Marc Pritchard is the Chief Brand Officer of Procter & Gamble. He focuses every day on being useful to the people around him. And that allows him to see the world through an invaluable lens. Theirs.

2020 was complicated. But, 2021 is going to re-define the word. For the last year, the playing field has been level. Everyone stayed home.

But as vaccine rates increase and cases decrease, the questions about who returns, when they return, and what they return to, become ever more complicated.

On one extreme, there are already reports in the press of companies implying that they will terminate anyone who won't come back into the office once they are vaccinated.

At the other end of the spectrum, some companies are giving up millions of square feet of office space and creating entirely new expectations about what working will look like.

In the middle of all this sits the leader.

Whether you go back fully, partially, or not at all, there is one measurement of success that will provide the foundation on which all other measurements will sit.

Are your people engaged? Do they care, are they inspired, do they feel included?

There will be many, many ways to make sure they do.

And even more that would guarantee they don't.

At that point, the only question left to answer would be a simple one.

Who will be leaving first? The people who feel left out. Or the leaders who left them out.