Not to alarm you, but New Year’s Day is just around the corner; have you finalized all of your resolutions yet? We hope not, because you might want to make some room for these workplace skills. After all, promotion season’s almost here, and research indicates January is the most favorable time to ask for one, so let’s make sure you’re ahead of the curve. (Psst! Some quick tips & tricks on how to ask for that promotion with confidence and conviction.)
2024 felt like a lot of changes for just 12 months — good and bad changes being stacked on top of changes on top of more changes. Needless to say, we think that 2025 will be the year to test our adaptability, agility, and game plan because those changes are here to stay (and continue changing!). So what skills in 2025 will make your promotional pitch a shoe-in?
We have a few guesses, and we also know that if you’re able to go in prepared, that's a prime opportunity to gain an extra edge and rise in your career.
Here are five workplace skills that will help you get promoted in 2025:
1. Digital literacy:
When computers first started to become widely adopted, they were seen as a threat. People speculated that they would soon replace humans in the workforce. And with hindsight, that fear seems unfounded, because they didn’t! However, people who learned computers were able to rise higher and faster on the career ladder, and there was definitely a shift in workplace skills and experience that created new jobs and phased out older ones. You can probably see where we’re going with this, but what’s happening with AI now is very similar. What computers were back in the 90s, AI will be in 2025 — a must-have tool as commonly used as Microsoft Word or email. So, the more comfortable you are using AI tech, the better.
Start by asking yourself how AI can be deployed to make your work hours more efficient (or even reduce them overall) and maximize your productivity. Let’s take it a notch higher: What are the limitations and downsides of using AI in your work? How can human intelligence be used to amplify the use case of AI? How can we be ethical stewards of AI in the modern workplace?
The sooner you get the answer to these questions, the faster you move up the ladder!
2. Leadership
Just about everyone can be a boss, but that’s not quite the same as being a leader. (If you’re wondering, here’s the difference!)
For as long as group dynamics have existed, so have leaders. Great leaders evolve with time, and we already know that 2025 is going to be a time of rapid change from mass AI adoption to quantum computing. The good news is that this is the tech that will make businesses more efficient, productive, and profitable. The biggest caveat: is your business ready to accommodate it? And at the core of that question is an even bigger question: can you lead the business through the changes? Can you empower your team to adopt these changes?
Simply put, leadership that is comfortable and confident in the digital transformation ahead is key for 2025. Focus on upskilling your leadership to be adaptable, agile, and ready to go with the flow.
3. Adaptability
We can’t talk about skills in the workplace without talking about adaptability, and flexibility is definitely never going out of fashion. In 2025, we will still need to adapt to new tech, new working styles, new demands from employees, and new market trends. Employees who display curiosity and patience while also welcoming the change will simply do better than those who resist it.
Plus, the leaders of tomorrow are the learners of today. With so many changes happening so quickly, anyone looking to grow cannot take a passive learning approach. 2025 calls for agility and the passion for lifelong learning to match pace with the changing tech and times.
4. Strategic and critical thinking
Promotions don’t just mean a monetary hike; they also mean more responsibility and higher expectations. What makes you an eligible candidate for a promotion (particularly for any leadership position) is the ability to maneuver and make time-sensitive decisions. How do you deal with sudden changes in policy, governance, or tech, or even something very human like a colleague falling ill a day before an important presentation? Do you have a contingency plan? Can you use both information and intuition to fail-proof the business?
There are a lot of variables behind every deliverable, and a good leader is marked by their ability to retain stability and devise a strategic roadmap anticipating disruption and risk before it hits.
5. Emotional intelligence
Do not finish your workplace skills plan without checking in with your soft skills. Productivity, impact, and efficiency aside, employees are all humans first and foremost, and the workplace still needs a human touch.
‘Empathy’ and ‘communication’ are two buzzwords you’ll hear a lot in 2025. If you are seeking a promotion soon, it’s important to solidify these skills with your bosses and senior management as well as your teams. Even in a world where tech is growing impressive by the day, emotional intelligence has its uses. Kindness and teamwork is still relevant and even more useful than before. We need leaders who can ease and comfort us into transitions. We need high performers who are also highly emotionally intelligent. Here’s how you can unlock success with people skills.
How can you develop these workplace skills?
Right here! At PowerToFly, we have developed an intuitive SkillMeter that will generate a personal skills audit report customized for you. You don’t have to take a shot in the dark anymore. Gauge your strengths, weaknesses, and needed skills for your current or future career.
Once you identify those upskilling and skill gap opportunities, the next step is following through! With PowerUp, your all-in-one upskilling platform with on-demand courses for learning essential workplace skills, you’ll find a community of mentors and experts who can take your skills to the next level.
Cheers to 2025 being your best year yet.
If a promotion is on your to-do list for 2025, start with the skills that will get you there faster. This includes the workplace skills we have discussed above, but also some technical skills that we expect to be more in demand in 2025. For further reading, check out our list of the top 10 skills to learn in 2025.
