8 Key Skills That Will Help Build a Successful Career in 2020

Technology has evolved drastically over the past 50 years, and this technological advancement has made a huge impact across all industries.

Needless to say, the job roles in different industries have also changed significantly over the years. If you want to see your career reach the new heights of success in the coming days, you need to develop the skills that are essential in today’s date.

Relying on the age-old skill set in today’s technology-reliant world is the same as bringing a knife to a gunfight.

And at a time when AI and other technologies of the future are going to make 40% of the existing jobs obsolete, you have no other option but to adopt a new skill set in order to keep your career afloat.

In this blog, I have listed 8 such skills that will not only help you survive in this fast-changing world but will also ensure success for your career.

1. Ability To Solve Complex Problems

Whether you are a student with a math assignment or a corporate employee with the task to prepare a strategy to deal with a crisis – you need problem-solving skills to excel.

No matter which domain you pursue as a professional, you will encounter problems that you need to solve to prove your efficacy.

Problem-solving skills are about having the mental elasticity to solve problems that are new for you.

To keep up with the fast-changing industry landscape, one needs to be prepared for kinds of problems, no matter how complex it may sound.

The latest report suggests that 36% of all jobs across all industries require complex math problem-solving as one of the core skills of a candidate.

2. Creativity

No matter how much change the industries go through, the creativity of a candidate will always be valued by companies across various industries.

AI and machine learning may get things done in lesser time than humans, but they can never match the creative genius of a human.

In 2020 and the years to come, you need to be creative enough to use the new technologies and new ways of working to your advantage.

Creativity is a key skill today, and it will remain so in the future. The problem with most people is that they think that creativity is exclusive to the domain of fine arts like music, paintings, etc.

But in reality, creative thinking can be applied in a variety of situations. And more importantly, there is more than one way to solve a problem creatively. Exercise curiosity and self-expression regularly.

3. Critical Thinking

Critical thinking is another skill that will help boost your career in 2020 and the years to come.

The skill involves being able to use logic and reasoning not only to interrogate problems and find solutions to them but also to evaluate the pros and cons of each approach.

While the AI systems like IBM’s Watson are putting human jobs out of order, such companies are relying on humanitarian assistance for the critical thinking department.

2020 will see a significant rise in demand for critical thinkers, even though machines are preferred over human labor in most industries.

4. People Management

Over the years, the employees have been the most valuable resource of a company, and they will continue to remain as valuable even after the automation of jobs.

Companies know that humans are more creative and more proficient at reading each other’s body language and boost each other’s idea with positive support.

To manage people and encourage them on a regular basis is going to be one of the skill sets that will remain significant in 2020.

You may need to learn how to create a positive work environment for people who work under you to boost productivity.

5. Emotional Intelligence

In a survey done on HR professionals and company strategists, it was revealed that overall social skills would be in demand across various industries in the future.

While the ability to persuade and train others will be there, emotional intelligence is one skill that can help you get closer to success in 2020.

Emotional intelligence informs every interaction you have with others. It affects how people manage behaviour, drives social complexities, and make personal decisions that offer positive results.

It’s an essential social skill that is required in managers and leaders. Developing such a skill set will certainly help you boost your career.

6. Cognitive Flexibility

Cognitive flexibility is how fast and effectively you can operate back and forth between different systems of thought.

The more flexible you are, the easier it is for you to spot new patterns, and to establish unique connections between ideas.

By learning new things and various avenues of thinking, you can boost your cognitive flexibility.

Even if you are not one of those creative types, you can always try new things that you haven’t tried before.

For instance, try learning music or cooking to expand your areas of interest. Read outside your comfort zone.

Communicate more with those people who challenge your opinions. It will help boost your cognitive abilities, allowing you to unlock new horizons in your career.

7. Negotiation

As mentioned earlier, social skills are something that AI robots cannot replicate anytime soon.

We, humans, are far superior in social interactions and negotiations than any automated software (read chatbots).

And even if you are not in marketing or sales, you will require negotiation skills for better career opportunities.

Even the people are technical occupations expected to exhibit greater interpersonal skills and the ability to negotiate with colleagues, clients, teams and even their managers.

As you may realize, the negation skills aren’t something that you can learn at schools. Like any other social skills, you need to practice it by engaging with others.

8. Judgment And decision-making

The ability to make a sound decision is something that will remain a valuable attribute through ages.

In 2020, sharpen your decision-making skills and for better career moves. Now that big data plays a huge part in the process of business strategy, you need to be prepared to make a sound judgment at any given point.

To improve your decision-making skills, get used to data handling. Figure out what questions you need to answer.

And then, explore new data tools and technologies to collect information to answer the question. And finally, you use the information to manipulate data and make the right decisions.

The skills that are mentioned above are applicable to almost every industry in today’s world. And developing these skills will not only help you boost your career but help you improve your value as a part of the company.

Author bio: Ema Lee is a career counselor who is associated with Allessaywriter.com as a subject matter expert for the past three years.

Besides offering valuable assistance to students in their career, she also offers assignment help on their requests