The world is emerging from COVID lockdowns, but employees continue to operate differently than they ever used to. Managers are challenged with improving their team’s performance and maintaining a positive workplace culture while most continue to work remotely.

Our new report on managing for improved workplace performance addresses issues that are critical to managers of sales and non-sales teams alike. We look at:

• The future of incentive travel, a key component of many sales managers’ motivation efforts
• How the pandemic year changed employee recognition
• Why 2021 requires a new type of sales management

Our cover story features insights on motivation and making work matter from Michael Patrick F. Smith, a playwright and musician who worked for a year in the oil fields of North Dakota to test himself and exorcise some demons from his past.

Smith has written a book about his experience, and it’s surprising how many of the
lessons that he took away from his year toiling as an oil field "swamper" are applicable to managers who work in a completely different environment.