Starting your career? Check must-have professional skills to boost your salary package

People today face a dilemma as they look to navigate this highly dynamic and constantly evolving world of work. The growth of startups to unicorns, the world of co-working, the entrepreneurship culture, technology and the advent of AI have all further contributed to changing the dynamics of the professional world. In a recent interview, Mukesh Ambani emphasized the role of the millennial leader in navigating what he termed as the exponential era driven by an unprecedented level of change. He saw a mindset shift towards positivity, greater self- belief, a focus on innovation driven by principles of equality and humanism and acceptance to learn from failure as essential to make this dramatic shift.

In a recent survey conducted by Deloitte in 2018 where they interviewed more than 10,000 millennials and 1800 Gen Z participants across 36 countries, it was found that only 36% of millennials and 29% of the GenZ felt they had the skills to thrive in the 4.0 World. Interpersonal skills, ethics and confidence featured as some of the key skills they believed defined success in the changing world.

With the entire educational mindset in our country conditioned to focus primarily on inculcating technical skillsets in both students and employees, how do we shift the ecosystem to focus on these intangible skills that explain more than 60% of workplace success? And what are these pertinent skills that are required by the millennial career aspirant?

Founding Partner of EdpowerU, Shubika Bilkha says that through extensive work with millennials and GenZs in the workplace, they have defined these key intangible skills that contribute to 60-70% of workplace success as follows:

Emotional Intelligence (EQ)
- Self- Awareness
- Self- Management
- Self- Motivation
- Communication/Social Skills
- Empathy
- Resilience

Behavioural Skills
- Business Etiquette
- Teamwork and Collaboration
- Negotiation Skills
- Time Management
- Navigating Difficult Situations
- Relationship Building
- Confidence
- Commercial Awareness
- Decision Making

Other Key Skills
- Critical Thinking
- Problem-Solving
- Cognitive Flexibility
- Creativity/Innovation

Furthermore, the World Economic Forum (WEF) in their research on the Top 10 skills identified as key skills for 2020 focus on intangible skills such as emotional intelligence (EQ), communication, critical thinking, cognitive flexibility, problem-solving, people management and decision making as some of the skills to stay relevant.