Self-belief Is A Critical Ingredient for the Future of Work

For years, thirty-five years to be precise, I carried around beliefs about myself that simply weren’t true. I’m not intelligent enough, I’m not unique or different, I’m not special in any way. They weren’t true. We are all intelligent, we are all unique and different and we are all special in our own way.

But in the word’s of Albert Einstein,

‘Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.’

What does self-belief have to do with the future of work?

The future of work holds many unknowns – how will Artificial Intelligence (AI) disrupt industries? What will the ‘gig economy’ do to employment? How will flash teams affect the way we work?

One thing is certain, no amount of technology will replace who we are as humans. Our energy, our ability to connect, our ability to create and generate new ideas – technology can enhance each of these areas, however it cannot replace them.

In a report by the Foundation for Young Australians, research indicated jobs of the future will demand 70% more enterprise skills than jobs of the past. Enterprise skills are transferable skills and include creativity, problem solving, communication, teamwork and critical thinking among others. The research looked at job advertisements between 2012 and 2015 and measured the growth in the proportion of jobs requiring these enterprise skills early on in a career. In particular, they found the demand for creativity increased by 65% over this time period.

We all have a genius. An area of creativity. Usually when you are tapped into a creativity it benefits others in some way. The challenge is believing you have some unique creativity and owning it. We all do, it may be hidden beneath the surface, but it’s there. The more we dig, the more we find and the more creativity is unleashed into the world.

What beliefs do you hold? Are your beliefs true for who you are today? What beliefs are you sharing with your child?

Parenting our children to access their creativity, begins with us.