What skills will be in demand for the next 10 years

Theby Bernard Marr

Do you want to become indispensable to future employers?

It’s not just about the technical skills you need to cultivate. As we move into the new industrial revolution and the pace of change continues to accelerate, the skills you need to thrive in the workplace are also changing.

In my new book, Future Skills: The 20 Skills and Competencies Everyone Needs to Succeed in a Digital World, I talk about how succeeding in the digital world also requires understanding how technology will affect our world. We will also need to cultivate critical skills so that we can do things that machines cannot.

Let’s take a look at some of the skills that will be in demand by employers in the coming years.

1. Digital Literacy

Digital literacy includes the skills to learn, work and navigate everyday life in our digital world. These skills include the ability to use devices, software and applications safely and confidently. People with strong digital literacy skills can communicate and collaborate easily using digital tools, while keeping up with new technologies and understanding how they can affect their work and businesses.

2. Understanding the data

For most businesses, data is now one of their most important and valuable assets, which means organizations will want to employ people who are able to receive and use data effectively. In the average business context, understanding data means having access to the right data and working with it with confidence. To cultivate data knowledge, make progress in extracting meaning from data, and communicate the knowledge gained from it to others. With data literacy, one will also be able to question the integrity and validity of any data they are working with, rather than just blindly following the information they are given.

3. Critical thinking

In this age of fake news, social media and information overload, critical thinking is at the top of the list of the most vital skills to cultivate in order to succeed. Critical thinking means being able to analyze issues and situations based on evidence rather than hearsay, personal opinions or prejudices. When you practice critical thinking, you can question the validity of evidence and understand what is true and what is not true in various situations.

4. Emotional intelligence

Emotional intelligence is the ability to express and control our emotions. An emotionally intelligent person knows how emotions affect the behaviors of people and those around them and can manage those emotions accordingly. I believe that empathy—the ability to see the world from someone else’s perspective—is a key component of emotional intelligence.

5. Creativity

Have you ever wondered what creativity really is? One way to define it is “the act of turning imaginative ideas into reality.” Creativity will be one of the most desired skills in the future workplace, especially as we outsource more and more routine tasks to machines. Creative thinking, such as generating new ideas, solving problems, imagining beyond the status quo, and applying ideas to fix problems and make things better, will be critical in the workplace of the future.

6. Cooperation

The nature of collaboration and teamwork is changing as teams evolve to include hybrid workers, fully remote employees, and other employees who roam between teams and projects. In this changing workplace, you will need to be able to collaborate effectively and communicate with a variety of colleagues and partners.

7. Flexibility

Are you open to change? In the workplace of the future, change will be even more of a driving force than it is today. We must constantly contend with new technologies, increasing automation, the rapidly evolving pace of work, and enormous business problems. We all need to develop the mental flexibility to thrive in times of constant change. Adaptability – the ability to adapt to new conditions – is the key to developing flexibility. Adaptive people are open-minded, curious and willing to learn new things because they focus on opportunities, not obstacles.

8. Leadership skills

Good leadership is about getting the best out of other people and making sure they can thrive. And if you think leadership skills are only necessary for those at the top of the ladder, think again. Factors such as distributed teams, increasing diversity and more fluid organizational structures mean that leadership skills will be important for every person across the company – whether leading a project, a team or an entire department.

9. Time management

Whether you work from home, work full-time in an office, run your own business or work for an organization, the ability to manage your time effectively is essential to performance in the workplace. Remember that time management is about working smarter, not harder. Overtime is not necessary for people who are good at managing their time. They know when they are most productive and use that time wisely, reserving their less productive hours for other tasks.

Cultivating effective time management skills is also important for your mental health. When you can manage your time effectively, you create a better work/life balance to ensure you have room in your life for the things that are most important to you.

10. Curiosity and continuous learning

If I were to pick just one skill that I think everyone should cultivate, it would be curiosity. Whatever your age or industry, adopting a mindset of continuous learning is critical to thriving in tomorrow’s workplace. Curiosity and continuous learning will help you stay flexible and adapt to change, as well as help you keep your skills sharp so you can keep up with the important changes happening today. Do you want to remain useful to your employers and give yourself the best chance of building a happy, fulfilling life? Adopt a growth mindset and initiate your desire to learn.