As vaccines become more widespread, we’ll all slowly re-emerge from this forced hibernation and gradually start meeting face to face again. But communicating and connecting online is here to stay and part of our collective futures, so maximizing its effectiveness is a wise thing to do. Humans are social creatures and making connections is critical. Effective connections require authentic relationships and that means conveying emotion – emotional intelligence. If you can’t do it face to face, your next best bet is some version of online video which allows people to pick up on at least some of the non-verbal clues that are so critical to authentic communication. This piece will also give you some clues about when telephone calls or emails should or shouldn’t be your medium of choice.