Introduction: Business Skills

The business landscape has changed in dramatic ways each decade over the past 50 years. As the landscape changes, workers need to also pivot and learn new skills along the way to stay relevant in the workforce. Technology is rapidly changing and has created a faster pace in expanding the skills gap. The quicker the expansion of the skills gap the harder it is for many people to keep up with these types of curves. If workers can't learn new skills fast enough they're left with inadequate jobs and the employers lose productivity over time with fewer workers who can perform tasks with relevant skills. In this article, you'll read about the top skills needed in today's workforce and what companies and the workforce can do to prepare for the newest curve to the skills gap.  

The Business Skills Gap

The skills gap is when there are new skills in demand and companies or employees have not learned them yet. Every 5 to ten years this is continuously happening. Different industries experience problems with the skills gap at different periods for different reasons. This is the same for business as you could be a business professional in manufacturing or a furniture retailer, one person in manufacturing could require all new computing systems that automate their factory lines which would require new training programs for both management in operations and the employee running the factory line itself,  while the other executive could be moving their marketing strategies from direct mail to email campaigns. Both require new skills that are in demand and will slow the business down if they're not met. 

I believe there are only two reasons why the skills gap becomes a problem. The first is when employers know there is a big change happening and fail to give enough training to their employees in advance. The other is the education system failed to keep up with the emerging markets. 

Essential Skills in Today's Business Landscape 

At one point in sales, we just called prospects and wrote notes down or created reports with a couple of graphs, now we pulled data to study and ended up with 30 to 50 different reports to lean into. Does one person learn all of these skills? Or is it easier to split job titles and have two employees learn more skills in different areas? These are challenges both companies and growing employees and students coming out of college are consistently dealing with.

Business skills are continuously evolving while old skills grow obsolete and new skills are in demand. Keeping up with this demand is a struggle when there are so many new skills that are needed to be a great business leader. Some make it easier by keeping their specific skills focused on a niche, and others are in a business sector that requires more diverse skills.

Essential business skills today are skills in fields such as Advanced Analytics, Cloud Computing, Engineering Management, Project Management, Sales, Leadership, and Artificial Intelligence. There are a ton of skills in many different fields though that is the core. As business professionals, we cannot go without these skills anymore. if I am not an Engineering Manager, I do not need to know everything about engineering management, however, if I am in management, and I don't know enough about the engineering field and what's involved with managing that, then when conversing with the engineering manager my mind would be smashed. Without knowing enough skills in each field many professionals have a hard time keeping their eye on whatever goal the business has set out for.

The Top 5 Business SkillsToday 

The top five business skills in today's market are comprised of my perspective and minor research I've looked into. According to LinkedIn (Bessalel, 2024), Communication is the number one most valuable skill. And I'd agree with this in many ways. The five skills below are skills that are needed no matter what in business today.

The top 5 business skills that give you an edge today:

1. Communications
2. Programming
3. Analytics with Standard Query Language (SQL)
4. Listening
5. Leadership

1. Communications

Communication is the most essential skill in business today. it is a soft skill that could be both verbal and nonverbal. It requires people to think about how they use specific words and share information in the most efficient ways. Whether in-person, by email, give a presentation, communication is difficult. You could be in a negative mood with bad vibes and have a tone you don't notice is offensive. You could be in an incredible mood and so jolly that you're feeling distractive to others. Many situations and variables affect communication and something small could move you from one form of communication to another. Hard skills are more finite and specific and soft skills like communication give a lot of space for error and often is confusing. This is why communication is the most in-demand skill for business today.

2. Programming

Programming is the second most in-demand business skill. Programming is not only for engineers. Programming has become readily available to everyone to the point where it's easy enough for the average person to learn. You do not need to be a software engineer or an expert, however, if you can automate a certain function without pulling engineering in or play with data and create reports before calling the analysis wizard, you just save the company time and money while doing your job faster. This is why programming is the second most in-demand skill in business today.

3. Analytics with Standard Query Language (SQL)

Analytics is a massive field with so much to learn. SQL is called Standard Query Language and is what most data analysts use to filter data. Sure as above programmers can use languages like Python for similar things, however, SQL is even much easier to learn than Python and can produce a lot of different results. You can build quick reports and save the company and other analysts time by doing git yourself and modeling things to share with your team. SQL is a powerful language and if you're not trying to parse data and or split the data to Excel and just want to filter and create fast reporting, SQL is for you and will dramatically increase your value at work. That is why SQL is the third most valuable skill in today's business landscape. 

4. Listening 

Listening is another soft skill and is underrated. There are so many times you hear someone say they didn't hear that or missed that. It is an excuse and it can jeopardize many types of operations. Being a great listener goes a long way from others perceiving you as empathetic, you creating better notes and not allowing objectives slip through the cracks, or if someone tries to pin something against you they're not able to as you have date and time evidence and saved video as you remember verbatim what was said. Furthermore, many times coworkers can tell how engaged someone is by how they're listening. The best feeling to give your coworkers is to make them feel heard. And that is why "listening" is the fourth most in-demand skill in business today. 

5. Leadership 

Leadership is also a soft skill that is very difficult to teach or learn. Professionals need to put a lot of effort into self-reflection to see themselves from other perspectives and see others from an objective lens. It is easy to be caught up in the moment being self-centered and subjective to others. it's also easy to micro-management and say you're a leader. That is why "Leadership" is the fifth most in-demand skill in business today. 

Conclusion: Continuously Learning New Business Skills 

In conclusion, business skills are rapidly changing and many are becoming obsolete due to AI and robotics. In addition to the plethora of competition still coming out of business schools at a much lower cost, senior professionals need to keep on the grind to stay relevant in the workforce. This is just a broad outline of a simple way to look at the skills gap and keep yourself from falling behind. Closing the skills gap for yourself many times isn't easy, but if you keep up on it consistently and make sure you are continuously learning, you'll be able to steadily learn new skills in time for when you need to shine. 

Citations:

https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/finding-a-job/in-demand-skills

https://www.linkedin.com/business/learning/blog/top-skills-and-courses/most-in-demand-skills