7 leadership skills necessary in 2024

How to be a good leader in 2024 and not only survive the upcoming challenges, but also grow in your role?

7 leadership skills necessary in 2024
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Summary

  • The labor market in 2024 will be influenced by modern technologies, changing economic and social conditions, and employee expectations.
  • Forbes lists seven skills necessary for leaders in 2024: ability to cooperate, ability to build relationships, ability to think quickly and strategically, being a reference point for mental well-being, supporting neurodiverse individuals, having social awareness, and the ability to step back at the right moment.
  • Cooperation involves critically examining one's own opinions and being open to contrasting beliefs within the organization.
  • Building relationships forms the basis of fruitful team cooperation.
  • Quick strategic thinking involves identifying emerging opportunities and implementing them dynamically.
  • Leaders should set an example in caring for mental well-being, understanding challenges like information overload and excessive screen time, and encouraging work-life balance.
  • Supporting neurodiverse individuals involves adapting job roles to the individual's strengths and preferences.
  • Social awareness involves understanding and responding to social issues in a meaningful way, beyond corporate clichés.
  • Leaders should be able to identify when it's time to step back from their role and accept change.

The year 2024 in the labor market may prove to be groundbreaking in many ways. This is not only about the increasingly widespread modern technologies led by artificial intelligence, but also the constantly changing economic and social conditions and the expectations of employees.

How to find your way in all this as a leader? Forbes magazine lists seven skills necessary in 2024 to be a modern leader.

7 leadership skills necessary in 2024

  1. Ability to cooperate understood as the ability to critically look at your own opinions and openness to constantly clash your beliefs with the beliefs of other members of the organization.
"If you are really open, innovations can be implemented by clashing ideas between people with similar interests but different experiences," writes Sally Percy in Forbes.
  1. Ability to build relationships, which form the basis of fruitful cooperation in the team.
  2. Ability to think quickly strategically, i.e. the ability to identify emerging opportunities and dynamically implement them in life. Forbes also calls this "hyper-awareness" of threats and opportunities within the organization.
  3. Being a reference point in terms of caring for your mental well-being. The example most often comes from the top, which is why a modern leader understands everyday challenges such as information overload or excessive screen time. In this context, their attitude encourages the team to clearly separate professional life from private life and to build good habits at work.
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  1. Supporting neurodiverse individuals, e.g. in the autism spectrum or ADHD.

– Leaders need to change their attitude – argues Leanne Maskell, an ADHD coach and author of the book ADHD Works at Work, quoted by Forbes.

– Instead of fitting the employee to the job role, why not adapt that role to the person? If one of the employees is incredibly creative but does not like monitoring email messages, make such changes that people do what they are best at and enjoy it – adds Maskell.
  1. Having social awareness. Employees are becoming increasingly aware of social issues and sensitive to them – the same is expected from leaders. Importantly, this is not about a set of corporate clichés about the company's pro-environmental attitude or gender equality, but about real actions and their effects.
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  1. The ability to step back at the right moment. Everything in life has an end, including being a leader. Forbes therefore encourages to identify such a moment and accept it with openness, even if it would be associated with fear of changes.