Remote work has amplified a paradox. We’re talking more than ever, yet many people feel increasingly unheard.
Part of that is structural. Lag and platform delays cause accidental overlap. People who are multitasking off-camera jump in abruptly because they’re half a beat behind. When there’s no obvious “head of the table,” it’s harder to tell who actually has the floor.
Part of it is psychological. In a remote setting, visibility feels limited. People worry that silence looks like disengagement. They worry that if they don’t assert their point quickly, the conversation will move on without them. That anxiety drives interruptions, which trigger more anxiety for everyone else.
The result is a meeting culture where everyone’s technically speaking, but very few people are actually listening. That hurts performance in ways leaders should care about:
- Teams default to safe, familiar ideas because it feels risky to offer something unpolished.
- People start equating “contribution” with “fighting for airtime,” which rewards competitiveness over collaboration.
- Those who are consistently talked over start to read it as a signal that their perspective doesn’t really matter here.
The good news: most of this is designable. You can build a remote culture that makes listening the norm rather than a lucky accident.
If You’re Leading the Room: Design for Listening, Not Just Speaking
Leaders often assume listening problems are individual personality issues. In reality, they’re usually system issues. The way you structure meetings, set expectations, and intervene in the moment either rewards interruption or makes space for contribution.
Below are practical shifts you can make without turning your meetings into workshops.
Set conversational norms out loud
People bring different habits from different teams and cultures. If you don’t define what “good” looks like, the loudest habits win.
You might say at the start of a meeting:
- “Let’s try to let people finish their thought before we jump in.”
- “If we talk over each other, I’ll call on one person and then come back to the other.”
- “If you’ve been talking a lot, leave a little more space than feels natural so others can weigh in.”
These are simple lines, not policies. But they frame listening as an expectation, not an extra.
Protect people who are interrupted
One of the fastest ways to build trust is to notice when someone’s cut off and intentionally return the floor to them. It tells the group that contributions matter more than speed or hierarchy.
For example:
- “I want to go back to what Priya started to say a minute ago.”
- “Ryan, you were mid-sentence when we overlapped. Can you finish that thought?”
You don’t have to call anyone out harshly. A light but consistent pattern is enough. Over time, people learn they don’t need to bulldoze to be heard.
Use light structure to balance airtime
Structure doesn’t have to be heavy-handed. A little bit goes a long way in remote meetings.
You might:
- Do a quick round-robin during key decisions: “I’d like to hear one short reaction from each of you before we move on.”
- Use the hand-raise feature when a topic is heated and actually stick to the order.
- Reserve the last five minutes to ask, “Whose perspective haven’t we heard yet?” and invite those people in by name.
The goal isn’t to force introverts to perform. The goal is to create predictable openings where their contributions are expected and safe.
Model the pace you want
People mirror leaders. If you’re constantly jumping in, finishing people’s sentences, or talking over others because you’re in a hurry, the team will copy that.
You can reset the tone by:
- Pausing for a beat after someone finishes speaking before you respond.
- Saying, “I realize I’ve been talking a lot. I’m going to step back for a minute and listen.”
- Asking, “Who have we not heard from who has a different angle on this?”
When leaders treat listening as a core leadership behavior, not a soft skill, the culture follows.
If You’re the One Being Talked Over
Even in healthy cultures, you’ll get interrupted sometimes. People get excited, anxious, or distracted. The key is what you do in those moments.
You don’t have to choose between staying silent and snapping. There’s a middle ground: calm, clear self-advocacy.
Reclaim the floor with neutral language
It helps to have one or two phrases ready so you’re not improvising while you’re frustrated.
For instance:
- “I’d like to finish this thought and then I’m happy to hear your perspective.”
- “I think we overlapped there. I’ll just wrap up in one sentence and then I’m done.”
The tone matters. You’re not accusing anyone. You’re simply marking that your contribution isn’t over yet.
Ask the facilitator for support
If interruptions are a pattern, bring the meeting owner into the solution.
You could say during or after a meeting:
- “I’m having trouble getting a word in when the conversation heats up. Would you be open to using the hand-raise feature or a quick round so more voices can come through?”
- “I’ve noticed that when I start to share, the conversation often jumps to another topic. If you see that happening, would you mind helping me finish the point?”
A thoughtful leader will appreciate the feedback because it makes their job easier and the meeting more effective.
Prepare to be concise
You’re never responsible for someone else’s rudeness. At the same time, it’s easier to protect your airtime when your point is clear and tight.
Before a call, try to:
- Write your main point in one plain sentence.
- Add one example or data point that supports it.
- Decide what you’ll leave out if time’s short.
When you know where you’re going, it’s easier to calmly say, “Let me finish this one piece,” without feeling defensive.
Address repeat offenders privately
If a particular colleague regularly talks over you, consider a short one-on-one conversation instead of waiting for it to boil over in a group setting.
For example:
“During our team calls, I often find myself getting interrupted or losing my place when we both jump in. I don’t think you’re doing it intentionally, but it leaves me feeling like I haven’t really contributed. Can we both pay a little more attention to that and give each other space to finish?”
You’re describing the impact rather than attacking their character, which makes change more likely.
Practicing the Skill: Building Listening Muscles as a Team
Listening isn’t an innate trait; it’s a skill you can train like any other. Leaders and employees both benefit from structured practice.
Here are a few ways to build those muscles without turning your calendar into a training schedule.
Try simple in-meeting exercises
You can embed short listening drills into existing meetings.
For example:
Pair people up and have one person talk for two minutes about a current challenge while the other listens without interrupting. The listener then summarizes what they heard and asks one clarifying question.
Try a “no solutions for five minutes” rule at the start of a problem discussion. The team’s only job is to ask clarifying questions and reflect back what they’re hearing before anyone suggests a fix.
If you want something guided, there are short, practical videos on platforms like LinkedIn Learning that focus specifically on listening in remote workplaces. For example, How to Be a Better Listener in a Remote Workplace walks through concrete behaviors that help people feel heard on virtual teams.
Point people to structured courses
If your organization invests in learning, you can recommend or reimburse formal listening courses, especially for managers and people in high-collaboration roles. A few good starting points:
- Active Listening: Enhancing Communication Skills (Coursera) – A beginner-friendly course that covers core active listening skills, emotional intelligence, empathy, and non-verbal communication in professional settings.
- Active Listening for Better Leadership Communication (LinkedIn Learning) – A leadership-focused course that shows why listening is a key skill for managers and how to use it so employees feel heard, valued, and understood.
- Active Listening Masterclass / Active Listening – The Complete Guide (Udemy) – Short, highly rated courses that frame listening as a specialized skill for influence, retention, and leadership, with role-play scenarios and practical exercises.
You don’t need to standardize around one platform. Even sharing a short curated list tells people that listening is a real skill worth developing, not just a personality trait you either have or don’t.
Offer leadership-level training
If you want to raise the bar for managers specifically, look at leadership development paths that include listening as a core module instead of a footnote. Many leadership tracks on platforms like LinkedIn Learning and Coursera bundle active listening into broader “human-centered leadership” or “communication skills for managers” programs, emphasizing listening as foundational to trust, retention, and engagement.
Investing in that layer has an outsized cultural impact, because the people who run meetings are the ones setting the tone.
Suggest an app that coaches listening in small doses
For individuals who like bite-sized practice, there are mobile apps that treat listening like a daily workout. One example is Glisn: Active Listening Coach, available on both Google Play and the App Store, which uses real-world scenarios, quizzes, and progress tracking to help people train focus, memory, and active listening habits in everyday conversations.
Tools like this are a nice bridge for people who might not sign up for a full course but are open to nudges and micro-practice.
Listening as a Creative Advantage
Underneath the technical glitches and awkward overlaps, this is really about who gets to feel like a full member of the team.
People don’t share their most interesting ideas when they feel rushed, overshadowed, or ignored. They share whatever sounds safe and familiar. Over time, even very capable teams start to sound repetitive—not because they’ve run out of creativity, but because the environment doesn’t feel safe enough to take risks.
A culture that listens does the opposite. It slows the pace just enough for nuance. It sends the signal that your value isn’t measured by how loudly you argue but by how thoughtfully you contribute. It makes it normal for people to say, “Finish your thought,” and mean it.
As a leader, you can treat listening like a soft, optional trait or as a core part of performance. As an individual, you can let interruptions convince you that you don’t belong, or you can practice calmly reclaiming your turn and modeling the kind of presence you wish were more common.
Remote work didn’t invent our need to be heard, but it’s made the cost of ignoring that need much more visible. The next time your meeting starts to tilt toward chaos, you don’t have to fix the whole culture in one go. You can start with something small and disproportionately powerful.
You can help one person finish their sentence—and make sure that when they do, someone’s actually listening.
