Some skills are essential to thrive in a changing environment like today’s.
The world has changed, and it will keep changing. Technology is advancing at a dizzying pace, and this comes with large doses of uncertainty. This whole new landscape means that the career logic used in the past can even be counterproductive for the future.
As Vikram Mansharamani, a professor at Harvard University, puts it, “the world has changed, but our philosophy around skill development has not.”
Not long ago, people were advised to specialise in something. If you wanted to succeed, specialisation was a must. To put it in context, it wasn’t enough to study medicine or be a doctor. You had to specialise further, perhaps in cardiology. But then being a cardiologist wasn’t enough if you wanted to earn more within your field. You might have to specialise as a heart surgeon. The most repeated motto was that specialisation pays more.
Unique skills, experience and specialisation were the way to thrive in your career and earn more than everyone else. But in the future that is coming, success belongs to generalists.
5 skills you should develop to thrive in this future
1. Generalist thinking
“To a man with a hammer, everything looks like a nail.” But what if that same man had more than a hammer? What if he also had a screwdriver and a wrench? He would start tackling each problem with the right tool, instead of using the hammer for everything.
We are not saying that specialisation and experience in a particular field aren’t useful. Carrying only a hammer is not a problem. It’s just that the world is turning so fast that those who have more tools at hand will navigate this sea of uncertainty much better. To succeed in today’s world, it is vital to be agile and flexible.
But what does being a generalist mean?
In short, being a finance specialist doesn’t mean it will do you any harm to read a book about marketing. Because people with generalist thinking have a broader set of tools to draw on, they can adjust their view dynamically as a situation evolves.
Jeff Bezos is a good example. He wasn’t a retail specialist who took on his competitors and won. In fact, he came from the world of finance and was relatively new to e-commerce. He simply knew how to adapt quickly to seize a multimillion-dollar opportunity.
For companies like Google, generalist thinking is indispensable. In fact, it’s a trait they look for when hiring. So it’s no surprise that Google employees move from one team to another and from one professional role to another. In the words of Lisa Stern, one of Google’s top recruiters: “At Google we value problem solvers who have general cognitive ability over knowledge related to the role they are hired for.”
“Think about how fast Google evolves. If you only hire someone for a specific job, but then the company needs to change, we have to be sure that person will find something else to do at Google.”
Today, the only certainty about the future is that it will be uncertain, so adopting this philosophy or way of thinking, which is not exactly a skill, is fundamental for your professional future.
2. Futurist thinking
Futurist thinking is the ability to predict events and trends, and how they might affect your industry and your professional development.
Acquiring this skill or way of thinking doesn’t require a PhD, but it does require keeping up with potential changes and thinking outside the box.
It requires being able to analyse signals of change and identify historical shifts in the past in order to predict new changes in the future. Someone with this skill is an asset to any company that wants to survive these uncertain times, when everything changes at breakneck speed.
3. Emotional intelligence
With the rise of artificial intelligence and machine learning, the ability to recognise, understand and manage not only your own emotions but also those of others has become one of the main skills employers look for when hiring.
Strong emotional intelligence skills allow us to understand and engage with our feelings in a way that helps us build quality relationships and make decisions effectively.
Emotional intelligence is not only important in business. It matters on a personal level too, and unfortunately it is the least developed kind of intelligence today. Managing emotions is the Achilles’ heel for many people.
4. Interpersonal communication: this skill really does pay well
It’s not what you say, but how you say it and what you convey. Today, much of the message we send goes out by video call, or even in writing through social media. Being able to express yourself and speak clearly is key to maintaining relationships, solving problems successfully and handling conversations.
Knowing how to communicate properly is also an essential skill for a good leader. It also requires a strong capacity for active listening.
5. Cognitive flexibility
Linked to the first point, generalist thinking, people with cognitive flexibility will be able to adapt much better to change and handle uncertainty stoically. Creativity and adaptability are two very valuable skills for any company today.
Without a doubt, people with these skills can adapt to changing environments and take in multiple concepts at the same time.
Featured image: Ryan Hyde, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Flickr.
