How can you lead a conference call effectively? Why do people stay silent during a conference call? Why do some people talk too much, or dominate, during a conference call?

Some clients of Voice Synergy have recently been asking how to get the best out of a conference call.

Here are some top tips to leading a successful conference call.

1. Create a participants list with name, job title and area of expertise.
2. State the objective of the conference call and create an agenda.
3. Identify approximately how long the conference call will take.
4. Set the date and time (allow for different time zones as appropriate).
5. Invite participants and ensure they have the dial-in details, passcodes, etc.
6. Share the above information well in advance of the conference call and ask all invitees to confirm their attendance.
7. Send a reminder one day before the conference call.

How to be voice ready to lead a conference call

• When you lead a conference call, it is important that your voice is warmed up and that you are ready to speak. This may seem an obvious point, but conference calls can be scheduled for early morning, before you have had time to use your voice and your voice may not be ready for its professional duties of leading the discussion.
• Take time to warm up your vocal folds by doing some gentle humming up and down the scales several times (sometimes known as sirening). As well as warming up your voice, you can warm up your lips and strengthen your muscles by squeezing your lips together in a strong (silent) whistle shape, then spreading your lips into a wide smile that stretches right across your face. Repeat several times. These simple exercises will help with smooth speech and clearer articulation of your words.
• Keep your voice interesting by using more range than you do routinely and speaking at a slightly slower pace than usual. Remember all the interference that could happen in a telephone conference, such as buffering, echo on the line, unusual accents – all of which will benefit from you using a slower pace of speech. Using more range in your voice means beginning to speak at a slightly higher pitch than your everyday habit and moving through a wider range of ‘notes’ as you speak, ending on a slightly lower note than usual.
• When you are about to speak, remember to breathe in first. Breathe in (inspire) to think, then speak as you bring your thoughts to life. Remember to use one thought, one breath.
• Keep your sentences shorter than usual and remember to pause at the end of your sentence. Allow your audience a short moment to process what you have said. Practise what you want to say to the group before the conference call, remember your objectives and keep to the point.

Practising all the above vocal exercises several times over the period of a few days will reap great rewards in terms of commanding and holding attention during the conference call.

How to lead the conference call

Once all attendees are dialled in or registered, welcome each person by name and invite them to say briefly who they are and to outline their area of interest / contribution to the conference call.

Introduce the objective of the conference call to all present and remind everyone of how long the call will take.

One of the key complaints from those attending a conference call is that the lead speaker speaks too much or is too wordy or verbose, or that they simply ramble. Sometimes it can be a contributor who drones on and on and goes off topic during the conference call. It is the responsibility of the lead speaker to curtail those that speak too much. Using the speaker’s name is a powerful way of getting their attention; immediately thank them for their contribution, and politely move on, introducing the next speaker or topic.

Good, effective time management, people management and your own voice management is essential to creating a useful conference call. Using your agenda and/or list of topics, you can invite each participant to contribute in turn so no one feels left out or overlooked.

Allow sufficient time at the end of the conference for questions (Q&As). Let everyone know how much time there is available for questions and wind up the conference call at the appropriate time.

At the end of the conference call, thank the group for their contributions, opinions and ideas, let them know if and when any minutes, outcomes or next steps will be sent to them and close the meeting. When thanking the group, really let your thanks influence your vocal tone. Sound like you mean it.

Your positive leadership, effective use of your voice, organisation of the time and of the conference call itself will be well received and lead to productive events in the future.

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