Can you influence during a pandemic?

It may feel like the entire world of business has changed. You are no longer in an office, you are in your kitchen. You are no longer sitting opposite your client, you are staring at a WebCam and you are currently not buying a round of drinks, sharing stories and building rapport, you are sitting through a zoom happy hour, smiling nicely and drinking alone!! I know, it is somewhat depressing.

But don’t worry – we will adapt, we already have…and the opportunities for communication success are numerous! The demands on you as a communicator, however, are still there. In fact, it could be argued that those demands have increased.

I recently saw a LinkedIn post where the user asked her followers a question. She said why is it that I feel so much more exhausted after a series of zoom meetings than I ever did in real meetings? We all may have different opinions but my answer was all around the fact that there are now more things to consider and take care of in the virtual world than there were in the in-person world.

You would never sit down for a meeting in your local Starbucks, with your customer, and worry about lighting. You would never check the level of your seat or whether your Wi-Fi signal was strong enough. You wouldn’t worry about the crappy microphone that was integrated into your laptop.

You wouldn’t suddenly have a moment of horror when you realize that something behind you was an embarrassing revelation about your personal life! You wouldn’t be concerned that in this limited time you would be able to find a way to connect and get your message across before a notification would distract your customer.

There’s a lot of stuff going on now when we sit down and join an online meeting. My recommendation to you is simply this. Find a system that helps you set everything up exactly the same way every single time. Create a mental (or real) checklist so that all of those additional concerns and worries are all checked off and put away before the meeting even begins.

Now you are back in business. Without the constant distraction of the ‘setup’, you can focus your unique perspective and winning charisma on sharing your brilliant ideas and influencing the outcome. Now as you lean into that webcam, and without worrying about the ’tech’, you can dedicate your efforts on helping your customer or client continue to enjoy great success through their relationship with you.