Marion and James Kelly join their father Robert's interview with the BBC. [1]
My coaching practice has always been 25 percent virtual, but for the past 15 months it's been entirely virtual, and I've paid close attention to the conditions and equipment that allow me to work with clients via video and phone most effectively. I'm keenly aware that many people lack the ability to optimize their space for virtual work or face financial constraints in the process, and I'm not suggesting that any of my recommendations here are necessities. But given that many of us will continue to work remotely at least part-time, I think it's worthwhile to consider how investments in better working conditions might pay off in the long run.
Standing Desk
Now that I spend the entire workday talking with clients from my home office, I've found it essential to optimize the space for that purpose (and I fully realize what a privilege it is to have a dedicated home office at all.) I prefer to work while standing, not only for physical comfort, but also to be able to move more freely and make use of my whole body while on calls. This is also one of the reasons I recommend standing desks to my clients--when presenting virtually it's much easier to express emotion and convey enthusiasm when standing. I made a significant investment in a New Heights Vuelta Manual Crank Sit-Stand Desk from Beyond the Office Door (starting at $1,030), because it's extremely sturdy and provides a solid working surface even at its full height. And I use two different floor mats to keep my legs feeling fresh, alternating between the Topo Comfort Mat by Ergodriven ($100) and an anti-fatigue kitchen mat similar to this one ($35).
Lighting
Good lighting not only creates a welcoming feeling, but also allows clients to see my facial expressions more readily. One of the problems I point out most frequently to my clients is that backlighting puts their faces in shadow, making it easy for colleagues to misinterpret their facial expressions. My desk faces an eastern window with roller blinds that allow me to adjust the incoming light depending on the time of day and season. I also have an overhead room light and a north-facing window, but I recently added a Pixel G1s RGB Video Light ($70) for greater flexibility. One of the advantages of this model is that the dials to adjust the light's intensity and coloration are on the front rather than the back, which is necessary given the location of my desk. The light is positioned just above my outboard camera--see below--using the same camera wall mount ($20).
Background
My desk is also situated so that most of the space visible behind me is a blank wall on which I've hung two pieces of artwork that appear over my shoulders, which serves several useful purposes. There's a consistent look-and-feel for my clients, just as there would be in an office. The artworks are both scenes of the natural world here in northern California, which conveys a real sense of place despite the virtual context. And they're both pieces that I enjoy looking at--which is important given how often I see them! I realize that in some cases it's necessary for people to use a virtual background, particularly if they lack a dedicated home office. But I suspect that virtual backgrounds contribute to video fatigue because their "not-quite-realism" is visually confusing (similar to the "uncanny valley" effect with robots and avatars.) But whether virtual or real, I encourage clients to consider how they might use their background to express their company's identity through logos and swag, as well as their personal identity through photos and other artifacts.
Camera
The advantage of an outboard camera isn't just the improved image quality, but also the ability to optimize the positioning. I use a Logitech HD Pro C920 ($80) which is mounted to the wall ($20) behind my desk. This combination allows me to locate the camera just above and in front of my monitor, tilted slightly down. This means that clients and I are essentially at eye level with each other, and it makes it easy to look directly in the camera when seeking to convey a greater sense of eye contact. The wall mount also ensures that the camera isn't subject to any vibrations, which can be particularly problematic with a standing desk. Note that even with the best laptops, using the onboard camera almost always means that your counterparts on a video call will have the impression that they're looking up at you, which can create an unintended and counter-productive power dynamic.
Monitor
Similar to an outboard camera, an outboard monitor allows for optimal positioning, but in contrast to cameras, monitors can be prohibitively expensive while adding relatively little value to the experience. In my experience the Dell E2118HN (first released in 2017, available today for $230) is a great combination of reasonable cost, high quality, and light weight. The Dell's 24-inch size is more than sufficient for my needs--much bigger monitors are available, but they're correspondingly heavier. And as with cameras, weight is a significant factor because of the need to minimize vibration on a standing desk. The EVEO Single Monitor Arm Desk Mount ($60) keeps my monitor image stable while making it easy to move the desk up or down in order to do other work. (Note that a video modification I considered and ruled out was the use of a beamsplitter, which essentially acts as a teleprompter, enabling you to maintain eye contact while looking at the image on your monitor. Seth Godin has a helpful description of how to set one up, and I may give it a try in the future, but for now it seems unnecessary.)
Microphone
The echoey sound resulting from a low-quality laptop microphone and a bare floor or walls can substantially degrade the quality of a virtual conversation but is easy to fix. The Blue Yeti Mic ($120) not only provides a warm tone, but also has custom pickup settings that enable it to focus on my voice while minimizing background noise from other directions. I also made it a priority to carpet my office and line the remaining walls with bookcases, which dramatically improved the acoustics.
Earphones and Headsets
Although I installed a Dell Pro Soundbar ($55) beneath my monitor for music and other audio, when working with clients I think it's preferable to use an earphone or headset, in part to ensure that I'm picking up on tone of voice and other nuanced expressions, but also to make it visually evident that I'm the only person who can hear what my client is saying, which I think heightens the sense of privacy. The best earphones I've found are the cordless Spidoc 5.0 Bluetooth Headphones ($20), which offer outstanding sound and pair reliably. I usually only need one but can wear both if necessary. I use these earphones on video calls, but, as noted below, I'm talking with an increasing number of clients via phone, and I'm unable to use Bluetooth equipment or the Blue Yeti mic on those calls. (It's a long story involving rural Internet and the wiring in an old farmhouse.) The best wired headsets with a microphone that I've found are by Arama, and they come with one earpiece ($28) or two ($32). Surprisingly, far more expensive headsets performed much worse. Even though I can't use it with my telephone system, the best Bluetooth headset with a mic that I found was the Angteela BH-M91 ($31).
Phone vs. Video
Much of this post is related to video calls, but as I noted several months ago I've seen a consistent increase in the number of clients who are opting to talk by phone instead of video. It's important to recognize that video isn't necessarily superior--an all-too-common assumption in this technophilic era. Both phone and video are perfectly fine for coaching, and yet each offers a different experience. The phone can sometimes be less distracting, and it allows clients to step away from their desk and even take a walk during our conversation. I always allow my clients to choose the medium, but given how many people are feeling fatigued by the increased number of video calls, I encourage them to at least consider the phone, even if it's just on occasion. (It's also not lost on me that almost all of my personal calls these days are by phone.) To guarantee reliability we installed a landline--our first one in years--and I initially found that the Panasonic KX-TGF573S system ($125 for 3 handsets) offered outstanding audio quality and easy-to-use features. Unfortunately, to ensure that Amy and I both had access we had to find a new system that would accommodate two lines, and the older Panasonic KX-TG954X ($270 for 4 handsets) has been adequate, but audio quality and ease-of-use aren't quite as good.
Connectivity
Having relocated to a farm 40 miles north of San Francisco last year, I no longer take reliable high-speed Internet for granted, and although most people I work with are located in urban areas (or live in a country with better telecommunications infrastructure than the United States), I include this section for anyone who's considering a move to the countryside. These days my primary connection is a line-of-sight microwave signal which provides sufficient speed for low-latency video calls but is highly susceptible to interference from atmospheric sources, from dust kicked up by high winds to particulates from wildfire smoke. As a result it's necessary to have a reliable backup connection, which out here means satellite Internet. The only providers in most of the U.S. are HughesNet and Viasat, both of which require a dish with a clear view of a specific region of the sky. Their signals are relatively reliable, but the satellites they employ orbit 22,000 miles above the surface of the Earth, a sufficiently large distance that latency renders the signal suboptimal for video calls (although it's fine for streaming). Starlink, a new service developed by Elon Musk's SpaceX, is rolling out a network of satellites orbiting at just 340 miles, and initial reports indicate that it has the potential to deliver high-speed Internet that's more reliable than a microwave signal and much faster than HughesNet or Viasat. I've already put down my deposit :-)
Scheduling
My perspective on scheduling is understandably different that that of most people. Because all of my work is conducted in 1:1 conversations with clients, and because I typically see clients every 3 to 4 weeks, it's absolutely paramount that I'm at my best for every single meeting. I can't ever be late or rushed. I have to be fully prepared and in the right state of mind. To make this possible I've always been very deliberate about managing my calendar, and that's only become more important over the last year. I conduct 5 coaching sessions per day, only at the following times: 8:30am, 10am, 11:30am, 1pm, 2:30pm. I'm not available at other times unless it's an emergency. Each session is 55 minutes, but I leave ample time in between sessions to ensure that I'm ready for the next one. I realize that it's neither possible nor necessary for everyone to take such a rigorous approach, but Harvard Business School professor Tsedal Neeley encourages us all to be more deliberate about scheduling in a remote environment:
Tech exhaustion happens when we treat work communication activities in the virtual world in the same way that we do in the physical world. For example, if we have in-person meetings, we always add transition time between meetings... Exhausted remote professionals often schedule their meetings with one ending and another one starting immediately after... Just because digital tools allow us to fully pack our calendar doesn't mean we should. It is, therefore, crucial, to create a period between meetings. [2]
I can't compel my clients to follow this advice, but at the very least I try to limit coaching sessions to 55 minutes to help ensure that they have a brief break between our conversation and whatever follows.
Footnotes
[1] Children interrupt BBC News interview (March 2017)
[2] Remote Work Revolution: Succeeding From Anywhere, pages 63-64 (Tsedal Neeley, 2021)
