People Management | A skill set crucial in the coming of Industry 5.0

People Management | A skill set crucial in the coming of Industry 5.0

Below are some quotes from leaders who felt that people management, connection, motivation, and empathy are critical skill sets moving forward.  These are leaders that we interviewed for the book: Effective Asian Leadership: Today and Tomorrow (Perspectives of One Hundred Leaders in Asia).  In fact, based on the answers provided by these leaders after each interview, having people skills was one of the top competencies that an effective leader in Asia must possess as we progress in these disruptive times.

“Have the ability to go deep to inspire, develop and reward, for people to choose to follow you.”
Ms. Julie Tay, SVP & MD, Asia Pacific, Align Technology

“It is crucial to have the ability to connect and to also connect the dots especially in Asia with the diverse social and cultural variation.”
Mr Alok Mishra, CEO, Value Addition, Singapore

“Perhaps the most difficult challenge in leadership is people connection.  To be effective as a leader, you need to look into the small details, the
capability of learning people details are crucial.”
Ms. Nancy Cai, Regional Head, Greater China, Shaw Contract.

“Leadership is a journey, we learn from people, with people, their aspirations and desire and do something greater together.”
Mr. Ramesh Ganeson, Director, OnePeople.sg

“To be a successful leader in Asia, one needs to have a holistic view, see the interconnection of things, be willing to invest in others and give
them the opportunity to make a difference.”
Dr. Chatchai Thnarudee, CEO,
JP Insurance Public Company Limited, Thailand.

It is undeniable that in this era of Industry 4.0, the work role of each employee has to be re-considered based on the digitisation, automation, and the interconnection of work or production processes.  However, based on a number of recent articles,

Rather than a substitution of human labour, there is a development towards the so-called Super Smart Society, governed by intelligent cooperation among humans and machines.  Indeed, the differentiation and personalisation of products can’t be done without the guide of the human mind.  The redefinition of human intervention in production processes and the recognition of its value in determining the quality and personalization of the product, make the role of men meaningful and indispensable into industry 5.0.1

In another article, The 10 Job Skills You’ll Need in 2020 and Beyond I wrote about the top 10 skills recommended by the Future of Jobs WEF report2.  In this report, People Management skills, Coordinating with Others and Emotional Intelligence all closely related to our ability to connect with others, motivate others to achieve common goals concur with what the Asian Leaders interviewed recommended as key skillsets crucial in handling the uncertain future.

Mr. Marcel Daane, a recipient of the 2012 Global HR Excellence Award in Leadership as well as the 2016 Global Coaching Leadership Award, advocated in a LinkedIn article,  The 4 P’s of People Development, that a leader should find a necessary balance between being both task and people-oriented. In his research, he found that though leaders agree on the critical need to develop people and talents, their focus on people development tend to decline as they climb the corporate ladder.   In his experience as a coach for senior-level executives, he found that:

tasks, systems, and processes are quantifiable, and thus can be easily managed in spreadsheets and share-holder reports. On the other hand, people behaviour is more difficult to quantify, thus often taking a backseat in business management. For that reason, it’s likely that a company may prefer hiring managers who are biased toward being task, process, and systems oriented rather than being people oriented.

 

To aid his clients better manage the learning and development of their people, with or without the presence of a learning and development manager, he developed the 4 P’s of People Development shared in the same-titled LinkedIn article.  Sign up as a client for free on the CorporateConnectTrainer platform and connect with Marcel Daane.

Thank you for taking the time to read this article. This article is part of the series from our newly launched CorporateConnectTrainer platform where we help connect corporations to trainers in the region. You can now search, qualify and connect directly with your best-fit trainer on one single platform, saving you time and hassle. We aim to share the subject matter expertise of our qualified trainers on the CorporateConnectTrainer  platform through these articles.

Written by Janet Yung, founder of Trilogy People Performance Consultancy. We enable learning for businesses and individuals by bringing you programs, learning, and design delivery services, and technologies cum platforms, that will aid you and your team to build skills and be ready for current and future business needs.

As mentioned earlier, the above skill sets are very similar to what the World Economic Forum proposed in their top ten skillsets to thrive in the future as written in a previous article: THE 10 JOB SKILLS YOU’LL NEED IN 2020 AND BEYOND

Other articles:

• Mental Health Awareness: https://corporatetrainerconnect.com/article/corporate-trainer-mental-health-awareness-week/
• Are You Creative Enough For The Future?: https://corporatetrainerconnect.com/article/creativity-are-you-creative-enough-for-the-future/
• Transformational Leadership to Lead into the Future : https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/transformational-leadership-lead-future-author-speaker-consultant-/
• Leadership From Within | 4 Ways Leadership Decisions are Affected: https://corporatetrainerconnect.com/article/leadership-from-within-4-ways-leadership-decisions-are-affected/

References:

1. Industry 5.0: Towards A New Revolution, 20 Sep 2019, Irene Maida, https://www.criticalcase.com/blog/industry-5-0-towards-a-new-revolution.html
2. The Future of Jobs Employment, Skills and Workforce Strategy for the Fourth Industrial Revolution, World Economic Forum, January 2016.