Welcome back to the look and sound of leadership, an ongoing series of executive coaching tips,

designed to help you be perceived in the workplace the way you want to be perceived.

I'm Tom Henshal, your executive coach, and today we're talking about how to create engagement online.

Brenna was excited when she was given leadership of a company-wide management skills program.

There were six hours of content, which she divided into two sessions of three hours each, two weeks apart.

She'd be delivering the program globally to cohorts of about 30 people at a time,

and there would be about 30 cohorts. This project was going to be a major part of her year,

and she was stoked until she had her first session. Soon after, during our coaching conversation, she said,

this is supposed to be interactive, like it would be in a classroom.

But, golly, it was like pulling teeth.

If that's what this is going to be like, I'll never make it.

It was brutal.

Because I asked, I couldn't get them engaged.

It's one thing when it's like an all-hands meeting, you know, everyone has their cameras off anyway,

and no one's really expected to speak except the executives.

It's no surprise you don't get engagement there.

But my material isn't meant to be a one-way lecture.

I have to get them talking.

If they're not talking, they're not learning.

I shook my head in sympathy. I get it. She said, I have no problem getting groups talking in person,

but I could not get this group going. I agreed, saying, isn't it weird how different it is when it's online? She said,

you don't deal with this, do you? Your work is one-on-one, right? Most of it, yes, but I facilitate a lot

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