Do you struggle with making small talk with colleagues, especially when working from home? Here are five tips to help you stay connected with your team while working remotely.
Pose the Right Questions
The questions you ask can significantly impact the flow of the conversation and how much your colleague is willing to share. For instance, a simple “How are you?” often gets a brief response like “Good,” while asking something like “What did you do over the weekend?” encourages a more detailed and personal reply. These types of questions feel more genuine, showing your colleagues that you’re truly interested in them, which can lead to more meaningful connections and open communication.
Be Patient and Present
Schedule your meetings with enough time for small talk. Most participants appreciate having a few moments to chat at the beginning and end of a meeting. This fosters a sense of closeness and connection, helping your colleagues or team feel that meetings aren’t just about work. Additionally, starting with light conversation can ease tensions, setting a positive tone that can make the rest of the meeting more productive and everyone more comfortable and open to new ideas.
Small Talk as a Strategy
If you find it challenging to initiate small talk, it might help to treat it as a task to be accomplished at specific times, just like any other work task. For instance, you could schedule regular times to check in with certain colleagues or make small talk an intentional part of your meeting agenda, perhaps as the first item to break the ice. Of course, no one needs to know that you’re approaching small talk in this structured way.
Foster Opportunities for Small Talk Online
When working from home, many spontaneous opportunities for small talk are lost—like chats on the way to a meeting, brief conversations by the coffee machine, or casual exchanges in the office. You can recreate these moments by setting up a dedicated Slack channel for non-work-related discussions, scheduling virtual coffee breaks, or having lunch together over video chat.
Your Strategy for Small Talk
How have you been managing small talk so far? Has your approach to it changed since working from home? And what would you like to adjust moving forward?
You can also explore these questions with your coach during one of your upcoming sessions. Together, you can develop strategies for engaging with your colleagues virtually.