Thought Leader: What skills do leaders require for the future of work?

Four leaders from around the globe — all graduates of the Global Alliance in Management Education (CEMS) – offer their insights around current and future leadership.

Suzanne Verzijden, head of HR, BG Health & Wellness, Royal Philips

“If you are able to understand what is happening technologically, and where the needs of people lie – and match up the two – that is where future success lies”

Global leaders must keep a close eye on the world of today and the future. What I do involves looking at the reality of business both today and tomorrow and creating the change to get us there; for example, moving from products to integrated connected solutions.

It’s important to have a curious mind, to be outward-orientated and to have the ability to understand and work with rapidly changing trends, so you can grasp the opportunities that lie ahead.

Looking beyond hard skills

I believe in network leaders: it is important to have a large network of all kinds of stakeholders around you who inspire you and who you can inspire, as nothing works in a silo these days. You need to have a certain agility: flexibility, adaptiveness. Don’t be stuck in your own mind and make sure you are orientated to change.

Automation, artificial intelligence (AI) and connectedness are changing jobs. A lot of roles will disappear as connected data will take over. Looking beyond hard skills and formal qualifications is critical.

Social skills (persuasion, emotional intelligence), content skills (ICT literacy and active learning), cognitive abilities (creativity and mathematical reasoning) and process skills (active listening and critical thinking), will be in higher demand across industries.

Tech trends – for example, the increased use of AI – provide us a whole new way of getting to new propositions in the world. If you are able to understand what is happening technologically and also where the needs of people lie and match up the two, that is where future success lies.

Michael Maeder, entrepreneur

“In an environment and market where certain skill sets become scarce, people leadership is even more important”

I don’t believe the fundamentals have changed in terms of what made leaders successful 10 years ago and what makes them successful now. 

In an international setting, we have always found strong people leadership capacity, high levels of empathy for people across cultures, markets and hierarchical levels, business acumen and a good sense for execution to be ‘timeless’ fundamentals.

Personally, soft and transferable ‘skills’ such as networking, global thinking, project management and people skills, have turned out to be more important for my work as an entrepreneur than any technical ‘tools’.

The importance of people leadership

I would expect the future of work to be more decentralised, international, digital and balancing work with life. As far as leadership is concerned, in an environment and market where certain skill sets become scarce, people leadership is even more important.

While in the past, talent might have tolerated sub-optimal people leadership for the sake of having a stable job, these times are definitely over, and business leaders need to be at the top of their game in order to attract and engage top talent, irrespective of the sector or region.

For example, the industrial sector used to be more forgiving of managers with sub-par management style and behaviours. But in an environment where even managers from the industrial sector need to compete against other sectors for digital talent, they also need to polish and upgrade their people leadership capability in order to succeed.

Guido Ferralasco, managing director, Ferrero Gulf (Arabic Peninsula)

“Successful leaders will create an environment that pushes people to maximise their potential as individuals and members
of society”

I arrived in Dubai two years ago to set up a new regional business unit. We have hired more than 50 people and established a fully-fledged operation tasked to control seven markets and retail sales in excess of $500m.

The speed of evolution can generate an intrinsic sense of uncertainty for leaders. But all the stakeholders we come in contact with (investors, suppliers, customers, colleagues, institutions) are human beings like us. Everyone is moving and evolving through uncertainty, which is comforting.

Nurturing potential

Debate over the future of work (robots replacing humans and such like) is producing a varied array of theories and speculations. Time will tell.

Meanwhile, successful leaders will create an environment that pushes people to maximise their potential as individuals and members of society.

Valérie Leyldé, global vice president HR, communication and customer excellence, Mérieux NutriSciences

“The only way for leaders to prepare for the future is to develop adaptability, versatility, and openness”

It’s virtually impossible to predict what the future will look like, but it’s obvious that complexity and the pace of change are increasing.

The only way for leaders to prepare for the future is to develop adaptability, versatility, and openness. Applying the same recipes that worked in the past will not help leaders become successful.

Human relationships

The mindset of being innovative, open to new approaches, ready to take risks and try new things may well surpass knowledge and expertise. The future of work will certainly be impacted by new technologies, at-distance and without-borders co-operation, project-based collaborations, co-working, co-building and new leadership styles.

Nevertheless, technologies and the pace of change will never replace human relationships and I am convinced that the key success factor, in any business, will be people rather than machines.

I expect the link between employee engagement and customer satisfaction and loyalty to become increasingly recognised over the next few years.