The global outbreak of Covid-19 has created an environment of constant uncertainty and perhaps changed the way we work forever. This uncertainty, while it does induce fear, is also an opportunity to think out of the box, innovate. But people who will be able to do that will belong to a very different mindset. Just like businesses, employees today are also expected to have a high level of adaptability and the ability to deal with uncertain situations.

Shekhar Kapoor says “I have devoted my life to uncertainty. Certainty is the death of wisdom, thought, creativity.” The new normal calls for a new approach to handling work and maintaining a work-life balance. And this new normal is expected to continue even post the pandemic. Future workplaces are expected to transform forever, taking a new shape and form, which may require people to work from home more often and reconvene in offices only occasionally for team-building purposes. Global Workplace Analytics predicts that once the pandemic ends, 25-30 per cent of all workers will continue working from home, owing to factors such as cost-effectiveness, environment sustainability, increased productivity, and availability of diverse talent from across geographies.

A new set of skills are required to excel in the new work environment and would be given prominence in the future. Talent driven by an entrepreneurial mindset, with the ability to deal with uncertain situations and take decisions will be preferred over a follower mindset.

Some of the key qualities that would define an entrepreneurial mindset are:

1. Ability to Adapt

An entrepreneur always has to deal with uncertain situations and his success lies in how he navigates his way through it. The ability to adapt to the new, unforeseen environment is a must. This pandemic has also made us face uncertainly at all levels, with a sudden shift in market trends, business environment, which every business and employees have to deal with.

While working in an office environment, there are set processes that everyone follows. This new way of working may require people to think differently, away from setting processes or norms. To enable efficiency, several organisations have implemented workplace collaboration and other solutions. The teams need to be able to condition their minds to train themselves on its usage.

2. Decisiveness

For an entrepreneur self-belief and taking actions based on self-belief is very important. There’ll always be multiple worldviews to any issue, but looking at a problem or situation from your view and devising a solution with confidence is important to move ahead.

In a remote work environment, one may not have constant guidance available at all times and there would be more independent decision-making that employees will need to do.

In my own company, I have seen that this new nature of work has brought out this aspect of people who have it to the fore, and they are the ones who have raced ahead of their peers in thinking out-of-the-box solutions.

3. Resilience

Talking about Resilience, I would like to quote my favourite lines from one of Rudyard Kiplings’ poems.

“If you can make one heap of all your winnings

And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings” - Rudyard Kipling

Every entrepreneur goes through failure at some point in their journey, but only the

ones with resilience can pick up from where they lost and move ahead in life. For people in leadership positions especially this characteristic will be very important. Deloitte defines a crisis in three stages - respond, recover, and thrive. Resilience is the only quality that can help leaders get through the three stages and reinvent their businesses.

4. Ability to Collaborate

The ability to collaborate, get people to collaborate efficiently under all circumstances, towards achieving a particular outcome, defines an entrepreneur. While several workplace tools have become prevalent for enhanced collaboration in the current times, more than tools that help in effective collaboration is the ability to empathise with your co-workers, understand their strengths, and get the best out of them. People with this ability will always be able to excel in this new work environment.

5. Diverse Experiences

Last but not the least, the person who will succeed in an uncertain environment is the one who has attempted multiple things in life and failed and succeeded at those. He may or may not be academically strong, may or may not be proficient in any particular skill set but having diverse experience would teach him to deal with anything that comes his way.

The author is the Founder, Bottle Openers

DISCLAIMER: Views expressed are the author's own, and Outlook Money does not necessarily subscribe to them. Outlook Money shall not be responsible for any damage caused to any person/organisation directly or indirectly.