When it comes to building our careers, our generation has been dealt a tough hand – from economic recessions to a pandemic and now muddling through a cost of living crisis, we’ve had to endure a lot of change in recent years. And whether you’re chasing a promotion or looking for your next job, you’ll know it’s rough out there.

Layoffs across industries and tighter controls on hiring mean there’s more available talent than ever to compete against and fewer roles available. So what are the specific skills you need to stand out from the crowd and succeed in today’s job market?

Trends will tell you that it’s machine learning, automation, augmented reality and artificial intelligence. But this year’s most in-demand expertise isn’t a technical skill at all. A new report from LinkedIn found that the top skill of the moment is adaptability.

As the fastest growing skill among 1 billion LinkedIn users globally over a recent six-month period, adaptability has skyrocketed in demand as a skill to hone, develop and demonstrate in the rapidly changing workplace. 

With generative AI set to disrupt the way we work, we’re entering yet another evolutionary era of work across sectors. With big change comes an even bigger need to accept it and even embrace it.

“Adaptability is the antidote to the neverending pace of change in today’s workplace,” said Michelle Hartley, people expert and founder of an HR consultancy. “If we can be confident in our ability to master change, we worry less about the change itself because we know we can handle whatever comes our way,” she said.

Particularly in the modern world of work, it’s crucial to develop adaptability skills in order to build resilience through uncertainty and prepare for difficult changes when they inevitably come.

Myriam Khan leads communications at IT company Thales following a gruelling redundancy from Meta during their mass layoffs last year. 

“The impact was absolutely devastating because I was a high performer with lots of positive rapport within the business, so initially I did take it personally,” Khan said. “The redundancy was also a wake-up call to the prospect of job insecurity because I’d never been laid off before,” she said.

Khan credits her adaptability with helping her to process the redundancy and eventually find her next full-time role. From accepting that her role redundancy was nothing personal, then shifting her focus to create freelance opportunities and maintain her exercise routine throughout her job hunt, Khan thinks of her job loss as a crash course in adaptability.

“For me, adaptability was definitely a learned skill and I believe it’s a muscle you need to flex regularly to build resilience in your personality,” she said. 

As a millennial or Gen Z-er, your life experience alone has probably already earned you a battered but tough armour. But at work, the need for adaptability can show up differently. Whether you’ve faced or survived a redundancy, lifted yourself up from a demotion or navigated a messy company acquisition, adaptability is crucial to dust yourself off and keep striving towards your next goal.

For Khan, adopting a learning mindset and nurturing her network of friends and peers were game changers to help her sustain her career in between jobs.

“I can’t overstate the power of having a solid network,” she said. “Post-redundancy, I set up a limited company and started to take on freelance projects. My first two projects came directly from people I knew and they kept me buoyant for four months before I found my next full-time role.”

To build and improve your adaptability as a professional skill, Hartley shared this advice.

Get curious

Asking the right questions from the right people can exponentially expand your knowledge of a problem or potential solution – and even asking the right questions from the wrong people can bring you unexpected insights.

Fail fantastically and frequently

Getting comfortable with not being perfect is hard but learn to get friendly with failure in order to develop adaptability. Experiment first, then reflect on what went wrong to learn and spark new ideas for next time.

Look for the upside

Thinking in an agile way means adapting your thought processes, which leads to more positive outcomes. Rather than feeling resentful that something didn’t go right, flip your thinking and try to view it as an opportunity instead.

Work smarter, not harder

If your budget gets slashed or your headcount disappears, use creative problem-solving or tap on your network to achieve the same result using different tools and resources.

Practise a confident humility mindset

Confident humility is the belief in our ability to handle what life throws at us. Birds don’t worry about the strength of the branches they land on; they have faith in the ability of their wings. If you can increase your confidence in your ability to handle what comes your way, you’ll worry less about the world’s branches, and instead, you can tend to your wings.

Whether you’re thrown into crises or actively seek out challenges, as your ability to adapt gets stronger, so too will your professional growth.

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Images: Getty