4 at-risk skills and how to build them in your workplace

The Great Pyramid of Cheops in Giza was built 4,600 years ago and we still don’t know exactly how. While Biblical stories and Hollywood lore have cemented the image of a cruel overseer with millions of slaves, recent discoveries reveal a different reality. Rotating teams of skilled craftsmen brought together over six million tons of stone to bury the king and his possessions in a perfect pyramid, using only rudimentary tools. And while slaves certainly existed, they were part of a complex, hierarchical project management effort involving all types of workers and sophisticated skills. Unfortunately, all of this ancient know-how has been lost to history and we will never know exactly how these wondrous structures were built.

The pyramids are a timeless reminder of the fragility of human ability. What we don’t use, we lose. In this moment of great change, including a restructuring of the workplace, the rise of AI, and rapidly changing cultural, social and technological trends, our most important skills – our most human skills – are at risk. Furthermore, we are in a great hurry. According to a recent study, lack of time is the biggest barrier to building skills in the workplace, although 78% of companies surveyed have changed their job descriptions or lowered hiring standards due to a lack of required skills. Are leaders really in such a circular impasse: they neither have the skills they need nor the time to develop them?

Employees definitely want the skills they need to be successful. PWC’s 2024 Hopes and Fears survey found that 67% of workers would change jobs to learn new skills. And 70% of executives say their companies are suffering financially because their workforce doesn’t have the right skills. And it’s about more than just technical skills; Nine of the top 10 skills in the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs report are essential reasoning and critical thinking skills (so-called soft skills), including creative thinking, curiosity, empathy and active listening. None of these capabilities can be outsourced to technology. They are also harder to quantify and more challenging to teach.

We are at a critical crossroads. We would never expect a fire team to fight a fire with broken or outdated equipment. If you fail to invest in these essential workplace skills for yourself and your team, you simply won’t have the critical tools you need for the future. Here are four at-risk skills that require our urgent and ongoing attention.

Active listening

When people take sides in a polarized world, listening is compromised. In a global study, 86% of employees said that people in their companies are not heard fairly or equally, leaving many, particularly lower-level and younger workers, feeling underrepresented and undervalued. But listening is about much more than just hearing what people have to say. It is an active skill that involves not only receiving information, but also understanding, evaluating and responding appropriately. Active listening is not individual, but interactive. The most effective listening happens in conversation, where give and take helps you investigate and learn. To practice good listening skills, hire someone to talk about a topic that really interests you. Listen to viewpoints that differ from yours and question your own beliefs and assumptions. Play back what you heard to confirm what you have learned. Good listening is not a personality trait, but a carefully trained behavior that can be easily learned.

Attention and focus

In his provocative book Stolen Focus: Why You Can’t Pay Attention – and How to Think Deeply AgainJournalist Johann Hari claims that our ability to concentrate has not only atrophied, but has been deliberately stolen. The very technology designed to help us be more connected, productive, and informed has hijacked our brains, leaving us constantly searching for the next shiny thing. A culture characterized by the expectation of quick response and instant gratification leaves us less time for meaningful reflection and deep work. It may be cold comfort, but if you’re having trouble concentrating, it’s not your fault. The cognitive performance of the brain has not changed significantly since our species emerged 40,000 years ago. But the amount of information we consume has exploded. Scientists estimate that the average person comes into contact with 74 GB of information every day across televisions, computers, cell phones, tablets, signs, billboards and more. For an educated person 500 years ago this would have been a lifetime of knowledge. With all this data coming at us every day, it’s no wonder that it’s impossible to pay attention to just one thing. In addition, we suffer from lack of sleep and burn out. Our coping mechanisms are frayed and the temptations are just too great. The mere presence of your phone in your pocket reduces your attention and affects the quality of your output. To regain your strength, start small. Focus exclusively on one thing for a short time and extend the time as distraction-free work becomes easier. Take a social media break. And above all: be gentle with yourself. Lack of concentration is a social problem, not just an individual one; You are not alone in this.

Resilience and agility

The pandemic may be behind us, but we remain in a constant state of flux, wondering where we will work tomorrow and whether our colleagues will be human or digital. The promise of a new normal has not yet been fulfilled. Gallup reports that 77% of workers are disengaged and have high levels of stress. Stress, in turn, affects our ability to cope. Nothing can erase the fleeting nature of the unknown, but a healthy dose of resilience softens the pain. Resilience is a learned ability to bounce back from adversity, failure, or even too much work. But it’s about more than just surviving in difficult times. Resilient employees have higher self-esteem, a stronger sense of purpose and higher job satisfaction. Resilient teams are able to process conflicting information and lean on each other to make more efficient and effective decisions. Resilient and agile organizations are better able to weather rapid disruptions and respond when necessary. Building resilience begins with self-awareness – open discussions about what isn’t working, short-term headwinds, strategic obstacles, and missing skills. Not surprisingly, the organizations that promote resilience prioritize psychological safety, speak truth to power, and respect tough, honest conversations.

Change of perspective

After a polarized election, addressing your own views seems to be the best way to avoid conflict. But turning inward limits performance, especially as a team. The key to better problem solving lies in your ability to take perspectives – your willingness to explore different approaches based on the expertise and experiences of others before making a final decision. Doing this is so powerful that it actually changes your brain. When you look for alternative viewpoints instead of solving a problem yourself, you activate the default mode network in your brain. This region is responsible for innovation, imagination and creativity. Not surprisingly, this can lead to stronger solutions and better outcomes. But perspective taking is not a solo sport. It’s interactive to leave your own echo chambers and immerse yourself in someone else’s thought processes. For this you have to involve other minds. People who are best at this skill have built powerful social networks and can easily interact with large numbers of people. The good news is that perspective taking, like active listening, can be practiced and developed if you take the time to do it. To build this muscle, you have to push yourself to think outside the box. Talk to strangers, ask lots of questions, watch a wide variety of movies, and read different books. By training your brain to consider different ideas, you open yourself up to new perspectives and a broader network of colleagues and friends.

As our problems become more thorny and our challenges more complex, we have never been more in need of each other’s ideas, experiences and perspectives. But instead of engaging with each other, we isolate ourselves. And the less we use these fundamental skills that make us human – the essential workplace skills that bring us together into teams and societies – the more at risk they become. And the timing couldn’t be worse. As we try to distinguish our carbon selves from the digital beings evolving at the speed of light, we simply cannot afford to lose our ability to listen, focus, recover and put ourselves in each other’s shoes to relocate. Otherwise we risk getting lost in history with the secrets of the pyramid builders.