Leadership Mindset: The Enabler Or Roadblock To Post-Pandemic Recovery?

Some of the latest bold announcements from global leaders around the new mode of work and business recovery put us in a dilemma

- Bhavna Sarin

Four walls and a desk don't necessarily make an office; value creations often happen beyond the office walls. Work is something you do, an outcome, not a place or a time. Over the past 12 months or so, several top CEOs have declared remote work as the future of work. COVID-19 pandemic has taught us several lessons and opened our minds to new ways of working in the future.

Yet, despite the opportunities that the new ways of working bring forth, there remains a dilemma and debate around the sustainability of doing things this way, to be more specific - the sustainability of remote work or even hybrid work. Is hybrid’s shelf life tied to the existence of COVID-19? Are leaders truly thinking about newer ways of working or is the shift to remote a temporary fix?

Nearly a year after the outbreak of coronavirus that forced an overnight shift to remote working - which gradually was replaced by hybrid for many -- Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon said, “I do think for a business like ours, which is an innovative, collaborative apprenticeship culture, this is not ideal for us. And it’s not a new normal. It’s an aberration that we’re going to correct as soon as possible.”