If you've got 'bouff' hair you are in trouble, fake backgrounds are not your friend.

Have you ever caught sight of yourself mid-Zoom call and thought, oh no, that’s what they see or mentally wondering if a small skin tighten counts as surgery? Most of us never planned to spend our working lives talking to a camera lens. Yet here we are, leading teams and building trust through screens the size of postcards.

The truth is, how you show up on screen matters. It shapes how people read you, how much they engage, and how confident they feel in your leadership. We might wish it didn’t, but presence, even virtual presence, speaks volumes before you do.

Think about the impression your screen gives. Is your lighting calm and clear, or are you sitting in shadow? Does your background reflect any sense of who you are, or is it a blank wall? These small visual cues influence how comfortable people feel talking to you.

Too dark and you look like you're in witness protection, too white a background and it looks like we're visiting you in jail....

Neither helps you feel approachable. People connect more easily when they can see you clearly and sense a little life behind you. A plant, a print, a shelf of books. Character and colour make a real difference because they make you human.

Then there are the virtual backgrounds. You know the ones: perfect apartments with bright white kitchens that appear behind five different people in one day. They might look tidy but they create distance. The edges blur, your hand disappears, your hair flickers in and out. In a real meeting that would be odd, and it’s no different online. A genuine backdrop, even if it’s not flawless, builds far more trust. People want to see you, not your digital wallpaper.

That matters even more if you’ve stepped into a leadership role. When you are trying to build credibility in a hybrid world, the details count. Your setup tells a story about your attention to detail, your focus and your presence. You don’t need a home studio, just a few intentional tweaks.

Here are some easy wins:

• Light from the front, not behind. It keeps your face visible and your expressions clear.

• Camera at eye level. Looking slightly down at the screen reads as confidence and equality.

• A background with warmth. Small touches signal care and approachability.

• Ask for feedback. A colleague can spot things you’ve stopped noticing.

These adjustments make it easier for people to focus on your message rather than your setup.

In a virtual environment, our senses are limited. We can’t pick up on energy or subtle shifts in expression the way we can in person.

Your environment fills in those gaps. It tells others you’re attentive, thoughtful and ready to connect.

My office background

Presence isn’t about polish. It’s about how people experience you. The leaders who do this well treat every call as an opportunity to build trust. They know that small moments of care, like checking lighting or showing up on time, say “this matters to me, and so do you.”

If you work in HR or L&D, this is worth bringing into development conversations. Helping leaders reflect on how they appear on screen can unlock wider conversations about communication and confidence. Once people see how a few simple changes affect how they are perceived, it often sparks bigger insights about how they show up in every part of their role.

And that is really what this is about. How you appear on screen mirrors how you lead off it. The same qualities that make someone effective online: attention, empathy, a touch of humour, make them effective in person too. Every meeting, even the quick check-ins, is a chance to reset the tone. When you bring calm and focus, others do too. When you make space for others to speak, they feel seen.

So before your next meeting, take a quick look at your setup. Is there enough light? Does your background reflect the kind of leader you want to be? Sometimes that starts with something as small as moving your chair. If not, adjust it. It only takes a minute. 

A couple of things can happen - it deepen the engagement and connection people feel with you and you might find showing up differently changes how you are with them too.