As the corporate world and workforce continue to evolve rapidly, it’s clear that we all need to grow alongside it if we’ve to keep pace with the changing job market. So as we look towards the future, it raises the question — what skills shall we need to thrive in this highly competitive new world?
As a forward-thinking Placement Consultancy in Ahmedabad, Kaapro has listed 5 topmost in-demand skills for 2020 and beyond, to arm you for a future-proof career. Let’s see what arsenal of skillset the future demands of us!
1. Social and Emotional skills:
Social skills/interpersonal skills will be more important than ever in the time to come. The professionals in any field will be expected to show greater Interpersonal skills, People Management skills. Plus being skilled at negotiating well with colleagues, managers, clients and teams will top the list of desirable skills. So learn to play well with others. Besides that ‘Service Orientation’ (i.e. actively looking for ways to help people) and ‘Emotional Intelligence’ (i.e. practicing control and manage one’s own emotions and capability to control other’s emotions too) will be core skills in future.
All you need to develop quality social-emotional skills is – strong communication skills, staying aware of other’s strengths & weaknesses to be able to work with a range of different personalities and develop meaningful relationships with those of various cultural backgrounds within the organization, setting right tone and body language.
2. Technological Skills:
Digital Skills: Since technology is changing at an unprecedented pace, you need to understand and keep pace with it. So it’s better to stay updated through articles of respected technology journals, blogs and vlogs etc. Remember both basic digital skills and more advanced technical skills are expected to be sought-after skills in future.
Data Analysis: As the corporate world is now more data-driven than it has ever been, the business executives are now relying on patterns and trends to make corporate decisions. That’s where you need an ability to analyze and manage data effectively; so that you can help the companies make informed decisions.
3. Creativity:
Creativity will no longer be a key skill required only for the artists. ‘With the avalanche of new products, new technologies and new ways of working, employees are going to have to become more creative in order to benefit from these changes.’ says Alex Gray, the World Economic Forum senior writer.
By Creativity as a trending skill, we mean
- an ability to connect the dots with seemingly disparate information,
- ability tomix-and-match ideas, systems, processes, materials and data to create something ‘new’,
- being creative in transforming data into information
Ways to unleash your creativity
Exercise your curiosity and self-expression on a regular basis. Observe things. Also try to work on the art of ‘Storytelling’ (i.e. Organizing thoughts and data points into a comprehensive, holistic narrative)
4. Critical Thinking and Complex Problem-solving ability:
Critical thinking involves the ability to think clearly and deeply about a problem and making a logical judgment. It’s kind of thinking where you use logic and reasoning to interrogate an issue or problem, consider various solutions to the problem, and weigh up the pros and cons of each option to come up with a logical solution. Due to increased complexity and sophistication of businesses, critical thinking is predicted to be a key skill for the future.
With the advancements of technological innovations machines and systems are available to solve daily, repetitious challenges. Hence human workers will increasingly focus their efforts on solving novel, ill-defined problems in complex, real-world settings. Having strong complex problem-solving skills means you’re able to see the big picture, zero in on minute details and move things around to make a difference.
The best way to master the skill of ‘complex problem-solving’ is facing the problems and sticking to it until you find the right solution.
5. Cognitive Flexibility:
Put simply ‘Cognitive Flexibility’ is mainly about how quickly and easily you can adapt to changes.
So how do we flex our cognitive muscles? – By learning new things and in particular, learning new ways of thinking. Expand your interests, read outside your comfort zone and embrace people who challenge your worldviews.
Thankfully you don’t need to be born with these skills, but you can hone them to be a highly employable professional in 2020.
