20 skills for the 2020s

As we enter the 2020s, the search for the perfect business model intensifies.
Reorganization follows reorganization and “continuous transformation” is the new
mantra. So, as you prepare yourself for the coming decade, we are going to look at
the essential skills that you need to develop in order to engage with others as
effectively as possible. These skills range from language to leadership, from your
inner world of feelings and emotions to the outer world of customers and economic
trends. This article will help you set goals for yourself so that you and those around
you can perform better and achieve greater success.

1. Language skills

- Focus on relevant vocabulary learning

The core of foreign language learning is vocabulary. It is estimated that learners

need between 3,000 and 5,000 words to communicate in relatively complex
contexts. The best way to learn all these words and the contexts in which they can
be used is conscious planning and goal-setting are essential here, deciding which
areas of relevant vocabulary you should learn for which role.

- Learn the art of clarification

Clarification is a vital tool in any situation, but it is particularly important when

you are communicating internationally in a foreign language.

- KISS: Keep ideas short and shared

- Develop your confidence

It’s just easier to say nothing and let the more dominant personalities and fluent
speakers do the talking.

2. Professional communication excellence

- Develop interpersonal connectivity

To get the most out of your working relationships, develop your ability to connect
to the underlying motivations of other people.

- Deliver benefits

A useful rule in professional life is to forget about objectives. We often over-focus

on our objectives and forget to think about collective benefits.

- Think “group” — and facilitate

Many meetings that I observe fragment, with the louder or more senior individuals
simply arguing each other into submission or frustrated silence.

- Be a creative negotiator

When professionals sit down and negotiate — even if you have briefed them on the
benefits of “win-win” approaches — something close to warfare usually ensues.

3. Intercultural competence

- Become a skilled cultural scientist

Many inter culturalists focus too much on national culture as an explanatory

mechanism for the challenges of international working life.

- Think more openly and creatively

Emotional intelligence, which is a popular topic for soft skills training seminars, is
another route to access this enormously important body of knowledge for personal
development and self-leadership.

- Co-create your own culture

Learning to discuss culture and negotiate “micro-cultures” within a larger

corporate culture is one of the most essential competencies for those working in
multicultural teams.

- Make clear what is non-negotiable

Developing the confidence and the skills to set clear standards and boundaries, as
adults do with their children, is essential for creating a working environment in
which people understand what they need to do — by knowing what they cannot
do.

4. Soft skills

- Know yourself

The cornerstone of soft skills is self-knowledge: understanding one’s own

motivations, talents, biases and potential as a basis for finding personal fulfillment
in connection with others. There are various mechanisms that you can use to
achieve this and to develop personal competencies such as creativity and openness.

- Help to build teams

Working with others is about more than creating friendships. Whether in a formal
leadership position or simply as a team member, your priority should be to foster
and cultivate a sense of “team”.

- Influence others through listening

If you want to become a great influencer, you will need to become a super listener
and super supporter.

- Give and receive feedback

The confidence and ability to receive and give feedback effectively — and to
create a constructive learning environment that smooth’s the inevitable
misunderstanding — is perhaps the single most important soft skill to foster in
yourself.

5. International leadership capability

- Increase your contextual intelligence

Focusing on leadership personality and related traits that should be displayed in all
contexts at all times is an outmoded way of understanding leadership. Learn to
assess and lead people in complex and dynamic contexts on the basis of the
situational needs — not your personality.

- Communicate the big picture

In regular monthly or weekly meetings, extraordinary staff meetings, email

discussions and coffee conversations, leaders should take every opportunity to
explain what is happening, why it’s happening and how everyone can play a part in
bringing about the desired objectives.

- Don’t perform, enable performance

One of the biggest lessons that senior leaders have to learn is that the world doesn’t
revolve around them.

- Take responsibility for leadership

Relying on superhero leaders to make our organizational world a perfect place and
keep us all happy and motivated — and complaining when they don’t — is in fact
the abdication of leadership. It’s the sort of behavior that we normally expect in an
authoritarian regime, not in a thriving participatory environment with democratic
values.
In conclusion, the business world is facing challenging times. Instability is
increasing, from the threats of global trade wars to the rise of new digital
technologies that may sweep away organizations and industries that have been
seen as impregnable. Skills matter more than ever; yet the time we make for skills
development seems to diminish year-on-year. The choice is yours. Remain a
hamster in the wheel until the wheel breaks. Or take a measured and structured
approach to developing the skills you are going to need in the coming decade.