As William Shakespeare once said, “Better three hours too soon than a minute too late.” In business, most particularly, you should always strive to be early to every engagement. Whether we are talking about your weekly departmental team meeting, or a catch-up call with a longtime client, getting on that video call before attendees start looking at the clock is a must.
Of course, mitigating situations can arise. Your computer could freeze while logging on to an online meeting platform, or a household emergency could slow your entry to the home office. These relatable circumstances can be easily explained away and forgiven. However, if lateness becomes a pattern for you, those you have virtual meetings with could soon begin to judge your character.
Here is why being late to a video call is a very bad look:
Shows You Don’t Value the Time of Others
When consistently late for a video meeting, you are making attendees feel as though their time is of no concern to you. Regardless of if you are the meeting lead, or just a participant of it, your late arrival will shift the attention of those in the room and potentially derail the call’s momentum.
What’s more, if you are scheduled to present, being late for a meeting will possibly extend the scheduled time frame for it. As a result, others on the call will lose that time and have to now adjust how the rest of their days will need to be structured.
Harms Your Professional Reputation
Whenever you do not arrive on time for a live video chat online, you are opening yourself up to the possibility of developing a poor professional reputation. Even if you are generally a very hard worker who often exceeds internal quotas, not everyone on the video call will know that – or care.
To them, they will just see a person who couldn’t find a way to schedule themselves accordingly, and understand the importance of getting to this virtual meeting when they were supposed to. These chinks in the armour can build up over time, and can prove hard to repair.
You Give Others Less Time to Accomplish Meeting Objectives
While lateness sometimes results in a video call running longer than scheduled, other times a meeting will end when it’s scheduled to, regardless of your tardiness.
Unfortunately, what this ultimately means is if you were required to speak at a staff meeting – or offer your opinion on someone else’s presentation – being late could result in neither happening. As such, multiple meeting objectives will not have been met, which could delay certain projects and/or deals from moving forward.
Leaves Others to Question Your Priorities
Just like a boardroom meeting, virtual meetings are used to get a team on the same page and see that all assignments are understood and moving in the right direction.
When regularly late for video conferencing sessions, those around you will begin to question what your true priorities are. Clearly, you should understand the significance of these gatherings and why your role within them matters to many individuals in the room.
Reflects Poorly on Your Company
Not showing up on time to a team meeting will also have a negative impact on how clients and/or prospective clients view your company.
These individuals will quickly wonder why this company tolerates such unprofessional behaviour, and if it is widespread. Immediately, this will spark client concern over how this relationship will flow, and if such disorganization will eventually harm their bottom line.
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