Leadership Today - Practical Tips For Leaders
Business:Management
Summary
Research demonstrates the background we choose for video calls has a significant impact on how trustworthy and competent we appear. This week we explore how to boost your first impressions on a video call in three simple ways.
Transcript
Hello and welcome to episode 218 of the Leadership Today podcast where each week we share practical tips to improve your leadership. This week we explore how to boost your first impressions on a video call in three simple ways.
Your choice of background on a video call has a greater impact on how you’re perceived by others than you might expect. You might be tempted to choose a novelty background to communicate a sense of fun, or a home background to reflect that you’re not in the office. But there are risks with these choices.
Selecting a novelty background or a simulated home background saw ratings of trustworthiness drop. Blurring a home background resulted in better ratings of trustworthiness for the person, but the best ratings were for a background with plants or a bookcase.
The research also found that facial expressions, not surprisingly, also mattered. Happy faces were rated as more trustworthy than neutral or sad faces.
Ratings of competence also varied by background, with bookcases, plants and blank walls leading to the highest ratings. Novelty backgrounds, home backgrounds, and blurred backgrounds saw lower ratings. Again, happy facial expressions resulted in more positive ratings of competence.
Interestingly, women were seen as more trustworthy and more competent than men across all backgrounds in the experiment. Our gender impacts the first impressions we make on a video meeting. Men will likely benefit from additional efforts to demonstrate trustworthiness and competence during the meeting.
Here are three simple ways to boost your first impressions on a video call:
Give these practical ideas a try on your next video call.
Research - https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0291444
Leadership Today On-Demand Special Offer
We have a great deal for podcast listeners on our Leadership Today On-Demand subscription. Just go to www.leadershiptoday.com and checkout using the promo code PODCAST for 25% off an annual subscription.
Leadership Today On-Demand is a video subscription service that allows you to work on your leadership in your own time and at your own pace. It is available online and through our Apple iOS and Android apps for phones and tablets. Our mission is to help you to become an even better leader.
Your subscription brings together all of our video content in one place including:
- Five online courses with workbooks
- Five five day challenges with workbooks
- Nineteen recorded webinars
- A searchable library of 170+ "how to" quick videos on a range of leadership challenges
That's over $4,500 of content for less than the price of a single online course. And there are more videos added each week.
Get Connected
Find out ways to get connected here: https://leadership.today/connect
Episode 130 - When to Set a Deadline
Episode 129 - Community Multiplies Support
Episode 128 - The Power of Options
Episode 127 - Better Together - Challenge and Support
Episode 126 - Pay Attention
Episode 125 - The Three Stages in Any Meeting
Episode 124 - Change the Plan, Not the Goal
Episode 123 - Learning at Double Speed
Episode 122 - Feedback Isn't Coaching
Episode 121 - Want Versus Will
S2E3 Shane Hatton - Lead the Room
S2E2 - Ellen Jackson - Positive Psychology and Leadership
S2E1 Dr Maria Church - Love-Based Leadership
Episode 120 - What is Your Philosophy of Leadership?
Replay - It Turns Out Development Isn’t Quite 70/20/10
Episode 119 - Rudeness at Work - Epidemic or a Few Bad Apples?
Episode 118 - Resilience Starts with Leadership
Episode 117 - Why 10,000 Hours of Practice Isn’t Perfect
Growing Gratitude Challenge - Day Five
Growing Gratitude Challenge - Day Four
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
The Commercial Edge: Unleash the Power of People
The emPOWERed Half Hour
HCI Leadership Revolution
Human Capital Leadership
The Power of Music Thinking
BusinessWISE
Business Wars