Human touch in a digital world even more crucial

Mention digitisation and you think of automation, robots and job replacement.

Insure yourself with the vital people skills that digitisation cannot take away.

What are the must-have human strengths for today's tech-disrupted world of work? Interpersonal and problem-solving skills and presence.

How do you stack up in these areas?

Get a trusted peer or mentor (within or outside the company) to help you assess your deficiencies and build your strengths.

INTERPERSONAL SKILLS

Businesses today require policy and regulatory relationships, partner networks, customer communities and employee groups.

This, against the backdrop of multicultural and cross-functional teams across the globe, is a result of digitisation.

Being able to get along with multiple parties is key.

Tap into emotional intelligence for this. Observe the emotion in others, understand the implications that feelings can have and manage them for positive outcomes.

Ask yourself:

• What are your listening skills like in multi-agency meetings?
• What energy and vibe do you bring with you to such events?
• What empathy and interest do you have in others?

PROBLEM-SOLVING ABILITIES

Lumosity, a series of online brain-training games, has a gem called Train of Thought.

As many coloured trains come out of a central station, you switch tracks so that each train goes home to its right depot. Fail to plan and the trains go on the wrong track, ending up at the wrong base.

Problem-solving, an undervalued quality, is like that. It is the ability to see or foresee a situation, rally round the troops (or peers), and resolve the issue by making the right track changes in good time.

For leaders, problem-solving is not just about tackling an issue.

You connect the dots across the enterprise and work simultaneously on multiple aspects of the business, including changing roles, myriad offline and online platforms, diverse cultural practices and copious data.

Test yourself:

• Are you able to plan ahead by assessing a situation from different angles? Or do you plunge into action only to avoid near-misses?
• Do you assume your solution is best? Or do you float your idea, then test out possible outcomes via discussions with colleagues?
• Are you able to work on two levels at once? For example, execute a task while germinating an idea for a project down the road. Or are you upskilling, building up your basket of proficiencies for the future, while focusing on current responsibilities?

PRESENCE

Who you are at work - how you act, speak and present yourself (including dressing) - is determined by your personal branding. Get the personal branding right because it lends to your gravitas, which no machine can replace.

Personal branding goes to the core of who you are: what gets you going (convictions) and how you go about making a difference (persuasions).

Ask yourself:

• What differentiates you from your peers? For instance, what do you do when faced with a challenge or what is your style of approaching a problem?
• How do people feel after they have met you? For example, do you inspire or deflate their outlook?
• What are three of your greatest strengths that benefit your organisation? What transferable skills do you take with you when you leave a company?

Like technical know-how, people skills can be learnt and refined over time.

Keep in mind that technical abilities - what you were hired for - take you only so far.

Core human strengths take you much farther along the corporate road.

This article was contributed by Right Management (www.rightmanagement.sg), the global career experts within United States-listed HR consulting firm, ManpowerGroup.