To have or not to have the skills? that is the question. And it's not an easy question for today's professionals to answer. " Tomorrow is too late*! It's up to each and every one of us to adopt our own strategy in this race to keep our skills up to date, to avoid obsolescence. What does this mean? How can we adopt a change-oriented mindset* that enables us to adapt or anticipate change with the necessary agility? And more concretely, which skillsets should we focus on?

Several transformative forces are shaping this challenge: technological breakthroughs, globalization, economic crises and emerging economies, and new expectations on the part of professionals, are all calling into question the organizational structures we know. The playing field is uncertain, and the ability to reinvent oneself on a daily basis is fundamental. Without doubt, the best profiles will be the most resilient and innovative.

With this in mind, we take a look at speculative predictions about " skills ", those of the near future, not forgetting those that seem to us to be imprescriptible and to be re-inscribed on the pediment. Here is a short-list of virtues we recommend for embracing the future: The change-oriented mindset*. Sticking to current practices is no longer an option for new-generation profiles. Leaving the highways and byways to exercise new latent abilities is the way forward! Exploring variations in your profession, and a fortiori around digital know-how, gives you new strings to your bow and broadens your field of action.

Acceleration is becoming our daily reality, and we need to reconcile our expertise, built on the accumulation of knowledge and experience of the most diverse situations, with the mastery of agility. An agility that does not simply mean acting or reacting with speed, but that combines speed and performance with self-control and resilience. Professionals will seek to strike the right balance between these two variables, to evolve like a tightrope walker above a changing world.

Balance in paradox. How do you synchronize the integration of entire generations into the digital world? How can we get old and new generations to work together? How can we combine the acceleration of innovations with the possible slowdown in their deployment as a result of ethical arbitration processes? How can we strike the right balance between responsible consumption and growing (over)production needs, between modern values of progress and collective utopias?

Responsible decision-making. One of the future visions of management is the determination of decision-makers to take action only when fully aware of its impact. And this determination is being democratized, no longer being reserved for great leaders. Empowerment and subsidiarity are essential to the emergence of a new generation of responsible decision-makers, the ones who will build the future! Re-question the duty to do before the power to do.

Neo-Resilience. Having the ability to overcome obstacles and failures by adapting to unstable contexts, particularly environmental ones, can be both a complex psychological task and a return to basics. Now, absorbing disruption naturally and remaining effective is no longer a "nice to have*" but a condition of survival. The challenges of the transformations leading us towards binary-human hybridization are major. Our resilience depends on our adaptability and relevance.

Emotional intelligence is a skill that can be learned over a lifetime. The emotional driver will be the expert in managing failure and constantly readjusting. Optimism, a sense of humor and social intelligence are more fundamental than ever in a professional human community with ever-increasing interaction.

Cultural fit. Being congruent with an organization's culture, rhythm, policies or style of all experts and stakeholders, with impact measurement and management study is crucial, as much as motivation for a job or project. The importance of personality-company fit is as decisive as a catalog of skills. Understanding and adapting to organizational structures, whether vertical, horizontal, hybrid or synaptic, is a key success factor. Political skill makes it possible to achieve objectives by mobilizing the most appropriate collaborators with subtle caution. The art of persuasion and networking can help you consolidate ties with the key players. Knowing who to talk to and who to call on are the starting points. This requires a good understanding of the interplay of players.

Remote team work. Through screens, a new way of collaborating is emerging, transforming management. Short-, medium- and long-term projects are managed remotely, with more horizontal interactions. The convergence of different cultures and time differences requires flexibility, understanding and empathy to overcome distance. Assimilate these new forms of reality without falling into the isolation and distancing of virtual exchange.

Empathy. Competition, new talent development, professional obsolescence - uncertainty and stress can quickly take hold in an organization. The atmosphere at work conditions the way teamwork unfolds, and everyone must contribute to the attempt to achieve harmony. Healthy communication, tolerance and equanimity are the building blocks of empathy.

Prospecting. Descended from the art of merchandising, prospecting is now more than ever at the heart of business interactions. Knowing how to position oneself and how to solicit to sell one's services is essential in a period of innovation, in order to bring together a value proposition and a market. Whether we're talking about commodities or high value-added products or services, you need to use channel tactics and persuasive force, as well as an original offer, to get a lead, all the more so to attract the attention of a player with a strong reputation, who is by definition highly solicited.

Retro-skills.

The invitation is open: Back to basics!

Here's a list of fundamentals that never go out of style. Deep listening. This is primitive knowledge lost in evolution. It's a basic skill at every level of the organization chart, enabling you to better understand, negotiate and interact effectively with your team. The listening professional knows that listening is the beginning of good communication.

Knowing how to write. This age-old skill never goes out of fashion. On the contrary, we must always return to good practice to maintain the "charm". The correct use of language, especially that of Molière, is a good indicator of precision, sophistication of thought and excellence, as well as the expression of a cultural field. It is the essential tool for quality communication.

Creatifitness*. Think of creativity as a muscle to be maintained. The more it is exercised, the more the intervals between each manifestation of fabulous ideas shrink, providing the basis for i-solutions*.

We've come to the end of our review of contemporary skills that need to be " beefed up ", because they are spreading to all forms of organization, including public and associative ones. This review is an attempt, and it is certainly incomplete, even debatable, but it is the fruit of documentary research, the sources of which you will find below, and exchanges with professionals.

*Tomorrow is too late.

*Change-oriented mindset

*Creatifitness: creativity fitness

*i-solutions: innovative solutions

*short-list: short list

*nice to have: pleasant to have agile leadership, with a major training program for managers, to train them to train themselves.