Grit

With the value of true expertise in serious decline, and the economy evolving towards a different set of requirements from employees, the impact on college education, career paths, worker safety, employability and even the nature of work is going to be profound.

From an era of specialized workers having expertise in one particular activity, the professional world has slowly moved towards problem-solving generalists. Workers are asked to don different hats and do more with fewer resources, and without specialized training.

HR consulting firms see the rise of hybrid jobs when two or more positions are combined to be performed by one individual.

Mastery, once a sought-after attribute, is falling out of favour, according to the 2016 World Economic Forum report, and is slowly clearing the field for employees who can:

• Have a diverse set of skills.
• Can display the mental agility to switch between tasks.
• Are able to pivot towards a new problem or activity.
• Can take on a variety of roles at a short notice.

The personality traits of employees seen in many new organizations:

1. Fluid Intelligence: The raw processing power that combines working memory with a dynamic kind of intelligence, mostly found in youngsters.
2. Conscientiousness: Trustworthy, compassionate, people, who are high on emotional quotients.
3. Openness To The New: People who are less focused on doing a particular thing in the right way, and more towards trying to do the right thing. This is also termed as ‘distractibility’.