NEW BUSINESS SKILLS NEEDED FOR SUCCESS

Trade secret – while ongoing disruption and volatility will continue to keep working professionals on their toes for the foreseeable future, 2022 and 2023 are years to focus on growth, reinvention, and bouncing back. Noting this, five skills that would come in handy going forward as a business leader are:

Creativity and Ingenuity – Becoming a practical innovator and learning how to mix and match ideas, concepts, tools, technologies, and solutions in clever and inventive ways. (In other words, how can you make evolutionary vs. revolutionary changes that set you up for success.) Even simple changes in how you package and present yourself and the solutions you offer can have a profound effect on helping you and your company differentiate and stand out and establish value in audiences’ eyes.

Strategic Planning – No one can predict the future – but we all can plan ahead for it. If 2022 (or 2023) is a year of constant disruption, that means having to more deeply think through the different directions that markets, career paths, industry trends, etc. can take in coming months – and plot ahead to have plans B, C, D-Z, etc. in place if Plan A falls through. In other words: The more we prep ourselves to greet an unexpected future, the better equipped we’ll be to roll with it if it takes a sudden, unforeseen turn.

Dynamic Decision Making – So many people are struggling to make decisions and are constantly second-guessing themselves in uncertain times like the present. But we will all be called on to make more impactful decisions faster than ever with less information and planning as unexpected events continue to put us on the spot going forward. That means having to do your homework, having to make firm decisions, and having to quickly reassess and revise strategies based on feedback from your choices.

Teamwork, Collaboration, and Empathy – Today’s business challenges are becoming too huge and complex for a single person to tackle them or possess all the insights and skills needed to adapt to every situation. That means we all have to get better about learning to work with other people, drawing on a more diverse range of perspectives and skills, and communicating with and inspiring our peers, as their help will be essential to completing tasks going forward.

Logistics and Project Management – Gone are the days where you can mindlessly clock in/out and perform routine tasks – we’re all being pushed to think more like leaders, as the nature of our work is only becoming more dynamic/unpredictable, demanding, and complex. Now, we’re increasingly being asked to adapt to new and novel challenges; accomplish goals under tighter constraints and timeframes; and work under greater pressure. That means having to be very deliberate in planning, the choices you make, and the deployment of finite resources (e.g. your time and energy).