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During a recent coffee break with one of my senior managers, the discussion turned to the coming year: Advances in fields from quantum computing to biotechnology are happening fast – by this time next year, major new developments are likely to have taken hold and continue to reshape our world at breakneck speed.
At the same time, the conversation with my colleague was taking place in a coffee shop untouched, at least on the surface, by the major changes we envisioned. Aside from an iPad-enabled payment system, the place could have been pulled from the set of a sitcom at any time in the last 20 years, with comfy chairs, abstract art for sale on the walls and the sound of express cars providing the soundtrack.
As we look to the coming year, entrepreneurs and leaders of all stripes should be sharpening skills they need the future, some of which will involve learning new tools and technologies. But as I sipped my coffee, it occurred to me how enduring these connections are IRL—in fact, we need them now more than ever.
With our realities increasingly online, it can seem counterintuitive to spend time digging in soft skills. My opinion? In the coming year, hard and soft skills will go hand in hand. That's where I'll focus.
Related: Thinking of starting a business? 2025 could be your year
High level emotional intelligence
Harvard Business Review contributors Laura Empson and Jennifer Howard-Grenville have a term for our uncertain place in history—this tension between what once was and what is yet to come is called a “boundary experience,” and it can be unsettling for leaders. and teams alike. Nurturing organizational ties “foster a sense of collective capacity,” the authors say write downwhich serves as an anchor point against chaos.
But even as our need for connection grows, it seems collective emotional intelligenceor EQ, is declining. That, at least, is the conclusion reached by one survey conducted by the non-profit organization Six Seconds, which found that EQ is in its fourth consecutive year of decline. “On average, people are more volatile; less likely to be able to navigate emotions,” says Six Seconds CEO Joshua Freedman. “They're less likely to feel connected to empathy, or a greater sense of purpose. They're less likely to be able to accurately understand and label the feelings they're experiencing—an essential foundation for mental and emotional health. “
In 2025, leaders should double their EQ growth. One of the first steps in that journey is to get close to your emotions. Lisa Feldman Barrett Psychology suggests Challenge yourself to expand your emotional vocabulary—what might first strike you as anger after a botched product launch, for example, may be rooted in embarrassment or shame. Correctly identifying your true feelings changes your reaction to them, which in turn fuels both awareness AND SENSITIVE – Crucial elements for increasing EQ.
Literacy of AI
To most effectively harness the power of AI in 2025, leaders must understand it. Matt Crabtree of DataCamp describes AI literacy, at its core, as having the skills and competencies needed to effectively use AI technologies and applications.
But it's much more than that: Crabtree makes this point Literacy of AI it's also about empowering people to make informed decisions about how they're using AI, understand the implications of those uses, and navigate the ethical considerations they present.
For leaders, this means understanding the biases that remain embedded in AI systems, privacy concerns, and the need for transparency and accountability. Say you're looking to integrate AI into your hiring process, like we have at my company, Jotform. It is important to understand that while it may be used for tasks such as scheduling interviews, screening resumes for objective criteria, or helping to organize candidate information, it should not make hiring decisions for you. Artificial intelligence is still of significant importance the problem of biasin addition to the many other ways in which he lacks the soft skills required for certain, human-only tasks. Knowledge of artificial intelligence is about understanding its shortcomings and navigating them in a fair and equitable manner.
motivational skills
Every leader wants to be inspirational, but unfortunately, many of us fall short of that goal: In fact, a study circulated by the Harvard Business Review found that less than half of respondents said they agreed or strongly agreed that their leaders were inspiring or unlocking motivation in employees. Oh.
The problem is that many managers use an outdated carrot stick method to reward employees for a job well done or reprimand them for a less-than-stellar performance. But today's workers are different: in addition to fair compensation, they also want meaning and purpose from their careers.
To keep employees motivated, especially in the midst of times of change, leaders need to keep it going the company's vision front and center. Every employee, from senior executives to interns, must understand how the work they are doing is contributing to that vision. At Jotform, it's well understood that we make forms. But as founder and CEO, it's my job to make sure everyone sees the bigger picture: We make people's lives easier. We free them from tedious tasks so they can spend more time doing what they care about.
Inspirational leaders make their employees excited to show up to work every day. Like Kelly Decker and Ben Decker write down in the Harvard Business Review, a clearly communicated vision creates an emotional connection to the work. When priorities change, be transparent about why they are changing and how the changes relate to the larger mission of the organization. It is also important to draw a clear line between team members' strengths and how they are helping to achieve organizational goals. Inspirational leaders get their employees to buy in, the authors write, by shifting the mindset of their teams from “should” to “want.”
The coming year promises to be a year of change, which can be both scary and exciting. While it's important to stay on top of new technologies, the key will be sharpening those soft skills so you can be the kind of leaders people want to chat with IRL over a cup of coffee.