“To be a good leader, you have to learn to make your meetings effective,” wrote motivational speaker and leadership expert, John C. Maxwell, in his book Leadership Gold. He, as well as many other keynote speakers and experts emphasize the need for constant and well-structured communication between leaders and their team if their aim is to succeed. However, there are many hindrances to this principle, a few of them often being geographical locations, traffic, health, and lack of time. These forms of disconnection add to the heap of stress working citizens carry around all day, all week, all month, and sometimes, all year round. Worse, many lose clients and prospects this way without recognizing that technology had already provided the solution for a more organized communication.
This solution is called Audio Conferencing Services, and it incorporates the use of technology as ordinary as telephones and cellular phones to the latest laptops. Awareness of such luxury that can save us time, money, and energy, will prove valuable to our work, hence its escalating demand in the market, but before we dive into its comforting arms, let us first analyze the origins and nature of audio conferencing.
From Want To Need
Delivering well in our jobs require us to perform two different activities with our left and right hand while walking and talking, so do not be surprised if you wake up in the hospital the following day. From the simple desire of a method to balance things, a more systematized network of communication has become a need for every business there is. This is where audio conferencing services make an entrance.
In simple terms, this service allows you to finalizing a bidding in Tokyo and proceed to introducing a proposal to your boss in New York with just a few clicks. Mind you, you are doing this while sitting on the same chair for twelve hours.
How Technology Aids Us
Telephone wires, electricity, phones, and computers have become your new best friends. They have saved you a lot of bucks transferring from one taxi to another. These technologies are everybody else’s constant companion, and it has become literally impossible to survive this modern age without these. When you are running late for your next appointment, rest assured that you can make up by calling your assistant to put you on speakerphone.
A more advance feature may even allow you a form of interaction in the computer, where the other can draw visual aids for you and vice versa while the conversation goes, increasing the understanding between both parties. If a significant person has missed the conference, a recording of it lessens the strain of having to repeat yourself, especially when your schedule is already full.
For those conducting conferences for a wide-range of audiences, if a personal facilitator is not available, most organizations sign in with providers who make sure these things run smoothly for you and your team.
Most providers offer global reach, easing you back in your office with your international affairs and expanding your access to a variety of places you never thought was possible to capture before.
A Downhill
Despite this convenience, the traditional face-time is still a necessity, and must be applied especially in large organizations.
Personal interaction permits an actual view of your audience’s body language, hence enabling you to assess how they are receiving your message. A major disadvantage of frequent audio conferences is it will slowly stunt the growth of the relationship of employees and leaders, and when that occurs, no matter the effectiveness of technology, the foundation of the corporation will eventually crumble.
A latest study also reveals that system breeches in companies have increased since people adopted this working scheme, worsening the case of intellectual property theft in industries. Some are concerned with the downside of this technology, and are bordering on forfeiting this for a safer method.
Providers are continuously widening the scope of this audio service, as well as strengthening the security of their services, but a variety of options are also sharpening their competitive edge and competing well. For example, the webinar, which argues that more than half of the human population are visual learners and promotes an interaction similar to an actual face-time.
Amanda Cairos is a business area manager with a reputed IT company. She makes use of business tools and free teleconference services for handling strategic and business planning activities in order to ensure proper growth that helps in meetings the long term goals of the company.