From agility to adaptability or collaboration to communication - each competency you develop shapes your future professional self
A clear professional path
There was a time when professionals had a clear route to promotion and opportunity. After selecting a career, perhaps project management, teaching or accountancy, a smooth path would roll-out opportunities for training, certification, CPD, membership… there might even be a final salary pension at the end of the rainbow.
Today it is not uncommon to have careers (plural). Our career options spin like a revolving doorway. Being a professional in the 2020’s must feel a bit like Janus - the Roman God of transitions who presided over beginnings, gates, doorways, time and duality.
It’s easier than ever to access knowledge to switch career or start up your own business but what are the skills that the professional of tomorrow needs?
Next Generation Professional
The Next Generation Professional will be working in in a very different way. They will need to manage and collaborate with geographically dispersed teams. As the world around changes rapidly and dramatically, the need for creativity and the ability to consider and contribute solutions for complex problems will become the new norm. At one time, I thought it would be good to be a history lecturer. By definition, not much changes in history except people keep discovering new things that challenge the existing beliefs. Technology has intervened in the way that history is taught and consumed. From an educational viewpoint, delivery tools and methods have changed and, probably even greater, expectations have changed.
Looking back to look forward
No longer are the teaching methods that worked throughout the 20th Century applicable to the 21st Century. Heraclitus articulated beautifully, “no man ever steps in the same river twice for it is not the same river and he is not the same man.” As the river of change flows increasingly faster, how can one prepare for the future?
It certainly isn’t by doing the things we used to do. As George Santayana cautioned, “those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”.
What is needed for the future is a new breed of professional; People who are comfortable with ambiguity and complexity. People whose main knowledge base is Google, so their value to the workplace is their skill and creativity to understand and manipulate data while building relationships with an ever-expanding and diverse group of colleagues or co-collaborators. These professionals may never work with the same team twice. Like a river, professional relationships are ever changing.
The skills needed for the future
The SFIA Foundation has identified 102 skills that are relevant for the information age. The World Economic Forum has identified 35 key skills and competencies in their Future of Jobs report.
There is no way a professional could master all of the skills that exist. (no one is 10/10 at everything). However, it is highly likely throughout their career that at some time they will have to acquire sufficient competency in most of them to contribute to today’s endeavour, while trying to plan for the future as retirement continues to move further into the distance!
The digital economy has shaken up the traditional career-for-life model. Stop chasing rainbows and pursue the career of your dreams. Learning new skills can help you become the best version of yourself.
