. You can present audio and video to break up the speeches. There are a lot of things you can do that make online events entertaining and worthy of hosting.

Empathy is a key element of emotional intelligence – the connection between self and others. We’re all seeing the power of empathy in dramatic ways during the COVID-19 crisis; from the heartfelt appreciation for health care workers, to the celebration of sanitation crews and delivery drivers.  While we undoubtedly see empathy’s impact, many still believe it’s something you either do or do not “have,” or don’t think of empathy as an action.  I would like to challenge that belief, and encourage all of us to be better leaders by putting empathy into action.

When Mahatma Gandhi returned to India in 1915, he was a pinstriped barrister with a high-stiff collar. But in order to lead his nation to independence, he knew he’d need the support and trust of the population living in poverty. So Gandhi put empathy into action, and began to dress, live and eat like the poor. It gave him a greater understanding of the lives and experiences of the poor of his country, and also helped him develop an extremely loyal and engaged following.

Leaders of modern organizations often operate on a different level than most of their people: their office is in a different location, they eat lunch with different people, they socialize in different circles. To be an effective leader, one must understand the entire organization, and a powerful way to do this is to prioritize empathy through your actions. Here are a couple of ideas to help you practice empathy in the workplace, as we all continue adjusting to this new “normal” life:

• Attend meetings and lunches that you may not have to attend with employee groups you don’t typically interact with – set a calendar reminder, or ask a colleague to help keep you accountable, to make this happen.
• Make an effort to reach out to every part of the organization and understand what folks do, even if it’s not crucial to your tasks that day.
• Consider who you do not know well or at all, and make an effort to engage those employees. No one is exempt from this – including the contractors who may support your organization, such as couriers, cleaning crews, etc.
• Keep a stack of cards at your desk – for any occasion – to sign with a personal note. These could express sympathy, congratulations, or a simple gesture of thanks that might otherwise go unsaid.

As you deploy these and other similar actions you will not only understand your organization better, but you will also foster the loyalty and engagement necessary to succeed.  And best of all, your life will be enriched by the variety of relationships you will build in the process.

For those of us in the professional services industry, clients are our bread and butter. We are constantly looking for ways to provide top-notch, memorable service to our current clients, while looking for new clients that will allow us to grow our business. It’s easy to say that good business attracts more business, but how do you make sure your current clients are not only well taken care of, but eager to recommend you to others? Go the extra mile. Consider the following:

Be Valuable
Always be mindful of putting yourself in your client’s shoes. How can you make their job easier? Take some time to visualize their businesses’ goals and landscape from their perspective. Doing so will allow you to elevate your client by providing valuable insights and strategies you know would make them successful – whether internally with their leadership team – or externally with key stakeholders.

Be Proactive
With your newfound perspective on what your client could do to achieve greater success, don’t waste time in making suggestions. Don’t wait for that weekly call or meeting – let them know you’re always trying to stay a step ahead and keep them ahead of the competition. If you see or hear about something that could be valuable to your client, share it with them quickly.

Be Responsive
Speaking of speed, remember that you work for the client, not yourself. It sounds basic, but responding to their calls and emails in a timely fashion can go a long way. Technology has allowed us to stay in contact in more ways than ever before (for better or worse), and the last thing you want your client to do is feel like you’ve put them on the back burner. Even if you don’t have the answer they are looking for immediately, acknowledge receipt of their message and let them know you are looking into it. A client always wants to be reminded that they are front and center in your mind.

Be Thoughtful
Clients appreciate having more than a working relationship, and if you’re in the business of client services, you should be interested in taking the time to get to know your clients as individuals, even if only for the fact that it makes for good business. Make note of their birthdays, hobbies, and families. Take these insights and apply them during your client interactions by asking about their recent vacation or business trip, or how their mother is doing. Send them a note on their birthday, or take them to lunch at their favorite restaurant. I’ve found that the smallest gesture – a quick, thoughtful email, or the offering of a free ticket to an event you know they’d enjoy – can make a big impression.

Maya Angelou famously said that someone may not remember what you said or did, but they will remember how you made them feel. The same philosophy applies to client services. You will never regret going above and beyond to provide a good client experience that creates a long-standing, trusted relationship.

On Monday, July 22, the NP Strategy team held its inaugural Volunteer Day at Harvest Hope Food Bank in Columbia. The 14-person team, covering both Carolinas, filled over 300 mobile food pantry boxes in under two hours. The shelf-stable boxes will be distributed to individuals and families in need throughout Harvest Hopes’ service areas in South Carolina.

The perfect job can be described as the combination of your passion with your potential. Throughout my career, I’ve been fortunate enough to work with interesting and inspiring people and experience once-in-a-lifetime opportunities along the way. Above it all, though, I am most proud of the work that aligned with my values and groups I passionately support.

Since 2011, I’ve partnered with an incredible group of women at Winthrop University through the John C. West Forum on Politics and Policy and NEW Leadership.  It has put me in the position to speak to and mentor college-aged women interested in public service. Since 2015, I have planned the ‘Columbia day’ for the 25-30 women looking to embark on their journey into public service and politics.

In June of 2015, only two weeks back from maternity leave, I awoke in the early hours of the morning not to infant cries, but to phone calls and texts bringing horrific news from Charleston. I worked for Congressman Jim Clyburn at the time, and immediately began the drive down to Charleston where we spent the next few days reeling from the Mother Emanuel massacre. 18 months later, I assisted with the development of a non-profit to encourage dialogue and civility rather than divisiveness and negativity. Without question, I jumped at the chance to honor the victims and survivors while providing a platform to make our community a better place through solution-based conversations. That year, the Charleston Forum was born.

These two examples, while different, both provided an amazing outlet to match my professional skillset with my personal passions. Finding your passion in work isn’t just about tolerating the day-to-day grind, it’s about maximizing your impact in the lives of your clients and customers, their passions, and your shared community. I’ve been fortunate to work with a group of communicators at NPS who’ve arrived at their jobs because of a similar desire to make connections and help others succeed.

The hard part, of course, is finding that magic combination of passion and profession. It’s a mixture some will be fortunate enough to nail early on, while others will march through a series of jobs, narrowing their search by learning what they are not passionate about. Consider increasing your community relations time commitment, or – if you’re in a leadership position – an internal engagement campaign to find out where your team’s true passions lie. Serve on boards, join leadership groups or talk to people from different generations.

I have always said you can’t complain about politics if you don’t vote, and I believe the same theory applies here. Don’t just get upset that women aren’t being treated the same as men in the workplace – work with women to help them understand their true potential. Don’t just hope inequities will go away – do something to help find solutions to some of our communities biggest problems. It can be a difficult process, but the adage about loving your job and ‘never working a day in your life’ is true – and worth the investment.

Amanda Loveday,  Associate Director of NP Strategy, has a passion for meeting new people and building relationships. It is what has made her a powerhouse in politics and communications. A decade of experience taught her the importance of getting to know the community and how to interact with people, especially those with different personalities and backgrounds. Get in touch with Amanda at (803) 540-2190 or amanda@npstrat.com.