We talk a lot about the skills needed in leadership today and emphasise the fact that it is your responsibility to look after your own future. That means looking after it from the day you start work to the day you end it. However old, experienced, or senior you are it’s never too late for that surprise redundancy! It’s up to you to be prepared.

Your employer may offer you training but while that training, and the experience you gain, may be useful in the future that you are planning for yourself, there is no guarantee that it will. It’s up to you to plot a course of development that will take you through your career. Now that sounds very difficult in a world that is changing so fast, because the jobs that exist today may not exist tomorrow so how do you know what you need?

Just remember that in today’s world there is no such thing as a career that won’t be disrupted in some way or other.  This has always been true since the day the wheel was invented. Generative AI is just the latest technology overturning careers that we previously thought safe from technological advances. You have to be constantly on the alert for the risks and opportunities in your chosen path.

So start asking yourself and others (if you are over 40 then also start asking people in their 20’s) these questions:

• Is my chosen career one that will continue to exist in the future?
• How will that career change?
• What are the skills I need for the future in that changed career?
• If my chosen career is not going to exist, then where should I pivot to?
• Are there adjacent careers and what skills will I need for those?
• Have I got, or how do I get, the skills that I will need and when do I start? N.B. – the answer to this question is NOW.
• How do I fund my learning?

This exercise needs hard work, research and imagination.  Let me know what you discover and what you are going to do!  I’m always happy to have a conversation about it.