As our world continues to change around us, we have to constantly think about and plan our careers to be future-fit for the changing world of work. In Tomorrow’s World Today we speak about the Future-Focused Toolkit that highlights the six key skills and habits that future-focused leaders need to develop if they’re going to be successful in a world of exponential change. In today’s workplace, everyone needs to actively build their career to thrive in the future. Whether you’re a business leader overseeing a multinational or national operation or an office manager for a local operation, you need to prepare for the changing world of work.
- Look beyond the next horizon As you think about
you career, you need to regularly scan the horizon to identify the changes that stand to disrupt some of what you take for granted now. Are there technologies that could have an impact on how you currently work? Are there global forces that are shifting regulations and procedures that might affect what you currently do in your career and how you do it? With these questions in mind, your first skill in building your future career is to become better at thinking about and planning for your work. It is no longer enough to do what’s expected, but get better at expecting changes and preparing for them. Practically this means you need to equip yourself not only for the job you currently have but the one you will soon have. - Be Flexible – Experiment More. The second skill in creating your future career is getting intentional about being flexible and experimenting more with new ways of thinking and doing things. Most people become victims of progress, not because they don’t see the change that’s coming, but because of their unwillingness to change and do things differently. The workplace of the future requires us to become less rigid and more willing to move with the change. In what areas can you practice flexibility? What experiments do you need to embark on? And make sure that your experiments are calculated and not lead to your demise. It’s good to try new things and make mistakes but not make a habit of mistakes.
- Be Tech Savvy and SMART. Technology will determine the future of work and the current workplace is already largely driven by technologies that were unthinkable 5 years ago that are now
common place . Being tech savvy is no longer a nice-to-have but an absolute necessity for success. In what ways can you make technology your friend in moving you forward in your work? Think about ways to digitise and automate what you do. In our phones and computers, we can automate most of what we currently do manually, so just do it. Download that app, utilise that function on your computer. Being old school is not cute if it means you’re holding up the lane, use the technology or be toast. Being SMART in this context means using technology to be more Social, Mobile, Agile, Real-Time and Tech-enabled.
Using the Future-Focused Toolkit you can be better prepared for the future and not caught by surprise, let’s just look at three of the six skills for this tip:
The future of work is an exciting place, so you need to start thinking about and preparing for the changes that are shaping tomorrow’s world now!
Contact the TomorrowToday Global team and ask for Buhle to come around and discuss how to prepare for Tomorrow’s World Today, and Creating A Winning Culture.