We live, lead and love in a fast-paced world. Nothing stands still! So, what skills will leaders need to lead effectively as we head towards 2030 and beyond? Leaders mustn’t be complacent. You must be agile and adaptive and must constantly reshape your leadership competencies ensuring they are real and relevant to face the everchanging situations you find yourself in. Time never slows. But you can spend time preparing to meet the leadership needs of your future. To lead well now and into the future, I encourage you to take a look at the skills that are going to serve you well. Here are the 5 skills that all leaders will require.

Skill 1 – Coaching

Leaders must be guides and supporters. It’s no longer about being directive, it’s about empowering others to be the best they can be. A key function of the future leader’s role will be to empower and develop the skills of their team via coaching.

Skill 2 – Adaptability

Having the ability to be adaptive creates an edge for leaders to manage change and adversity. Individuals, teams and organisations see opportunities and growth when they are adaptive. Investing in leadership and training yourself and others to be adaptable will be a great investment.

Skill 3 – Tech and More Tech

Being fluent in digital literacy is going to be a must in both life and work. You don’t need to be an expert, but you do need to know enough to have conversations and make decisions about technology use as an individual, for your team and or your business.

Skill 4 – Human Centred or Non Technical Skills

We believe non – technical skills is a better term for human or people skills. These skills are like glue. They are the skills everyone needs outside of their technical knowledge and technical skills. Think emotional intelligence and interpersonal skills etc. I’ve seen some research that’s saying non – technical skills will outweigh technical skills by double. And I often say that there will be no room by the end of this decade for leaders that are technically proficient only. In fact, the future belongs to leaders who can lead the expertise in their teams without having to possess the technical skills themselves.

Skill 5 – Agility

Training and retraining will be required to keep pace with societal changes. Having an agile mindset is much more important than a set and forget type mindset. It must be open and curious at all times. You can become a better leader by being agile and embracing new and changing skill sets depending on the job or project you’re working on.

Over to You

So how do you stack up? Jot down the 5 skills above and give yourself a rating of your current competence out of 5 (Where 5 is the highest). See which skills you could develop and get about it. It doesn’t mean you need to find a training program (this is often what people think they need to do). Do some reading about the skill, share with colleagues the skills you want to develop and ask them to think of you for future projects, google the topic and see what you find, write up an action list and finally keep an eye open for any training that will support you.

Good luck. And please feel free to reach out to me here if you think I can help in any way.

Until next time!