The future of work is upon us and while we’ve been entrenched at home, the world has changed significantly. Getting back to work won’t be getting back at all, it will be a new game. And success in the future will require new skills—some of which may come as a surprise.
A study by Monster found 82% of companies are planning to hire in the new year. This is good news for your career and the opportunities you’ll be able to pursue. But you’ll also need different skills and as the saying goes, “What got you here, won’t get you there.”
Here are the new skills you’ll need to learn, grow and sustain over time.
Ambiguity
Perhaps most importantly, you’ll need the ability to deal with ambiguity—and more—to embrace it. Change happens with increasing velocity and this means uncertainty will become the norm. Consider driving your car. Expert driving coaches will tell you the primary condition that causes people to slow their speed is visibility—more than any other element. As things move faster, you have less time to pause, assess and analyze. You have a more limited view on what’s next because you just can’t be sure. At the same time, brain science has proven one of the things we desire most is certainty, and we avoid ambiguity. This will be the skill you’ll need to nurture: overcoming your natural instinct for clarity and assurance, getting comfortable with not knowing what’s ahead, making sound decisions and moving forward with confidence, even in the absence of complete information.