In today’s rapidly changing landscape, the paramount challenge for corporate executives is ensuring their teams have the right skills and mindset to thrive today and tomorrow.  The solution is not just about hiring the best technical skills.

A truly future-ready team includes data science, IT and prompt engineering skills. However the keys to long term success are people with strong communication, collaboration, innovation, customer service and leadership abilities.

As life becomes increasingly digitalized, the companies (and people) who stand out are those with great human skills ie the ability to fully listen, clearly communicate, express empathy, make and act on well-thought-through decisions.

The Role of Technology

The latest study by Deloitte showed that corporate investment in technology has tripled over the past 4 years to (on average) 6-10% of revenue. In ’23 a total of 5 trillion USD was spent worldwide on software, hardware, infrastructure licenses and implementation.

Unfortunately, many companies stopped there-believing the technology (and IT department) would develop new solutions to enhance future-readiness. It is therefore not surprise that AI projects have > 50% failure rate. In order to gain real return on investment from AI (like all tools), leaders must commit to changing processes and daily operations. This often requires people across the organization to adapt – learning new tools and shifting behavior(s).

Technology can only be as effective as the people using it.  By investing in people through offering opportunities to learn, collaborate and explore AI,  Adobe, Microsoft and IKEA are reaping measurable returns on technology expenditures. More importantly they are building a team for sustainable success.

Future-Readiness Can’t be Delegated

To gain real returns from technology, companies must invest as much in their people as in the tools to support them.  From the CEO to middle managers and the supporting staff, people must be empowered to explore, try, fail and learn.

Companies that gain the greatest return from AI investments have built collaborative learning into their culture. Some provide weekly ‘lunch and learns’ in which each everyone shares how they have used one new tool. Others such as Udemy organize learning labs in which team members work together using an new tool to address a common challenge.

By learning together, people (including the leadership team) become digitally savvy while increasing collaboration, brainstorming and engagement.

Future-readiness cannot be delegated.  Executives, in particular, must demonstrate agility, an open mindset and desire to explore new tools and opportunities.  This builds the psychological safety, trust and transparency necessary for people to try something new, experiment and move forward in new ways.

Importance of People Skills

In a world that is increasingly digital, those team members who engage (interactively), collaborate and share experiences along the journey thrive. Freed, by AI from tedious tasks, people can deliver great humane customer service, brainstorm with customers and colleagues to address  challenges then explore, create and bring new innovative solutions to market.

For sustainable success, future-ready teams are comprised of people well-skilled in:

Communication:

  • Clarity: In today’s dynamic environment filled with diverse communication channels, clear, strategically crafted communication is essential – to gain attention, articulate ideas, ensure effective delegation or prompting and to be heard.
  • Listening: Carefully focusing on the others’ speech, asking clarifying questions and understanding the context of their communication is critical to avoid misunderstandings.
  • Discernment: Carefully considering what is said, written or created against the needs and context then modifying communication to fully and appropriately accomplish the goal or address the situation.

Collaboration:

  • Teamwork: The ability to work with others in diverse, cross-functional and hybrid teams respectfully ensuring all are engaged.
  • Emotional Intelligence: By understanding and taking into consideration others’ perspectives, motivations and potential reactions to situations, people can resolve problems  and contribute to a positive working environment.
  • Empathy: Demonstrating genuine care and concern for others’ needs and feelings enhances internal and external customer satisfaction and employee engagement.

Customer Service:

  • Market driven mindset: Seeking market (customers, partners, competitors) views and taking the customers’ perspective into consideration when making strategic decisions.
  • Critical Thinking: Using sound judgement to view a situation from multiple angles, review data and make informed decisions.
  • Negotiation: ability to think through options from customer and company perspectives, then provide equitable options in a convincing manner.

Innovation:

  • Curiosity: A natural tendency to explore new tools, approaches and ideas and willingness to question why, thinking differently about problems and potential solutions.
  • Creativity: The ability to think ‘outside the box’, brainstorm, envision options and designing new approaches, solutions or opportunities.
  • Commitment: Since innovation is not possible without action, teams need those skilled at prioritizing resources and tasks to ensure new ideas are launched effectively.

Leadership:

  • Vision: Leaders need insights from diverse sources as well as intuition to make strategic decisions based on their informed vision of the future.
  • Influence: Ability to communicate and gain understanding, support and commitment to new approaches and initiatives.
  • Trust: Built from open communication, consistency and transparency, trust is one of the most important characteristics of a future-ready organization – and it starts with leadership.

Digital Skills:

  • AI and Data Science: Data scientists are crucial for organizing, cleaning, managing, and accessing vast amounts of data and AI experts skilled at development of tools, prompts and integrations are important today into the future.
  • Augmented and Virtual Reality (AR/VR): These technologies are becoming increasingly important in various sectors, enhancing training, development, and customer engagement.
  • Security and Cyber security: With growing cyber threats, expertise in cybersecurity is non-negotiable for protecting sensitive information.

The Future is Here:  Is your team ready?

The future is here – bringing many opportunities for leaders and their teams to thrive.    By investing in technology AND people, future-ready organizations are well positioned for success.  If you are unsure how to develop your skills, team or success plan, get in touch.

I offer Success Coaching sessions, facilitate round tables and can provide a wide range of resources to accelerate your success today into the future.

In the meantime, do join me for the next steps in the Journey into the Future on 18 June at 16:00 CET/ 10:00 ET or 7:00 PT.  Space is limited (and filling fast) so register now on https://bit.ly/3uMiegQ.