Dealing with a dominating virtual team member. How can you ensure everyone's voice is heard?

Ground rules should be established at the start of the conversation. Ideally, the team itself will have a team working contract where all ground rules are already understood by all team members. Still, it is good practice to remind everyone of these ground rules at the start of the conversation. This is a good prevention measure to ensure no member in particular dominates the conversation. Effective facilitation on the other hand is a mitigative measure. (See my contribution below)

Part of facilitating is ensuring everyone's voice is heard. Even when members are reluctant to contribute to the conversation, a facilitator will build and sustain an environment where everyone feels safe to speak up and be heard. In other words, effective facilitation attracts the voices of everyone while mitigating any one member in particular from hijacking the conversation and drowning out others' voices.

Dominant team members might not realize they're overshadowing others. They could be compensating for lack of in-person interaction, passionate about work, neurodiverse, or have different levels of emotional intelligence. Actively seek out quieter voices: "Sarah, we haven't heard from you. What are your thoughts?" This includes everyone and signals that all perspectives are valued. Create opportunities for asynchronous input. Some might prefer sharing ideas in writing or need more processing time. If these don't work, approach the person directly with neutrality to avoid defensiveness. Ask how they'd recommend encouraging more participation from others. This positions them as an ally in solving the problem.

In my experience coaching teams it seems that the easiest path to least resistance can be to let the behavior continue, ignore it is occurring, or just chalk it up to "that's just who they are." In order to create an inclusive environment for all members of the team it is crucial to discuss unproductive behaviors that are causing disruption or friction within the group. This does not need to be a conversation that is accusatory as the individual might not even be aware of the behavior. Instead, be curious together in an open and objective way to commit to what healthy behaviors are vs. unhealthy. Create an culture together that is supportive of all it's members holding each other accountable in a positive way.