Top 10 Skills of 2025 - World Economic Forum

 

High Performers vs. Low Performers!

Too many of you work too hard to make low-performance employees [into] average-performance. It is a wheel-spinning exercise.

Push low-performers on to average-performance companies or low-performance companies, and they’ll do just fine...  

Take care of your high-performance employees. Reward them. Promote them. Pay them well. Give them a lot of perks and don’t spend all that time trying work plans to get low-performers to be average-performers. Move them on out early. It’s a contribution.

* Derived from the book "29 Leadership Secrets From Jack Welch", 

  by Robert Slater

The Essential Traits of an Effective Manager!

A. Delivers on commitments—financial or otherwise—and shares the organization's values?

“His or her future is an easy call; onward and upward.”

B. Does not meet commitments and does not share the organization's values?

“Not as pleasant a call, but equally easy; out.”

C. Misses commitments but shares the values?

“He or she usually gets a second chance, preferably in a different environment.”

D. Delivers on commitments but does not subscribe to the organization's values? 

What happens to managers who deliver the numbers but do not live the organization's values?

"They get fired."

"Questions answered by Jack Welch"

* Derived from the book "29 Leadership Secrets From Jack Welch", 

  by Robert Slater

 

Show Respect and Instill Confidence in Your Employees!

Behind this prescription lies a key idea: Your employees deserve respect. You‟ve hired the best people and trained them well, right?

So treat them with respect. Show them you understand that they are doing something important for the company. Build their confidence—in you, in the company, and in themselves. And then get out of their way.

Successful People See The World As It Is!

 

It may sound simple, but getting any organization or group of people to see the world the way it is and not the way they wish it were or hope it will be is not as easy as it sounds.

We have to permeate every mind in the organization with an attitude, with an atmosphere that allows people—in fact, encourages people—to see things as they are, to deal with the way it is now, not the way they wish it would be.

Start your work day as if it was your first on the job

Always start your work day as if it was your first day on the job.

In other words…

1- Always think fresh thoughts.

2- Make it a habit to think about your business. Don’t rest on your laurels.  

3- Make whatever changes are necessary to improve things.

4- Re- examine your agenda, and rewrite what needs to be rewritten.

Successful People Are Mindful!

Mindfulness is being non-judgmentally alert and aware of what’s going on around you as well as inside you—how you’re thinking and feeling.

Mindfulness occurs on a moment-by-moment basis. When you are operating mindlessly, on auto-pilot, you are unlikely to observe opportunities or take advantage of a situation.

One important key to happiness, and a key factor in becoming successful, is developing a mindfulness mindset.

How will you find that $100 bill stuck in a tiny place, or know whether to make a successful deal when your counterpart has a clear predilection for acceptance, if you don’t have a keen sense of situational awareness?

 

  - Derived from an article titled “8 Habits of Highly Lucky People” by Neil Farber M.D, Ph.D

 

 

Successful People Treat Others with Respect

Successful People are typically respectful of others. 

Rather than focus on your own success first, help others develop and shine by respecting their strengths and talents.

Remember that to give respect is to get respect.

People with high emotional intelligence are usually successful in most things they do. Because they have a deep understanding of self, they make others feel good about themselves, and they go through life with much more ease and enthusiasm.  

 - Derived from an article titled “7 Ways You Can Unlock Your Hidden Emotional Intelligence” by Lolly Daskal

Successful People Create a Safe Zone

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Making others feel comfortable and secure; not having to weigh each thought or measure every word, encourages the kind of open communication that characterizes great teams.

 - Derived from an article titled “7 Ways You Can Unlock Your Hidden Emotional Intelligence” by Lolly Daskal

Successful People Are Motivators!

When you have emotional mastery, you're able to choose wisely between short-term comfort and long-term goals, between what you want now and what you want most. And developing your personal motivation gives you insight into motivating others.

 

 - Derived from an article titled “7 Ways You Can Unlock Your Hidden Emotional Intelligence” by Lolly Daskal

Successful People Put Things in Perspective!

Successful People Hold Themselves Accountable!

Being in control of your emotions and moods is a basic element of personable responsibility.

When you can regulate your responses, you avoid making bad decisions in the heat of the moment--and ultimately, you learn to regulate your state of mind.  

- Derived from an article titled “7 Ways You Can Unlock Your Hidden Emotional Intelligence” by Lolly Daskal

Successful People Are Emotionally Aware!

Make a deliberate daily effort to pay attention to your emotions and behaviors, your actions and reactions.

Consider how they affect you and those around you.

 

- Derived from an article titled “7 Ways You Can Unlock Your Hidden Emotional Intelligence” by Lolly Daskal

Very Successful People Put Others First!

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Napoleon Hill, the renowned self-help author, interviewed some of the most successful people in the United States decades ago. He found that almost without exception the very successful people focus on helping others get what they want.

It was that singular and fanatical focus on the customer that made these men and women successful.

When people only do their jobs because of the money; they usually lead poor lives.

Find a way to make money helping other people get what they want and you’ll have more business than you can handle.

If you are employed by someone else. The quickest way to your promotion is to follow the “ABH” rule — Always Be Helping!

If you are looking for one word to summarize how the very successful think; it is humility. A truly humble person asks questions, is of service, treats others with dignity, keeps his eye on the ball, has patience and is willing to do the work.

Above all, a humble person values himself and all other humans equally. He respects his own gifts and those of others. As a result he is open to the utmost this life has to offer. 

- Derived from an article titled “7 Ways Rich People Think Differently Than the Rest of Us” by Neal Frankle

Successful People are Lavish with Praise and Sparing with Criticism!

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Small people jump at the chance to criticize. They just love finding the flaws in other people and can’t wait to shine the spotlight on those defects. They dig putting others down. Of course there are successful people who are mean and nasty. But they aren’t successful because they are usually alone and miserable.

Successful People, the truly successful, do just the opposite. They seize every chance they get to praise others and always work hard to soften any negative review. This keeps alliances strong, builds teams and motivation. It excites others and brings out the best in them. Everyone wins.

- Derived from an article titled “7 Ways Rich People Think Differently Than the Rest of Us” by Neal Frankle

Successful People Self-Correct!

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Successful People continually ask themselves if their actions are bringing them closer to or further away from their goals!

If they find that they’re drifting, they correct their course and get back on track.

Less successful people rarely self-assess. As a result they tend to be unproductive!  

- Derived from an article titled “7 Ways Rich People Think Differently Than the Rest of Us” by Neal Frankle

Successful People Have Patience!

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Worthwhile goals take time to achieve.

Successful People understand this and stay on track. Other people get frustrated when they don’t get instant results and they move on.

Sadly, the person who hops around like that is caught in perpetual start-up mode because he’s always beginning something new and never gets to see the fruits of his labour!

- Derived from an article titled “7 Ways Rich People Think Differently Than the Rest of Us” by Neal Frankle

Successful People Ask The Right Questions!

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You don’t have to be a genius to ask the right questions.

You just can’t be lazy. That’s because it takes work to get all the answers to the many questions you have to ask in order to really understand a given situation.

It’s much faster and easier to ask a few irrelevant questions and then steam ahead than to sit down and really ask all the important questions.

Let’s say you are thinking about a major decision. A quick approach might be to consider a few superficial questions that just reinforce your preconceived notions. But a “successful thinking” approach would include such tough questions as:

·         What do we really want?

·         Why do we want it?

·         What are all the alternatives?

·         What are the pros and cons to each approach?

·         When do we want to have this in place?

·         Why?

·         Is there another way to reach our goals without doing this or at a lower cost?

·         What happens if we do this?

·         What happens if we don’t do this?

·         What other questions have we forgotten to ask?

You can see which method is harder but leads to far better results. Successful folks aren’t afraid to ask the right questions and then do whatever it takes to get the answers. 

- Derived from an article titled “7 Ways Rich People Think Differently Than the Rest of Us” by Neal Frankle

Successful People Know They Don’t Know Everything!

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People who have a a noticeable success and hold on to it realize they don’t have all the answers. As a result, they are always on the lookout for new and better ways to do things.

Successful people surround themselves with people who offer different approaches. They have mentors and accountability partners. They are willing to consider ideas that conflict with their current way of doing things. If the new approach is better, they adapt. Their ego doesn’t get in the way of their intellect. When they are wrong, they don’t fight it or take it personally.

Contrast that with people who think they have it down. Their mind tells them they have life mastered. As a result they can’t learn anything. Worse, they don’t see it when the universe says “no”. They stick to their antiquated approach and usually get run over by reality.  

- Derived from an article titled “7 Ways Rich People Think Differently Than the Rest of Us” by Neal Frankle

Successful People Never Sell Themselves Short!

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In order to lead, you need confidence in your own abilities. This is something that Julius Caesar never seemed to lack.

This is illustrated by one notable incident in the ancient Roman's life (involving pirates, of all things). In his account of Caesar's life, Plutarch writes that, as a young man, Julius Caesar was abducted by the pirates that swarmed the Mediterranean Sea.

Livius.org provides a translation of what happened next: "First, when the pirates demanded a ransom of twenty talents, Julius Caesar burst out laughing. They did not know, he said, who it was that they had captured, and he volunteered to pay fifty."

Julius Caesar went on to promise the pirates that he'd personally kill them once he was free. After he was ransomed, he raised a fleet, hunted them down, and did just that.

 

- Derived from an article titled “7 Unforgettable Leadership Lessons from The Ancient Roman Conqueror Julius Caesar” by Áine Cain