- By Sophie Pinkoski

In the dynamic landscape of 2024, skill development has become a critical priority for organizations adapting to rapid change. With the World Economic Forum predicting that half of workers will need reskilling by 2025 to keep up with the constant evolution of technology, it will be crucial to adapt a strengths-based mindset to harness a team’s full potential. This involves not just teaching them new skills (reskilling) but acknowledging their existing skills and upskilling them to ensure they remain relevant to an ever-changing global market.

Optimizing a team’s individual strengths will maximize the organization’s productivity and efficiency by delegating the right tasks to the right people.

As Jim Collins puts it in his book, Good to Great, it’s all about “getting the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus, and the right people in the right seats”. 

Not only is it essential to focus on team strengths for the organization’s benefit, but it also keeps teams engaged in the work they do. According to Korn Ferry, 33% of professionals are leaving their job in favour of something more challenging, and Gallup has found that 40% of people disengage completely when their skills are ignored.

Despite the clear need for skill development, only 1% of organizations have implemented leadership skills training to their team at all levels.

This need for organizations to invest in skills development is apparent, as in a 2023 Skills Gap Report, Wiley reported that 23% of leaders understood that skills gaps within their team has led to a decrease in profitability, with their expenses increased by 25%. These skills gaps are largely due to lack of development opportunities, and a lack of resources to deliver them. One of the biggest causes, however, is due to the mass retirement that are continuing as the pandemic stabilizes. Many of the most experienced leaders leave their organizations and take their knowledge and skills with them. Without intentional leadership transition planning, the leaders who follow struggle to keep up momentum and results.

How can these skill gaps be filled to ensure organizations not only survive, but thrive in the face of constant unpredictable change?

Identify skill gaps by assessing the team’s skills–– The first step to filling an organization’s skill gaps is to take stock of what skills already exist.

Document everyone’s skills can help identify where gaps are occurring and what resources are already available.

Leaders should also assess their own skills before reviewing their team’s. This way, it will be easier to identify who can fill the gaps, especially when it comes to delegating tasks to the most adept people. Lead by example – if a team sees their leader prioritizing their skills development, they will see the importance of developing their own.

Team members should know how their skills add value to the organization’s goals and objectives, as well as how their leader envisions their skills fitting into the future landscape.

Encourage individuals to explore their full potential–– Creating a nurturing environment where individuals feel supported in reaching their full potential is key to building a team’s strengths.

Developing existing skills is great; fostering potential skills is even better.

In pivoting to keep up with momentous change in the world, it’s all about revitalizing, re-energizing, and reimagining a team’s talents. Challenge teams to come out of their comfort zone by learning new skills – they may find a hidden aptitude they were unaware they had. This type of supportive culture that re-enforces continual learning requires psychological safety allows team members to feel comfortable and confident enough to experiment and take risks as they build up their strengths. Ensure they know that making mistakes is all part of the learning experience. Approach skill development with a no judgement mindset so they feel free to make mistakes without fear of punishment.

By focusing on the potential for what team members can achieve, leaders can look forward and invest in their organization’s future.

A resilient team is one that can adapt to anything, and retooling their skills to remain relevant is simply one way to do it.

Balance soft skills with technological skills–– Of course, upskilling and reskilling a team helps future proof the organization. But what specific skills should be developed? The pandemic experience had individuals demand a more empathetic approach from their leaders. Consequently, soft skills remain top of mind. Alongside adaptability, resilience, and learning ability, other desirable skills include curiosity, emotional intelligence, critical thinking, integrity, and people skills. These are skills you can harness to build an agile high functioning team who can effectively collaborate to inspire, motivate, and innovate in order to keep your organization ahead of the competitive market and seize emerging opportunities.

Soft skills aren’t the only strengths in demand right now.

With such swift technological advancement happening on a global level, technological training will also be key. McKinsey has identified IT, data analysis, and web-based skills as the biggest requirements to survive a world of constant change. Together with these soft skills, any team would be well equipped to weather any storm.

Adopt peer to peer learning–– Here’s a secret: you don’t always need to bring on external experts to train your team. Oftentimes, the experts are right under your nose. In conjunction with Harvard Business Review, a Degreed study found that 55% of individuals learn new skills from their own peers. Despite this, McKinsey indicates that less than half of organizations have a formal peer to peer learning program.

Peers learning from each other can create a more natural, high trust learning environment.

This facilitates more candid discussions for individuals to ease into learning new skills, ask questions, and take on constructive feedback to improve. This also fosters a healthy trusting relationship among team members, where they can be honest with one another and depend on each other when they need help.

Strengthening a team through strengths-based leadership can be essential for navigating the challenges of the modern business landscape. By fostering a culture of continuous learning, nurturing talent, and promoting resilience, teams can be empowered to thrive in an ever-changing world. Investing in a team’s future means investing in the organization’s future too.

Further Reading

Managing Your Talent Ecosystem: A Skills-Based Holistic Vision, Forbes

5 Ways To Develop Leadership Skills In Your Team, Forbes

13 Ways Managers Can Help Build And Maintain Their Team's Skills, Forbes

How to Help Your Employees Learn from Each Other, Harvard Business Review

A Better Way to Develop and Retain Top Talent, Harvard Business Review                         

5 Ways to Develop Talent for an Unpredictable Future, Harvard Business Review

Upskilling Is Investing In Your Team—And There’s No Better Growth Strategy, Chief Executive

Progressive Ways to Address Skill Gaps in Your Team, Trojan  Recruitment Group

Identifying and Closing Skills Gaps in Your Organization, Randstad

Good to Great, Jim Collins

Strengths-Based Leadership, Mind Tools

Strengths-Based Leadership: How to Optimize Your Team’s Abilities, Leaders.com