Despite nearly 10,000 daily headlines about how AI will take our jobs, the most in-demand skills have nothing to do with technology. According to LinkedIn’s new report on the most in-demand skills for 2023, it’s management. And it’s closely followed by other decidedly human skills: communication, leadership, and teamwork. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg went on a anti manager rant, saying, “I don’t think you want a management structure that is just managers managing managers managing people doing work.” Many saw this as a foreshadowing of layoffs to come after the company announced plans to cut 11,000 jobs in November 2022. It’s easy to hate middle managers.
After all they are in a very pathetic condition. And it’s only gotten worse over the years as middle managers are made to respond to upper management desires (a return to the office, and more with fewer resources, for example) and employee demands (better work-life balance). has been assigned the role of mediator. and flexibility, to name a few). And part of the problem with middle managers may be that many are not well suited for their jobs. 1969 book peter Principle Gave a name to a phenomenon that has remained largely unchanged, and one that we have all experienced: Employees are being promoted into management roles based on their success in previous jobs, regardless of whether they have the skills or the desire to be managers. And perhaps Zuckerberg’s disdain for certain levels of middle managers stems from the same frustration employees feel when they have an ineffective boss.
It sounds kind of obvious, but it doesn’t have to be that way. Companies and individuals can invest in people management training for people who really want to be managers and find other ways to reward and advance employees who are good at their jobs but have no desire to be managers. Do not keep If the popularity of articles offering leadership and management advice is any indication, so-called soft skills like emotional intelligence, management, and communication are actually the skills many of us need most, AI revolution or not. In the changing world of work—and especially in this new uncertain economic climate—we can’t expect machines to replace efficiency, but we can do something AI can’t: learn to lead with empathy and How to inspire and listen to our associates and employees. In short, perhaps we need to learn to be more humane if we want to keep up with our work.