A paradigm shift for leaders to cope with the pandemic

Abstract

The 2020 Covid-19 outbreak has turned our approach to work upside down as it allowed millions of employees to experience the benefits of working from the safety of their homes. Two years later hybrid working arrangements have become widespread and several companies tend to mix onsite and remote working and seek to take advantage of both. A paradigm shift is about to take place whereby individual decisions would be driven by putting the needs of the human before that of the business growth. Inspired by the need of managers and leaders to understand unprecedented implications of such a “new normal”, in this paper we (a) discuss the pandemic’s implications on the working environment, (b) identify the grounds for having hybrid teams and (c) list the findings of our literature review as tools leaders may use to maintain the required productivity level within their teams. We have found that managers might consider shifting their focus from on-site employee presence to deliveries and to re-invent workplace together with their colleagues to integrate private preferences. Leaders seem to be more effective in a hybrid working environment if their people management skills are enhanced, and they operate on a higher EQ level than before.