Skills You Need to Thrive in 2025 According to World Economic Forum

Recently, the World Economic Forum (WEF) listed its 10 skills needed to thrive in 2025. Every two years or so, the organization conducts its Future of Jobs survey. This is the third survey that I’ve watched closely. Although skills drop off the list each time WEF presents the results of the survey, some skills that are no longer on the list are very much-needed today. Here are the skills you need to thrive in 2025.

Teach Yourself How to LearnThe MacGyver SecretNon Obvious Megatrends

Skills You Need to Thrive in 2025

1. Analytical thinking and innovation.
2. Active learning and learning Strategies.
3. Complex problem-solving.
4. Critical thinking and analysis.
5. Creativity, originality, and initiative.
6. Leadership and social influence.
7. Technology use, monitoring, and control.
8. Technology design and programming.
9. Resilience, stress tolerance, and flexibility.
10. Reasoning, problem-solving and ideation.

3 Future of Jobs Report Compared

When you look at the list, you’ll notice that creativity, ideation,  innovation, problem solving, critical thinking and analysis are prominent. During a global pandemic, I can see why resilience, stress tolerance and flexibility are in-demand skills. Managing people remotely, collaborating, and emotional intelligence are especially important during this difficult and uncertain time we’re living in. Therefore, people management, emotional intelligence, coordinating with others need to be on the list as well. Service orientation is also important when many people are operating with a short fuse because of unbearable stress.

Have you read?

The Right Way To Learn Skills You Need To Thrive

How to Decide What Skills to Learn

My advice is that you do not take these 10 skills you need to succeed in 2025 as an absolute. Though a prominent organization, the World Economic Forum is only one of several organizations that report on the skills professionals need to succeed. You need to use your judgment. I recommend that you look at the results of the three reports, and learn the skills based on the ones that are most relevant to your unique situation.

A few years ago, Mark Cuban said that creativity is the one skill you need to succeed. Additionally, James Altucher, a serial entrepreneur and angel investor recommends that everyone become an idea machine. Altucher is someone who has lost it all a few times and was able to get back on track because of his ability to get idea after idea. He recommends that every day, you come up with 10 ideas. It takes at least six months of consistently doing this to become an idea machine. Altucher's ex-wife wrote the book, Become an Idea Machine. It's based on his ideas.

Every day, I do one of the exercises from The Creativity Challenge and The 30-Day Creativity Challenge. Some days working on the prompt for that day stretches you in unimaginable ways. When I finish with these two books, I'll start to read Become an Idea Machine again. I abandoned the book because I believed some of the prompts were irrelevant to my situation. This was three years ago. But what I should have done was to work on the exercise anyway to build my idea muscle.

Become An Idea MachineThe 30-Day Creativity ChallengeThe Creativity Challenge

I find it very surprising that cultural awareness/diversity and inclusion are not on the World Economic Forum list. The race riots highlight the necessity for these skills. Looking at all the skills over the last three Future of Jobs Report, I recommend learning the following skills. Before I provide the list, I wanted to say that skills are always changing. What is more important is how quickly you can learn any skill. That’s why it’s important to become an active learner who uses effective learning strategies.

1. Complex problem solving.
2. Critical thinking and analysis.
3. Creativity, innovation, ideation, originality, and initiative.
4. People management.
5. Coordinating with others.
6. Emotional intelligence.
7. Judgment, reasoning, analytical thinking, and decision making.
8. Service orientation.
9. Negotiation.
10. Cognitive flexibility.
11. Active learning and learning strategies.
12. Technology design and programming/Technology use, monitoring and control.
13. Leadership and social influence.
14. Systems analysis and evaluation.
15. Resilience, stress tolerance, and flexibility.
16. Cultural sensitivity and awareness.

How to Learn the Skills You Need to Succeed in 2025

There are 16 skills on the list. And that may seem overwhelming to you. Whenever, I feel overwhelmed, I go back to what I learned in computer science back in the day. Break down things into manageable parts.  The good news is that 1, 2, 3 and 7 from the above list are related skills. And there are many times when one book covers those skills.

Read a book a week to learn the skills. And start off with active learning and learning strategies, which will make it easier to learn the other skills. A good book is Teach Yourself How to Learn. The MacGyver Secret will cover problem solving, creativity, innovation, and ideation. The Miniature Guide to Critical Thinking Concepts and Tools covers critical thinking.

One tip to help you is to first read book summaries because they give you a sense of what the book is about and where in the book to focus when you read it.

Reading a book summary is an excellent way to get the key concepts from business books. It’s also a great way to decide which books to buy to explore more deeply. Click the Readitforme link to join. Think of this subscription as your speed-reading superpower. You read the summary, therefore, you can digest and process the book faster.

You’re going to be digesting a lot of information in three months.

To make sure you get the most from your reading time, I recommend that you read Non-Obvious Megatrends, paying special attention to the Haystack Method. This helps you to better synthesize, analyze, and evaluate the large quantity of information you’ll be taking in when you read the books to learn the skills. This book will also help with analytical thinking. And it’s important to approach learning the skills in a non-obvious way. You have to be strategic, so you have an edge over your peers.

ResilienceResilient LivingThe Art of Resilience

MoreReads: Blueprint to Change the WorldI own Resilience: It's Not About Bouncing Back, and Resilient Living: Build Inner Strength to Master Life's Challenges with Confidence and Courage, but haven’t read them yet. The Art of Resilience: Strategies for an Unbreakable Mind and Body has over 1200 5-star ratings on Amazon. I haven’t read this book either.

Systematically go through and decide what books to read to learn the other skills. Only you know what your unique situation is.

If you would like me to help you learn the skills, you can join MoreReads: Blueprint to Change the World.

Buy or Borrow the Books to Learn the Key Skills You Need to Thrive in 2025

Before you buy any book, check your bookshelf to see if you own any books that cover the skills mentioned earlier in this article. I have done this in the past and it never ceases to amaze me how many books I already own. Recently I hosted Digest 30 Books in 30 Days and I didn’t have to buy or borrow any books. It can get pricey buying so many books, so check your public library to see what they have. They may only have curbside pick-up because of the pandemic.

After you’ve tried those options, then you can buy books. Ask friends, family and colleagues for book recommendations.

How to Read Nonfiction Books to Learn Skills You Need to Thrive in 2025

Four Things to Keep in Mind When Reading Nonfiction Books

1. Francis Bacon Quote: “Some books should be tasted, some devoured, but only a few should be chewed and digested thoroughly.” Sir Francis Bacon
2. Traditional Publishers Have Word Counts: That often means an author has to pad a book to get to the word count. How many case studies do you need to understand the text in a book?
3. Follow the 80/20 Principle: You can understand 80 percent of the text by reading only 20 percent. The trick is to know which 20 percent to read.
4. While taking the PhotoReading course, I learned that only four to 11 percent of the text on a page is important information.

8 Elements of Thought When Reading to Master any Skill

1. What’s the author’s purpose for writing the book?
2. Author’s point of view on the issue.
3. Assumptions the author is making.
4. Implications of her reasoning.
5. Information she uses to reason through the issue.
6. Inferences and conclusions.
7. Most basic concepts.
8. Question the author is trying to answer in the book.

The Thinker’s Guide for Students on How to Study & Learn a Discipline suggests that the eight elements of thoughts are critical to your understanding of any book. When you understand all eight elements of thought, you understand the topic. And in this case, you understand the skills. To master the skills though, you have to use them.

How to Read a Nonfiction Book

It’s important to develop the habit of previewing a nonfiction book before you read it. It isn’t a good use of your time to read a book from cover-to-cover. Memorize the four things listed above to keep in mind.

Before you read, prepare your mind. Do a search to find mind gym exercises. These exercises engage both sides of the brain, so you remember more of what you’re reading. You want to familiarize yourself with them because you’re going to do these exercises every time you decide to read a book. Next, write down your purpose for reading every book.

Preview every nonfiction book before you start to read it. This should take 30 – 60 minutes. Set a timer for 60 minutes. Here’s what previewing a book entail:

• ​Read the Preface, Foreword, Introduction.
• Review the Table of Contents
• Place a check mark beside the chapters and sectors that you want to explore more deeply. You also want to read the sections that align with your reason for reading the book. That’s why having a purpose is so important.
• Scan the Index. The terms with the most references tell you what the author considers important.
• Read the Book Description.
• Write down the main idea of the book and everything you know about the topic.
• Read sections of the book that you think needs further exploration. Practice the 80/20 Principle. Read the 20 percent of the book that helps you to understand 80 percent of the text.
• Tie what you’re reading and learning to what you already know.
• Decision time. Does the book need further exploration?

Do you see how digesting books this way can save you time. The most accomplished people see books as problem-solving tools. They read only the sections of books that have the answers to the questions they have.

The most accomplished people read books every day. They carve out the time in their schedule. When they face a problem, they often find the solution embedded in the pages of a book. Let me help you to solve your own problems. Click the link MoreReads: Blueprint to Change the World to buy.

Actions to Take: The Right Way To Learn The Skills You Need To Thrive

1. Group the skills you plan to learn together.
2. Buy or borrow the books from the library.
3. Or You Can Join MoreReads: Blueprint to Change the World. You’ll get a process to learn the skills.

Reading List

1. The Creativity Challenge
2. The 30-Day Creativity Challenge
3. Become an Idea Machine
4. Teach Yourself How to Learn
5. The MacGyver Secret
6. The Miniature Guide to Critical Thinking Concepts and Tools
7. Resilience: It's Not About Bouncing Back
8. Resilient Living: Build Inner Strength to Master Life's Challenges with Confidence and Courage 
9. The Art of Resilience: Strategies for an Unbreakable Mind and Body

If someone clicks on a link and buys something from Amazon, the company will pay me a small commission.