For starters, the best meetings are ones in which its attendees are actively engaged. One-sided conversations are rarely productive or interesting, and for us to truly collaborate, all participants must be involved and contribute. A great way to ensure engagement is by greeting and welcoming all attendees upon arrival. In addition to breaking the ice, this will make your guests feel as if their presence—and their contributions—are valued. Once the meeting is underway, don’t monopolize the microphone. Encourage participation by asking others for feedback and utilize frequent pauses to give others the chance to speak.

Meetings can be a surefire way for us to waste time, a precious commodity in business. Therefore, just like a meeting in the office with everyone in attendance, be sure to have an agenda for your virtual meetings, share it with fellow attendees, and try to stick to it. In addition to mitigating wasted time by keeping the meeting on track, an agenda can improve the efficacy of meetings as it prepares others for what to expect.

One thing virtual meetings lack compared to their in-person counterparts is a personal connection, which can make it easier for attendees to act unprofessionally or tune out. Thankfully, this can be resolved through the power of video. Require all in attendance to have their video turned on for the entirety of your virtual meetings. Knowing they’re on camera broadcasting their behavior, expressions, and body language will help ensure attendees are present, pay attention, and respect their colleagues and superiors.

Unwelcome background noise is a huge distraction and can extend meetings to lengths they don’t need to reach. To help eliminate this, at the start of the meeting, ask everyone in attendance to mute their microphones when they’re not speaking.