‘Office gone for good’ | NatWest boss says the office life is dead - does this change the role of leaders?

• Whilst Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon believes that remote working is an 'aberration', NatWest Chair Howard Davies this week declared that the pre-pandemic view of the office is gone forever. 

• This appears to be supported by statistics, which suggest that the vast majority of employees want to retain some kind of remote working. 

• But what does this mean for leaders? For one thing, it changes the skills that they'll need going forward, with a greater focus on elements such as empathy, agility and digital fluency. 

Few concepts have divided leaders like the debate around remote working. Some were quick to embrace the changing structures in working life as a result of COVID-19 and shift to more flexible working models, with flexi-time, remote working and even in some cases reducing working hours, becoming the new norm. However, others such as Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon, saw these changes as an ‘aberration’.