Remote Workforce Atmosphere

Blog 9 August 24 to August 30, 2020

What Atmosphere do you as a leader want for your remote worker? What Atmosphere does your remote worker want for them?  Last week I presented a webinar to a group of leaders managing and developing remote work forces in approximately twenty countries. The information shared was from an Action Guide written by Tom Ziglar and the staff at Ziglar, Inc.  Currently there are more than 4.3 million people working from home in the United States. Business owners, leaders and managers are facing a critical point in the life of their companies.  The world is facing the greatest business challenge in 100 hundred years.  How do we motivate and lead the workforce working remotely where the typical remote worker is feeling fear, uncertainty, loneliness, apprehension, disconnected, overwhelmed and possible shock?  They are thinking, “who am I?  I feel I have lost my identity.” The work environment is more important today than ever before because of the distancing. I keep hearing the word, “unprecedented” which means rarely seen before or experienced in the past. These are disturbing, turbulent and unimaginable times.  We are in this together. The virus is creating panic around the world and impacting lives in negative ways. Our thinking and attitude are most important.  The pandemic is a “Black Swan Event” and the theory of these events is a metaphor describing an unpredictable event that comes as a surprise, has major effect and severe consequences.  These events are extremely rare with significant impact.  Some examples in the United States have been World Wars 1 and 2, World Trade Center Attack on 9/11, Financial Crisis 2008-2009 and the current Coronavirus.  On a personal basis, we all have seen hurricanes, tornadoes, divorce and death of loved ones. 

All things have changed and we need to develop and implement a new Game Plan. The way we communicate and interact with family, friends, customers. employees, and teammates is different. Uncertainty, anxiety and fear is everywhere. Tens of thousands of people have lost their lives, all people have been impacted, unemployment is high and the economy is depressed.

The remote worker wants to be respected, to be heard, to be safe, to be loved, to be valued, to be appreciated, to be led and included.  Workforce Atmosphere is a Choose and can be created based on the wants of the individual worker. How are you building relationships with the members of your team so the right atmosphere is created and their individual uniqueness is elevated to maximum performance?  Comments are welcome.  I will discuss New Game Plan next week. Be safe.