Agility seen as key to professional success
Hard work, an excellent work ethic, street smarts and the necessary educational credentials – these time-honored values can still be important to achieving professional success, but they may no longer be enough.
The Professional prefers to work on his own space and pace in the office
One trait is becoming more in-demand among industries and their leaders today: agility, or the capacity to adapt to a changing environment, learn from the new trends that are happening, and build on them to achieve your goals. While change is constant in every aspect of life, the rate at which it is accelerating is almost overwhelming today. The core subjects you studied in college might be inapplicable to the real-world scenario you will be facing a couple of years after graduation. Skill sets that you had invested in and made a career out of just might become obsolete tomorrow.
A look at the recent developments in the business landscape has been nothing less than earthshaking.
Disruption has been forcing traditional brick-and-mortar companies, once thought of as formidable, to adjust or risk being left behind by the more dynamic startups-turning-into-tech-icons. If the market follows or is inclined to accept a new technology, then probably that might be the way that the business drivers will go. CNBC recently reported that the cryptocurrency market will reach $1 trillion at the end of 2018.
Not content with capturing the backpackers and the more cost-conscious guests of boutique establishments, Airbnb is setting its sights into leasing private homes, posh condos, and other luxury accommodations that might rival the upscale hotel sector. The entry of AI into mainstream business can jumpstart productivity but it also threatens the displacement of both blue-collar and white-collar workers alike.
The emergence of self-driving cars and the possible elimination of the friendly human driver is just the tip of the iceberg. Lawyers, insurance and financial advisors, and accountants are no longer safe once smart machines become sophisticated enough to assume their tasks.
A study by the World Economic Forum has forecasted that by 2020, about five million jobs in the United States would be replaced by AI.
Although robotics and smart machines are entering the Philippine workplace, we are nowhere near that endangered zone yet. However, a small brush with technology can make you think, at the least, or become a rude but necessary wake-up call at the best. Case in point: Grammarly has become the go-to software for managers who want to have their online writings proofread.
Some Philippine companies are getting the message and preparing themselves for the inevitable, regardless of how slow these changes might come to our shores. Organizational development consultant Czarina Teves says, “A lot of companies are building their own universities in-house and building the talents and skill sets of their own people. They are investing in learning and development because they are becoming more conscious of the need for innovation.”
To find out if you can still be marketable or be at the cutting edge of your industry years from now, check out the jobs that will be in-demand by then. The World Economic Forum again projected the top jobs that all companies, regardless of industry, will be seeking to fill by 2020: data analysts, computer programmers, information security analysts, software developers, engineers who understand and can work with robotics and nanotechnology, and product designers.
And on top of these are sales specialists who can use the latest tools to bring in the revenues, project managers who can make end-to-end processes out of systems that still have to be invented, and human resource experts who can take the lead in retraining their workforce in the new skills that have just cropped up.
Clearly, relying on past successes and even present structures is not enough. To survive or successfully ride the crest of change, lifelong learning must become a habit. But this learning cannot be classroom-bound or remain theoretical; it has to be applied to real-life business problems. Some examples can be using the new digital tools to trump the competition or harnessing big data to enter a difficult market.
One other trait that is needed is the resilience or the capacity to bounce back from failure and rejection. It means understanding what didn’t work the first time, trying many other different solutions, and leveraging on the conclusions to finally win the goal.
As Teves points out, “Your mind must be agile. Change is happening very fast because of the development of technology and global interconnectedness. You can’t afford to be complacent.”
No enterprise or professional can afford to be – not in the 21st century, which has been described as the Age of Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity. Ironic as it sounds, agility just might be your rock of security in this tempestuous time.
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