Future Proof your Career with these People Skills

 Although the labor market in the developed world is stronger than it has been in decades, we must be prepared for external factors like fluctuating markets, trade disputes, and disruptive technologies that will impact global employment. For instance, artificial intelligence (AI) will impact 100% of jobs, period. There are steps we can take to upskill and reskill ourselves to help recession-proof and future-proof our employability.

A 2019 MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab Study (1) that analyzed 170 million online job postings in the U.S. between 2010 and 2017 revealed that although new technology will impact jobs and change some tasks done by people, a large number of tasks that require “people skills” to deliver value are increasing in demand. What technology doesn't do well – communication, creativity, strategy, and critical thinking – people excel at, and companies will always need.

People skills broaden one’s ability to listen and empathize with others and be more dynamic and interconnected. According to LinkedIn’s 2019 Global Talent Trends Report (2), 92% of Talent Professionals surveyed said people skills will be the biggest trend transforming the workplace. Even in our most technical roles at IBM, for example, Data Scientists, 50% of that role now requires strong social and creative skills.

 What are some ways you can build these people skills? Below are 5 actions you can take that will help you endure any economic or technology disruption.

Action #1: Be a Continuous Learner

People Skills: Growth Mindset, Learning Agility

Maintaining the skills to perform your job well isn’t enough anymore; we must also demonstrate the ability to look around the corner and proactively lean forward. You can validate high learning potential and show a growth mindset by applying new skills and modern ways of working, like agile and design thinking, in your day to day job. Change for the sake of change only causes disruption; change that leads to more impactful outcomes create value to the firm and career growth for the worker.

The complex problems our businesses are trying to solve stay fairly consistent over time. What changes is the way we need to solve them. That calls for the ability to learn new things through high levels of learning agility. As the world around us changes, we need to show we have a desire and capability for continuous learning and are motivated to find new ways of solving problems.

Action #2: Build Expertise; Evolve Solutions; Repeat

People Skills: Curiosity, Critical Thinking, Innovation, Initiative

Next, examine macro trends in your domain and industry. What’s changing? How fast?

To do this, you need to have a genuine curiosity to look at problems or situations from a fresh perspective and suggest unorthodox solutions. Then, apply critical thinking to quickly break down complexities into manageable components to devise new solutions. Keep in mind that over time, the solutions you’ve perfected will eventually need to evolve.

For example, in Talent Acquisition, the problem has always been how to find the right talent for the job; how we've accomplished that over the last century required us to evolve our solutions as we’ve faced challenges with disruptive technologies and fluctuating economies.

Remaining an expert in your field and continuously evolving requires innovation and the application of creative ideas and rapid experimentation. An innovation can be a relaunch of an existing idea at a different time that enhances value, or a creation of something new that adds previously unknown value. And where does the spark that ignites an innovation come from? Initiative to look at the same problem in different ways. For example, using a modern way of working, like design thinking, to figure out ways improve user experience in a product, service, or process.

Action #3: Get Social

People Skills: Communications, Presentation, Storytelling

Your digital footprint is the story of your career journey and helps make you more discoverable. What does your digital footprint say about you? 

Take the time to sharpen your communications and presentation skills so you can organize and express yourself in a clear, concise, confident, and inclusive tone. Avoid company jargon and acronyms others won’t understand. Sharpen your storytelling capability to deliver organized, engaging messaging and visuals that connect with your audience and drive engagement to your profile.

Don’t forget to share meaningful articles, write compelling content, and join conversations to share best practices that can build your eminence.

Action #4: Grow Networks; Mentor Others; Build Followership

People Skills: Active Listening, Coaching, Influence 

Mentorship matters. Mentoring and being mentored are both important. 

Growing your network and mentoring others requires excellent active listening and coaching skills and the ability to mindfully hear and apply thoughtful inquiry to drive clarity and alternatives in real-time. In addition, honing your skills in collaborative influence builds allies and inspires people to work together. We grow networks and sponsorship through demonstrating accountability and reliability, actively listening to others, knowing when to lead or follow, and being perceptive and receptive to the needs of your peers.

Action #5: Prepare for the Coming AI Era

People Skills: Emotional & Social Intelligence, Empathy, Adaptability

Automation has just begun to transform work, and while the rate and pace of change is slow now, it will accelerate as AI solutions begin to scale. This is good news, allowing time to re-skill.

From the 2019 MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab Study (3) I referenced earlier, “as technology reduces the cost of some tasks, the value of the remaining tasks increases.” Tasks that require grounding in intellectual and emotional insight, creativity and adaptability have all increased in value.

Strong skills in emotional and social intelligence will help you understand other people’s emotions, allowing you to use that awareness to guide your thoughts and actions. Be aware of your impact on others and adjust your style accordingly. Also, since even the smartest AI cannot imitate human perception or social intuition, try strengthening your skills in empathy, grace, and encouragement. The more empathy training you have, the better you’ll understand customers, collaborate with peers, and ensure new technologies like AI are used in the service of society.

Similarly to where I started on learning agility, another key skill in uncertain economies is adaptability. This is an individual’s willingness to take on new tasks and challenges, deal with changing priorities and workloads, learn and acquire new skills, and keep calm and persistent in the face of difficulties.

The People Skills Era is Here

The workplace is fundamentally changing, and economies are in constant flux. As employers embrace disruptive technologies, employees must know how to create relevancy and which skills to sharpen to become indispensable.

A recent study (4) by the IBM Institute for Business Value interviewed 2,100 CEOs from leading organizations and revealed, “after being on the back burner for a few years, people skills have surpassed digital skills in importance, and are among the top three external forces CEOs expect to impact the business.” And by 2030, according to a 2018 report (5) by McKinsey, the demand for social and emotional skills is expected to grow across all industries.

With the shelf-life of technical skills continuing to shrink, you must continuously reinvent your skill-base to endure disruptions in the economy and technology. People skills will become increasingly important as we look at the different ways teams are formed and work together to get things done. Companies like IBM have embraced this new reality and are hiring and upskilling employees with the people skills I’ve referenced.

My advice to you? Be a contributor now, strive to be an innovator tomorrow, and adopt an #AlwaysBeLearning mindset for life…your employer will know when you do!

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 (1) “The Future of Work: How New Technologies Are Transforming Tasks.” MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab Study. October 2019. Source

 (2) “2019 Global Talent Trends Report.” LinkedIn. January 2019. Source

 (3) “The Future of Work: How New Technologies Are Transforming Tasks.” MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab Study. October 2019. Source 

(4) “Plotting the Platform Payoff: CEO Insights from the Global C-Suite Study.” IBM Institute for Business Value. May 2018. Source 

(5) “Skill shift: Automation and the future of the workforce.” McKinsey Global Institute. May 2018. Source