Is your skill set future proof?
Is there a Kodak moment around the corner for your skills and profession?
The rate of digitisation and change is so fast that it has become imperative that all professions STOP, REFLECT and CONSIDER... Am I up for disruption?
The global pandemic brought overnight change to the job landscape, and several rounds of lockdowns have introduced not only a new way of working for many people but also a feeling of instability and a rethinking of what we really want and need from our careers.
Simultaneously a World Economic Forum Report highlighted that 86,000 jobs will be displaced to automation by 2025. Increased adoption of technology will render some roles obsolete and other in need of a significant skills refresh in a matter of just a few years. It highlights the need to stay ahead of this change and start thinking immediately about your own skills and that of your team.
Fundamentally, we are looking at a two-pronged attack on the job market we are familiar with. From one side we have the impact of a global pandemic, from the other a shift towards automation and disruptive technology. How will you respond?
As many as 50% of all employees will need to be reskilled by 2025. For those that stay in their current field, 40% of their core skills will change as they begin to share more of their typical workload with algorithms and machines. Others will need to consider more drastic upskilling as their roles become displaced.
It’s predicted that there will be 97 million new jobs in new disciplines for those who are agile, already specialists in those fields or are just starting their career journey and are ready to train. The types of skills that will be most prized are also shifting, as this top ten list below reveals.
It's time to take action. Reconsider your role, your skills and the opportunities available to retrain over the next 24 months. Protect yourself against the attrition and ensure you have future-proofed your skill set. For leaders it’s important to consider the skills that will be required in your team moving forward, particularly in a tight job market where new talent is harder to come by. Will you focus on retaining your talent and supporting them to adapt and learn or will you find yourself struggling to keep up with the competition?
As the top ten skills list suggests, the ‘soft’ skills that an employee will need to survive and thrive in this new environment will be highly sought after. The stand outs are:
1) Critical thinking and problem-solving. 2) Self-management such as active learning, resilience, stress tolerance, and flexibility. Think back to those businesses and individuals who have flourished during the pandemic. The common factors are often the flexibility to swiftly pivot, the conviction to take a new path and the resilience to keep learning and adapting as you go. These factors are rooted in self-mastery, which will be, in my opinion, the critical skill of the future.
There is no coincidence in why I have written a book on self-mastery and how it relates to my job as a leader in recruitment and human potential. Comfort with failure, the resilience to keep moving forward, the plasticity to adapt and reform your strategy and the conviction to follow your own path are future prerequisites to success. The ability to connect with your I, your power within, to become your own master underpins it all.
Sadly, very few organisations or universities teach self-mastery or self-management. We are just scratching the surface now with leadership schools and thought leaders like Brené Brown and Daniel Golman, who teach specific self-management tools.
You need to take this learning on for yourself and make a commitment that self-management and self-mastery will be one vocational area that you will explore as part of your continuing professional development.
Doing so will prevent you from having a kodak moment.
Reinvent yourself. Create a new vision. Master yourself so then you can master your career.