8 Leadership Trends of 2024: #4 Focus On Skills NOT Jobs
For many decades we prioritized jobs over skills. If you had a degree in marketing and got a job as a marketing manager, then your career trajectory would be linear. You’d go from marketing manager to marketing director, senior director, VP, SVP, etc. Today, the trend is to focus on the skills you have and how those skills can be applied to a variety of jobs so that you can have more control over your career path.
The trend of prioritizing “skills not jobs” is reshaping the modern workplace and labor market, reflecting a significant shift in how employers think about hiring, training, and career development. This movement away from traditional job titles and descriptions towards a focus on individual skills and competencies acknowledges the rapidly changing nature of work and the need for a more flexible and adaptive workforce.
In today’s dynamic economic landscape, technological advancements and shifting market demands are rendering some jobs obsolete while creating new roles that didn’t exist a few years ago. This environment requires workers to continuously acquire and update their skills to remain relevant. As a result, organizations are increasingly recognizing the value of hiring for skills and potential to learn, rather than specific job experience or titles. This approach allows companies to tap into a broader talent pool and adapt more quickly to industry changes by leveraging the diverse skills and perspectives of their workforce.
What you should do:
- Invest in training and development programs that focus on skills employees can use to advance their careers.
- Change recruitment models to focus more on skills of employees and candidates instead of the specific roles they have been in.
- Define the skills that are required for various organizational roles so that employees and leaders can clearly see if their skills are aligned with those opportunities.
- Foster a culture of a “growth” mindset that doesn’t just recognize achievements but effort.
Stay tuned for the fifth leadership trend, Hybrid Work that I will share with you next week!
Leadership is changing dramatically and there are 8 trends you need to know about if you want to lead effectively in 2024 and beyond. I put together a PDF that not only walks you through what these 8 trends are, but it also gives you action items for each one. This will be an invaluable resource for your leadership journey in 2024 and beyond. Click to download the free pdf!
