The 7 key skills for tomorrow's leaders

As technology advances, the purely human aspects of work and the skills associated with it will gain in importance. More specifically, every employee required to lead a project team, business unit or community, will need to home their leadership skills.

Which skills do you think are essential for today and tomorrow? We layout what we feel are the top 7 vital skills for effective leadership in 2021.

Develop your strategy in the face of uncertainty

In a competitive ecosystem that evolves very quickly, the leader will have to accept to constantly modify their battle plan and to work with shorter-term objectives.

Be genuine and honest
Faced with artificial intelligence, increasingly present in the professional sphere, strictly human characteristics (responsibility, honesty, etc.) will prevail. The genuine and honest leader will need to find the right balance between their thoughts, emotions, and behaviours.

Knowing how to combine management and neuroscience
A leader needs to better understand the behaviours and actions of those who work with them and around them. This will allow the leader to develop cooperation within the company, but also to understand what makes each person unique.

Converge while remaining flexible
As each employee is unique, and the leader will have to be flexible in order to build on each person’s strengths and integrate as much diversity as possible into their teams. At the same time, they should facilitate convergence towards a shared objective and a common philosophy for the company.

Allow a better human-machine match
The most effective leaders will understand how to best delegate between people and machines, so as to maximise the capabilities of both. They should not only focus on integrating artificial intelligence into the company, but also rely on it to modify and optimise processes.

Growing talents through humility
It is by admitting that he/she can benefit from the expertise of those who hold less authority than themselves that the leader will succeed in creating a real culture of learning.

Foster innovation
The leader should promote ownership, autonomy, and accountability of those who follow him/her, that is to say, encourage them to think for themselves and to test new ideas.

It is also important that companies leave give their employees the autonomy necessary to develop their skills. The investment that organisations must make in terms of human resources and training is quite simply fundamental … for the teams, as for the leader.

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