August 31, 2024Articles The pace of change—in society, business, and technology—is both rapid and constant. Seemingly every day, there are new advancements in AI, significant global events, transformative ideas, and industry disruptions. As such, navigating the job market of both today and the future requires a proactive and consistent commitment to developing, maintaining, and refining critical skills. Future-proofing your career takes continuous learning and adaptability to stay competitive in the face of such change.What is a growth mindset?Sandip Kumar Chaudhury, Senior Director, Head Global Business Development & Partnerships at RBC, recently spoke with us about the skills he feels today’s workforce needs to build or sustain in order to be future-ready. Chaudhury was recognized as the 2024 Ascend Mentor of the Year Award for his extraordinary support of 50+ community groups nationally. He also supports newcomers to Canada through career mentorship and guidance, helping them settle. In addition to his extensive volunteer efforts, his YouTube channel “The Compass Guide” provides valuable advice and industry connections to newcomers and international students. Join as a member 10 essential skills to be future-readyA skill is the ability to do something well. A skill isn’t necessarily a specific technical skill, such as coding, or a soft skill such as the ability to present well in front of a large audience. A skill is this and more—it is a developed aptitude, ability, and even an attitude. When speaking with Chaudhury, it is clear that the skills one needs to succeed today and tomorrow in the workforce are both precise and broad.These are the ten skills Chaudhury believes are essential for pan-Asian individuals to build and hone throughout their careers. A mix of technical and soft skills. “Technology skills are important,” says Chaudhury, who recognizes the importance of building technical capacity to navigate complex, ever-changing work environments effectively. “But I believe soft skills will always be most important because at the end of it, a human connects with human-based soft skills. What’s important is to see how you create and use technology to make life better.”Learning. Learning itself is a skill, and one of the most important to build in one’s work life. “Life is all about learning, unlearning, and relearning, because everything is changing,” says Chaudhury. “I come from a generation where we did not even have television for the whole day. From there to where we are today, it’s a big change. I have gone through many changes over time and through each of those changes I had to develop my skills to align with the conditions or situations.” Chaudhury believes sometimes the learning is done subconsciously, but other times it must be intentional and something you want to do. “I always try to think three, five, and ten years ahead and try to understand the things I might need to understand and learn.” To that end, not just learning, but the ability and willingness to upskill yourself—to be proactive about your own learning—is a vital skill to develop.Communication. There is considerable value in being able to exchange information clearly and effectively with others, particularly as an increasingly diverse number of communication forums surface. Being able to communicate in person, via email, text, instant messaging, social media, and other digital channels will continue to be a vital skill. “Are you able to tell a story? Are you able to connect a story to the people who are going to deliver their story and then connect that to the customer?” asks Chaudhury. Having good communication skills means you can communicate information effectively and clearly. Even if you are the most technically proficient part of your team, if you can’t communicate “why and what is being done, nothing is going to work,” says Chaudhury. More than having the ability to ‘say’ the right things, is the importance in communicating in other ways. The right tone of voice and the right body language can help convey messages and are important elements of communication skill building. Join us at our events Data-centric mindset. Given the prevalence and availability of data—and its potential uses to understand customers, processes, and trends—Chaudhury believes that a data-centric mindset is an essential skill. Beyond having the technical capacity for future-proof skills such as data engineering, Chaudhury feels the human dimension is also crucial. “You also need to understand how to use the data, how to interpret it, and how to use that data—because that’s how productivity is going to improve.”Customer-centric mindset. In addition to data-centricity, the customer dimension is a vital human element—and strong emotional intelligence will always be important in understanding customers. “All of us are dealing with a customer one way or another. Having the solution for the customer, understanding the customer, and who we’re trying to solve for is an in-demand skill.”Empathy. As the world becomes more technology-driven, Chaudhury believes there is greater distance created between people. As such, developing and maintaining empathy is crucial to be able to understand the needs and wants of others and to lead effectively. “Empathy is very important. Empathy towards your customers, towards your colleagues, towards your subordinates.” After all, a machine cannot replace a person’s ability to connect with another.Analytical skills. With strong analytical and critical thinking skills, you are better equipped to develop innovative ideas and present innovative solutions in a workplace that is rapidly changing. People with strong analytical skills will also be prepared to navigate the interaction between humans and machines and help determine the roles of each in an increasingly automated world.Collaboration. “Someone who can work with a lot of people together and then make things happen is a very important skill,” says Chaudhury, who cites collaboration as a skill that is not only important today but will be crucial in tomorrow’s workforce. Having the ability to listen to others, share ideas, and foster productive dialogue is essential in boardrooms, breakout rooms, and also in virtual discussion rooms. With a large portion of the workforce working from home—a trend that is likely to continue for many employees—the ability to collaborate within the room and over a video feed will remain vital.Fungibility. Fungibility is the ability to transfer certain skills or capabilities for other purposes or functions—and a skill that Chaudhury believes is vital for the workforce of tomorrow. “Can you demonstrate the ability to adjust to changing scenarios? Changes are constant, and you have to be able to adapt.”Perspective. The ability to transfer one’s perspective from one country, industry, or career path to another is an incredibly valuable skill, particularly for immigrants who may arrive in Canada and start a new career in a new place. “I believe that when somebody brings in experiences from different places, they bring a completely different dimension, and a completely different way to solving things. If you are able to do things differently as a result of your multi-dimensional experience, you can look beyond what you know,” says Chaudhury, who believes nurturing skills in perspective will ultimately lead to being able to understand your customer in a new light.Passion, curiosity, and on-the-job learningBeyond these ten skills, Chaudhury believes there are certain attributes that will help make you successful in your career today and into the future. The first is passion. “If you love what you do and you can learn from your work, you will learn faster—you will become agile and fungible and can learn anywhere.”He also emphasizes the importance of curiosity. “Curiosity will help you grow and move to where you want to be. If you are starting out in your career, ask questions. This is the time to figure out what you really love.” He urges those who are beginning or transitioning careers to focus on preparation and networking, which are essential to self-discovery and ultimately achieving career goals.So, how do you go about developing these vital skills to future-proof your career? Chaudhury reinforces the importance of skill building both within your workplace and outside of it. While classroom learning can be an important dimension to skill building, particularly for technical and specialized skills, there is untapped value in learning on the job. “My experience of working for four industries and seven organizations globally tells me that there is enough room to build your skills within the work you do. If you go above and beyond the brief, there is room to develop skills within your job.” This approach has enabled Chaudhury to do things nobody else did before him in the various roles he has held. By developing new skills within his roles, he built the capacity to reach beyond his mandate and apply innovation and creativity to excel.Perhaps most importantly of all, Chaudhury believes, is to keep learning and building skills. Change is constant and therefore the ability to continually adapt to it will remain essential. “It’s absolutely essential to keep your edge—it’s like a sword. If you don’t sharpen it, it will be a sword but have no use,” says Chaudhury.“Learning is an ongoing process,” he adds. But if you marry it with the work you love to do, you will develop the skills you need to achieve your goals. Read more FacebookTweetPinLinkedIn
