Member-only story
Meeting Etiquette: Why Your Video Calls Are Losing You Respect
Navigating the cultural complexity of international virtual meetings
The Zoom call started at 2:00 PM London time, precisely as scheduled. By 2:15, the quarterly strategy session had devolved into something resembling a polite international incident. The German team was visibly frustrated by the “inefficient” start time conversations. The Brazilian participants seemed confused by the abrupt transition to business matters. The Japanese colleagues had gone mysteriously quiet after their initial greeting. And the American team members appeared to be conducting a separate meeting via private chat.
Sarah, the British project director leading the call, found herself in the peculiar position of having excellent content, a well-prepared agenda, and a completely dysfunctional meeting dynamic. Her leadership presence, which worked brilliantly in face-to-face international contexts, seemed to evaporate through the screen.
This scenario plays out in international businesses daily, as leaders discover that virtual meetings amplify cultural differences rather than minimizing them. The assumption that video technology creates a neutral meeting environment has proven spectacularly wrong. Instead, virtual meetings create new cultural complexities that can undermine even the most capable international…
