Survey
The findings of a survey of 500 top CEOs by Microsoft suggest that the top skills needed by businesses are Team Work and Interpersonal Skills, followed by Initiative, Analysing and Problems Solving in that order.
Further down the rung are Verbal Communication followed by Personal Planning and Organizing and Flexibility. Only then do we come to Information and ICT skills which are the last two skills in their order of importance.
It seems to imply that it’s better to be flexible rather than to have good ICT skills.
The Future
But that is now.
According to the survey of top CEOs, Information literacy and ICT skills will jump from 7th position to the 2nd. This forecast could be of great value to businesses in the future. It arouses a weird feeling to see Initiative lose weightage and fall from 2nd to 6th.
The obvious question the results raises is won't businesses of the future need Initiative. Creativity is falling one place to 10th, which implies that if your communicate skills are in place, you won't have to be creative or have initiative. ICT skills are a constant.
Top 10 Skills
Here's the top 10 skills for successfully thriving in the future:
1. Team working and interpersonal skills
2. Information literacy and ICT skills
3. Verbal communication
4. Analysing and problem solving
5. Personal planning and organising
6. Initiative
7. Commercial awareness
8. Written communication
9. Flexibility
10. Creativity
With a combination of good ICT skills, attributes of a team player, good communication, analysis and problem solving skills, the future is yours.