Keir Weimer pens his thoughts in a Forbes magazine article – he adds that he is founder of Keir Weimer Multimedia, a real estate & lifestyle entrepreneur, No. 1 bestselling author, keynote speaker & high-performance coach.
The following are three trends I have seen emerge and that I predict will continue to grow in the coming months and years.
Individualism and self-productivity will rise in importance.
Never before has there been such a spotlight and a focus on the individual work and output of singular members of an organization. Many of us have been working remotely and have been on our own island creating, interacting and collaborating through Zoom and other technology with our teams and companies, all scattered across the country and the world. We had to find new ways to stay motivated, foster our creativity, stay organized and continue to be productive members of our companies.
However, many people have felt more of a spotlight and added pressure to prove themselves and make sure their bosses and teams know that they are staying productive and focused on the goals even though there’s nobody looking over their shoulder anymore. The level of accountability and the system of accountability has changed. It’s more important for us to be proactive and take initiative in making sure our work and our output are not only valuable, but it’s also acknowledged and recognized in ways that we didn’t have to before. This will likely only continue. The focus on our individuality and singular individualism has never been more apparent.
Another trend we’ve seen emerge and appears to be growing is the value of leadership, proactive communication and work by individual team members. It’s a lot easier to hide behind a computer screen on a Zoom meeting with your camera off than it is to show up prepared to an in-person meeting where you’re expected to contribute meaningfully and positively to the dialogue and the solutions that are to come from that meeting.
Those that get ahead in this new remote world will be those that possess and prioritize a level of deliberateness in their connectedness to management, to their colleagues and to their organizations’ missions. This will be what is rewarded and noticed, and a class of so-called digital leaders will continue to emerge.
In-person team retreats will grow in importance and frequency.
Something else I predict will start to grow in popularity and importance is the need for in-person team retreats and other organizational events to bring people together in person again. It doesn’t matter how good the technology and the remote infrastructure are; at the end of the day, we’re all still humans, and we need the human and emotional connection that being together with our peers brings. This will continue to grow in importance and influence, and so too will companies’ and organizational budgets for event space and services to provide a creative venue and outlet for teams to get together, even when they aren’t working in a physical office.
Even before the pandemic, it was well-documented that social interaction is good for our physical and mental health. This trend of in-person team retreats will likely pick up steam as we start to head into this next chapter of reorganizing the working world with new priorities and new frameworks guiding the organizational behavior and patterns of tomorrow.
While the landscape of how we work has fundamentally changed and will continue to be altered for years to come, it represents unique opportunities for organizations and their employees if they are identified and creative solutions implemented in a proactive way that fosters connectedness, collaboration and productivity.