fear

#WFH vs #FOMO : if your team has this dilemma, you should improve your leadership

YES most of your team members (specially the most effective / capable ones !) prefer to Work From Home (WFH). 
Perhaps enjoying the opportunity of a physical team meeting from time to time, but generally loving the autonomy to decide when & where to work from. 
Dreading anyone looking over their neck checking whether they are sitting there, only apparently working hard until late.

Also YES many of your team members might instead return to the office but for a very bad reason:
for Fear Of Missing Out (FOMO).

If your team is driven by fear of only being recognised because of their physical presence, you definitely have an ineffective motivation structure that is not able to recognise and reward star players. 

If you need people to come to the office for fear of missing out on rewards, you could be a much better leader.
You perhaps could do more to convey the reason why they should give their best.
You should accompany people individually to make them feel autonomous and able to do their best work without someone controlling / rewarding figure looking physically around them.

Additionally a team driven by fear, will rarely innovate. 
Imagine that lack of innovation today, in this era!
A sure recipe for failure.

Is fear the only way you are capable of using to “lead”?

Change is inevitable. Are we going to change by design or by disaster?

I recently heard a statement by Annie Leonard “change is inevitable … the question is not if we are going to change but how … either we are going to change by design or by disaster”. With so much uncertainty around us, when you at last see some certainty and inevitability, we should be great at harnessing what we know and are certain about.

Where are we at our best: when we design change or when we are driven to change by fear?
Whilst fear helps create a sense of urgency in our actions, it is never a good mental state. When we operate in fear we operate with an anxiety that lacks clarity of thought, that aims to take the least worse decision and not the best one.

When we are in fear or “managing risk” (as we commonly now rationalise that fear state in our companies) the solution is generally one that aims to stop the immediate crisis as opposed to creating the best one for our continued success over time.

Moreover when we operate in a state of fear or risk aversion, we are giving up control.
Instead the pleasure of controlling, of designing change, of deciding the best way forward as opposed to fearing the worse case scenario is a powerful driver of positive mindsets and best innovation possible.