Future-proofing your career, tips for first-time managers, and free courses to renew your commitment to allyship

Welcome to 'Learn This Next', a monthly newsletter surfacing trending skills, expert career advice, and free LinkedIn Learning courses to help you grow your career. Each month, you'll learn something new—a new skill, a new way to navigate a complex problem, and new ways to connect with peers and experts.

Read on for fresh data, expert tips, and links to free course content.

Learn Skills to Help You Future-Proof Your Career

Skills, and keeping them sharp, are key to helping you stand out, stay competitive, and ultimately, future-proof your career.?How can you be sure you're ready for what's next? Follow the data.

Recent LinkedIn data shows that job skill sets have changed by around 25% since 2015 and are expected to change by 41% by 2025.

We compared the top skills professionals had in 2015 to those they have for the same job today to see just how much things have changed. Use this data to identify and close any skill gaps as a professional and in your unique area of expertise.??

These are the top soft skills to help you future-proof your career. Watch any course to learn these skills for free until September 30, 2022. To discover the top hard skills and skills for your unique area of expertise and free courses to learn them, head to the blog.?

Top Soft Skills to Future-proof Your Career

1. Leadership - Watch: Leadership Tips, Tactics, and Advice with Elizabeth Lotardo & Lisa Earle McLeod

2. Communication - Watch: Communication within High-Performing Teams with Daisy Lovelace?

3. Problem Solving - Watch: The Secret to Better Decisions: Stop Hoarding Chips with Seth Godin?

4. Management - Watch: Be the Manager People Won't Leave with Laurie Ruettimann

5. Time Management - Watch: Time Management Fundamentals with Dave Crenshaw

6. Strategy - Watch: How to Make Strategic Thinking a Habit with Dorie Clark

Crucial Tips for First-Time Managers

We reviewed the best advice from some of our most popular LinkedIn Learning courses to help you avoid common mistakes and thrive in your new role. Here's one crucial lesson to get you started.? For the full post, check out 6 Crucial Lessons for First Time Managers on the LinkedIn Learning blog.?

First-time managers: they do as you do, not as you say

In his course on Essential Lessons for First-Time Managers, business and leadership coach Dave Lebowitz likened managing a team to “a mother duck leading a raft of ducklings. They follow her move and learn valuable survival skills.”

Your direct reports are going to do the same thing. And whether or not they learn “valuable survival skills” depends on how you imprint them.?

You can’t simply tell your reports how they should be doing their jobs. You have to lead by example. If you think it’s important everyone gets to meetings on time, you have to show up on time for every meeting. If you think open communication is paramount, you have to be an open book.

Be consistent, and practice what you preach. Your reports will follow suit.

Renew Your Commitment to Allyship and Inclusivity at Work with Free Courses

In 2022, people are continuing to learn more about themselves, how they want to be seen and known by their peers and colleagues, and how their identity impacts their experience at work.

Whether you have started your journey as an ally, or you're well on your way, check out any of the following learning paths for free for a limited time to help you reach your next allyship goal.?

• Create an Inclusive Work Culture (free until Sept 16)
• Recruit Diverse Talent and Promote Equitable Hiring (free until Nov. 9)

To get you started, here's a quick tip from instructor Dereca Blackmon from her course, Inclusive Mindset for Committed Allies:?

" In order to practice an inclusive mindset, you're going to have to be dedicated. What does that mean? It means being really grounded in your personal why. What is it that makes you want to be an ally? What were the experiences, the relationships, the aha moment that made you realize you wanted to do more in the pursuit of equity and justice?"?

Keep this in mind to help you remain dedicated in your allyship work, even when it gets tough!

Get Data-Driven Expertise to Help You Reach Your Career Goals

We get by with a little help from our friends—in this case, data-driven expert friends.

You can now set a career goal in LinkedIn Learning and get personalized recommendations for how to grow your career in your unique role or transition to a new role. Simply choose a goal and LinkedIn Learning will surface courses to help you learn trending skills in your field, find a mentor, get promoted, seek feedback, or create a career plan.

Connect and Learn with LinkedIn Learning Instructors?

Get even more career tips, tricks, and trends directly from expert LinkedIn Learning instructors by subscribing to their newsletters:?

• Dorie Clark Newsletter: Learn how to get your best ideas heard in a noisy world with Duke Professor and WSJ bestselling author, Dorie Clark.
• Workplace Intelligence Weekly: Keep up-to-date with the latest trends impacting the workplace with NYT Bestselling author, Dan Schwabel.?
• Leading Disruption Discover how leaders set strategy, build culture, and manage uncertainty to drive disruptive, transformative growth with CRO, Charlene Li.?

Tips for Learning Leaders

Are you someone who cares deeply about learning across your team or organization? Here’s a tip for helping managers learn from one another:

Organize “manager syncs” where managers across departments can discuss how they’re facilitating learning engagement and share ideas for improvement.

At LinkedIn, the L&D team led an idea exchange by gathering manager stories across the organization and then creating a presentation for managers detailing how their peers have successfully encouraged learning.?

Want more tips for learner engagement? Check out 25 Tips on Engaging Workplace Learners that Actually Work in the Real World

Did you learn something new? Send it to a friend. Let us know what you'd like to learn next in the comments.