Mistakes To Avoid When Holding Remote Board Meetings

When the Covid 19 pandemic hit, most, if not all, businesses were affected. Tough decisions had to be made by the management to ensure that they stay afloat during the tough times. Most of the businesses shifted their inclination to the online space. Working from home became the new normal and still is. One of the things that many businesses have since implemented is holding remote board meetings.

Business decisions have to be made regardless, and holding such strategic meetings is therefore vital. To ensure that the meetings are productive, there are mistakes that you should avoid at all costs. Let us look at some of them;

Lack of an agenda

Having a well-set agenda in place before the virtual meeting is paramount. All members should then be emailed the agenda to be on the same page during the session. This ensures that no time is wasted and that everyone is on board from the start of the meeting to the end. Moreover, it gives everyone time to prepare adequately and contribute to the discussion. When coming up with the agenda, ensure that you set time limits for each one of them to avoid spending so much time on a specific one.

Not having a moderator

To avoid confusion and also save time, it is vital to have a moderator during the remote board meeting. All the members should be aware of who the moderator will be beforehand.

The moderator should ensure that people stick to the agenda and everyone’s contribution and questions are heard. Additionally, they should be timely and make sure the meeting starts and ends in good time.

Choosing the wrong platform

During online meetings, there are a lot of details that are usually shared. As such, you should ensure that the platform you choose is secure. This is so as to prevent any third parties from accessing crucial information about your business.

Poor network connectivity

After spending hours setting up a virtual meeting, the last thing you want is to experience connectivity issues on the D-day. All members should therefore ensure that they do a trial run by checking their internet connectivity as well as their devices before the meeting commences.

Lack of meeting etiquette

Typically, while working from home, you may face a lot of destructions, but this does not mean that you should not accord the virtual board meeting the same seriousness as the one-on-one meetings.

Be well dressed for the meeting and prepare adequately as well. Ensure that you keep off all destructions during the meeting to avoid destructing the other members present. Moreover, maintain eye contact, be present, take notes and participate.

When setting up the remote board meetings, you need to consider the members’ different time zones. Set the meeting at a time that all or majority of the members will be present.

By avoiding the mistakes mentioned above, the remote board meetings will be productive; you will save time and reduce your expenses.