Achieving five stars at being present in Microsoft Teams meetings

Can a mini screen help you be more present in a Microsoft Teams call?

My screen atop my webcam

Many people I work with know, that when they get in a Teams call with me, I am always on camera, in fact in pretty much every Teams call, be it a one on one, group call, regional call, I am going to be on the camera. I do this for two reasons,

1. It encourages others to be a more active part of the call and turn their camera on as well. (The number of times, I have heard people say, “Oh we are doing camera’s on, ok one sec.” and turn them on is hilarious.)
2. It demonstrates to the people that I am actively engaged in what is going on in the call as well, and not having my eyes darting across the monitor looking at other applications.

The problem is eye direction.

Now one of the challenges (or privileges) I have is at home is my really big monitor, a Samsung 49" curved monitor to be exact. It is one of the best investments I have made in terms of setup, I know sometimes people say its overkill, and yeah maybe it is, but a good curved wide screen monitor is a boon for productivity. On a side note, it MUST BE CURVED, the bigger the curve the better, trust me on this, others in the office know I also have a…