Most Important Skills for Success in Contemporary Society

Most Important Skills for Success

in Contemporary Society

In present world of modernization, globalization and information explosion, the change of the business environment with each passing day pose us great challenge in making achievements. The highly competitive circumstances requires people to have various crucial qualities, so that they can cope with the volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous environment and achieve success. To verify the most important skills from my personal perspective, this essay compares and contrasts the viewpoints of the five minds model presented by Gardner (2008) and talent spotting technique proposed by Fernandez-Araoz (2014), and consider personal values, the ability of learning and adapting, and leadership abilities are the vital aspects for success in the 21st century.

In Gardner’s (2008) book ‘five minds for the future’, he put forward five mind types that proved important in the past and will be more critical in the future. With these minds equipped, people will be able to solve not only the predictable difficulties, but also those problems that cannot be anticipated. These five dramatis personae are the disciplined mind which has mastery of at least one scholarly profession; the synthesizing mind that can obtain the information objectively and then integrate them to a better understanding; the creative mind that think out of boxes and generate fantastic new thinking and ideas; the respectful mind which can understand and  accept differences among different individuals and groups, and work efficiently with them; the ethical mind that drive people to work unselfishly and pursue the goal beyond personal gains and losses (Gardner 2008). Then, the nurture and development of these five minds and some other related issues are discussed by the author.

Started by comparing the endings of two stories with the protagonists have opposite situations of potential and competence, Fernandez-Araoz (2014) stated that the potential is the key to success. After introduced the different eras of talent spotting and the reasons of top talent shortage, Fernandez-Araoz (2014) recommended five hallmarks of potential. The first quality is the right motivation with which the person will be ambiguous to excel in pursuing unselfish achievements. The other four qualities are curiosity that drives people to learn new skills and knowledge, to accept as well as adapt for change; insight with which people can arrange unordered information to obtain the useful ones and look through the surface to find new opportunities; engagement that one will effectively communicate and connect with others using emotion and logic; and determination to strive against difficulties and persevere in achieving the tasks (Fernandez-Araoz 2014). In addition to the qualities of potential, Fernandez-Araoz (2014) suggested that other characteristics like intelligence, values and leadership abilities are also important in evaluating talents.