A 2019 IBM survey showed that, in the future, behavioral skills will be the area with more significant gaps than digital skills. Gallup’s latest research highlights some important ones — seven key expectations stand out as necessary behavioral skills for the future of work:

  1. Build relationships. Establish connections with others to build trust, share ideas and demonstrate care during challenging times.
  2. Develop people. Help others become more effective through strengths development, clear expectations, encouragement and coaching.
  3. Lead change. Recognize that change is essential, and disruption is expected. Set goals for change and lead purposeful efforts to adapt work to align with the stated vision.
  4. Inspire others. Even in the most trying times, encourage others through positivity, vision, confidence, challenge and recognition.
  5. Think critically. Seek information, critically evaluate and help sort through the available information, apply the knowledge gained, and solve problems.
  6. Communicate clearly. Listen, share information concisely and with purpose, and be open to hearing opinions.
  7. Create accountability. Identify the consequences of actions and hold yourself and others responsible for performance.

In spite of organizations’ tightening budgets, there is a significant development opportunity to focus on these behavioral skills that are key to high performance. We can often learn the wrong thing from incessant change or an emergent crisis: fear, risk avoidance and a survival mindset. That’s why it’s so important that leaders use these experiences to develop people to adopt a problem-solving, opportunity-focused mindset.

 

Reference: Gallup (2020, August 3), “4 Ways to Continue Employee Development When Budgets Are Cut“. Retrieved from www.gallup.com