From Learning to Leading: How Upskilling Transforms Employee Output

Upskilling has emerged as a chief concept of the modern workplace. Namely, with the world changing rapidly, agility has become a must. One critical aspect of the latter is the ability to keep up and even predict potential trends and outcomes. That’s what upskilling is all about.

Obviously, merely providing people with technical or industry-specific expertise doesn’t suffice anymore. The emphasis has been on soft skills for a while and is likely to remain that way.

How come?

In the business context, there are two major shifts unraveling as we speak. The first one is the rapid rise of new technologies, notably AI. The other one is flexible work models, notably remote work. To be able to not only cope with these trends, modern employees need to build resilience and businesses need to establish a culture of continual adaptive learning.

Employees can no longer hope to grow professionally unless they dedicate themselves to upskilling. With businesses left and right embracing agile methodologies, stable jobs are no longer guaranteed either. Finally, the ever-changing job market makes it literally impossible for even the most skilled professionals to secure stable, satisfying jobs if they don’t keep up with digital- and entrepreneurial trends.

Upskilling and Ownership

Many new business terms have been circulating of late. Or, rather, many old terms have gotten a new meaning. “Ownership” is, perhaps, the most significant of them. What it is taken to mean is that the modern workplace – brick and mortar as well as remote – requires that employees “own” their contributions.

The approach is considered to inspire people to be more engaged while businesses provide them with the means to grow.

Upskilling is a natural approach to achieve this goal. Namely, it signals that businesses care about their employees’ professional growth and want to empower them to work independently, owning their achievements.

Now, “empowerment” has meant many things but this one definition is relatively new. From the perspective of business owners, it is a means to stay ahead of the competition and foster a culture of continuous improvement. For individuals, it’s a way to grow professionally and remain competitive.

Not so long ago, work was all about making fewer mistakes and making preset expectations. Not anymore. Upskilling empowers employees to perform at a higher level, make smarter decisions, and find creative solutions to problems.

One important factor of this shift is the availability of the “right” tools. Technological advancements have been known to change the face of humankind and the present times are the biggest shift in that direction, and the change will be significant.

Merely AI-powered tools are changing how people communicate and go about their lives. In the workplace, they are changing business processes and strategies, necessitating that employees not only keep up but also actively contribute to the shift.

The Impact of Upskilling

Simply put, to be able to keep up and excel at any role, people need to upskill and keep upskilling. Reflecting on achievements and areas for growth has become a critical part of performance appraisals, which, in turn, have moved closer to regular feedback loops than annual practices.

Employee performance appraisals are not a simple review of what employees have done right or wrong. Not anymore. They’re an opportunity to assess how far an employee has come in terms of growth and development.

It’s been shown that employees who participate in upskilling programs show significant progress in their performance appraisals. Note that this isn’t about meeting targets. Instead, it’s about the broader impact they’re having on their team and, by extension, the business.

These people typically take ownership of more complex tasks, show initiative, and find creative solutions to challenges. In addition, upskilled employees no longer feel uncertain about their capabilities. In addition to upskilling, this is also made possible by them having been given the tools to succeed.

Tools to Succeed

“The tools to succeed” is, perhaps, the definite term of our times. The modern workplace advocates that success isn’t about role-specific knowledge, talent, or luck anymore. Rather, it’s about having access to the right tools and knowing how to use them effectively.

Learning tools have emerged as the chief driver of a “positive mindset”, the trait that every employee is expected to possess or be able to cultivate. “Positive” is used synonymously with “growth-oriented”, which basically translates into the ability to learn, adapt, and improve. In other words, employees are expected to embrace challenges, learn from mistakes, and believe that abilities can be developed over time.

The psychological shift is the prerequisite for using the actual tools, the most important of which are time-management tools. Time is, after all, the most valuable resource every individual possesses, and knowing how to use it efficiently makes the difference between failure and success (and not only in the business context).

In the professional context, however, technology plays a major role in how employees manage their time. A slew of tools is being used daily to streamline organizational processes and employees are expected not only to keep up but to be happy about and confident at deploying them.

Task management apps and time-tracking tools are the two main categories all businesses rely on. Learning how to utilize them seamlessly and regularly is not optional for employees anymore.

Finally, communication tools take a large part of everyone’s life. They have gone a long way from email to messaging apps, video conferencing tools, and document sharing, to name a few.

What has upskilling got to do with all this?

For one thing, new technology is changing humans at the most basic level – redefining how they communicate, operate, and interact with the world and one another. Knowing how to use technology for their own benefit rather than being used by it is an essential skill for everyone. Upskilling may be a fancy term, but it is a critical approach to staying human in a rapidly digitalized world.