Key Skills Needed In Our Age Of Automation

Part 1: Key Insights From The Future Leaders Summit

(If you missed the summit, good news! You can still get a VIP Pass here)

After being a speaker and corporate trainer for three decades, I recently ventured into the virtual world to host my first online event – the Future Leaders Summit. With 31 amazing guest speakers, the Summit attracted thousands of attendees from almost 100 different countries. And wow! I certainly learned a lot! And now I would love to share some of my key insights with you.

What an honour it was to interview some of the top global leadership experts and bestselling authors as they shared cutting-edge information about the future of work, the changes and challenges we are all facing, and essential skills needed for the future. With such a diverse range of speakers and topics, my aim was to inspire existing leaders, new leaders, potential leaders, entrepreneurs and solopreneurs, in fact anyone who wants to grow professionally and personally.

In part 1, I’m sharing some key insights from my interview with Graeme Codrington, a renowned futurist, researcher and professional speaker. When I spoke to Graeme, it was easy to sense his great passion for understanding the intersection of people and technology.

Where will the 2020s take us?

In my discussion with Graeme, he shared fascinating information from his company’s research about where the 2020s may take us. He told me the key shift in mindset for us as humans is to look at the tasks that we want machines to do.

Here’s the good news: About 30 or 40% of what people do cannot be done by machines. And even better news: There are several key skills that computers are not going to develop any time soon.

Horizon Scanning

One of these key skills is what Graeme calls horizon scanning, or “what if” thinking. This is the ability to look at the future, to see what’s coming and to develop scenarios. A lot of people have the attitude of wanting to protect the systems that already exist. However, leaders today envisage a different future from one that appears inevitable given current systems.

Creativity And Intuition

Another key skill is the ability to come up with fresh ideas, and Graeme said this is still something that we don’t fully understand. There’s a science behind this, but it still relies a lot on gut feel, or intuition. In practical terms, this involves knowing when it’s appropriate to work “outside the rule book”. Human skills are needed in knowing when rules and procedures aren’t working, and then find a creative, intuitive solution.

Personal Intelligence

I like the term Personal Intelligence that Graeme uses. It’s an interesting twist on the standard term that we all know, Emotional Intelligence. The focus here is really about knowing yourself. This includes being conscious of your strengths and comfortable with your weaknesses. It’s about being very aware of what you’re good at and what you’re not good at, and acknowledging that’s why you have a team around you to compensate.

The best organizations in the 2020s will have leaders and people who are very in tune and comfortable with who they are.

I wasn’t surprised that Graeme hit on the importance of knowing ourselves as leaders and recognizing that we have a team around us, because this is something that many of my Summit guests talked about too. So do look out for part 2 when I’ll be sharing some of the key insights from my interview with Mark Sanborn, who is passionate about sharing that we don’t need a title to be a leader.

I hope you enjoyed learning some of the key insights from my interview with Graeme Codrington. I would love you to share your thoughts about some of the key skills you feel will be essential for us to future-proof our careers in our automation age.

Here’s to your success!

Shirley

By the way, if you missed the summit, good news! You can still get a VIP Pass here.