38 Business Spotlight 3/2020 BUSINESS SKILLS
LEARNERS
NEED TO FOCUS
ON LEARNING
THE RELEVANT
VOCABULARY
FOR THEIR
PARTICULAR
ROLES
BUSINESS SKILLS
ESSENTIAL COMPETENCIES20 skills for the 2020s
Auch in den 2020er Jahren wird die Suche nach dem besten Geschäftsmodell
und das Experimentieren mit möglichen Lösungen weiter anhalten.
BOB DIGNEN erklärt in zwanzig Punkten, worauf es dabei ankommt.ADVANCED AUDIO PLUSA
s we enter the 2020s, the search
for the perfect business model
intensifies. Reorganization fol-
lows reorganization and “contin-
uous transformation” is the new
mantra.
In the end, however, what ensures
organizational performance is
not structure but people. Organizations
need highly skilled individuals working
in highly collaborative groups and net-
works to get things done together at the
right time and at the right level of quality.
So, as you prepare yourself for the coming
decade, we are going to look at the essen-
tial skills that you need to develop in or-
der to engage with others as effectively as
possible. These skills range from language
to leadership, from your inner world of
feelings and emotions to the outer world
of customers and economic trends. This
article will help you set goals for yourself
so that you and those around you can per-
form better and achieve greater success.Five skill sets that matter
There are five skill sets that will prove de-
cisive for you and those around you in the
international world of work in the 2020s:
⋅ language skills
⋅
professional communication excel-
lence
⋅
intercultural competence
⋅
soft skills
⋅ international leadership capabilityIn each of the five areas, we identify four
important sub-skills, giving you 20 essen-
tial skills for the 2020s.- Language skills
After 30 years of involvement in English
language teaching, I’ve seen an industry
help thousands of people develop their
ability to communicate around the world.
However, I’ve also seen an industry with
bias, focusing on some aspects of lan-
guage use at the expense of others — and
in some ways, undermining the ability of
people to communicate internationally.
The obvious example is the historical
over-focus on grammar and accuracy,
under the mistaken belief that speaking
grammatically correctly is key to interna-
tional communication. This is clearly not
the case. If it were, native speakers would
be the best international communicators.
In fact, they’re often the worst. So, which
language skills really matter, and why?
➻ Focus on relevant vocabulary
learning
For me, the core of foreign language
learning is vocabulary. It is estimated
that learners need between 3,000 and
5,000 words to communicate in relatively
complex contexts. Importantly, learners
need to learn the right words, internaliz-
ing them sufficiently so they can recog-
nize and recall these words quickly when
communicating. What is the best way to
learn all these words, and the contexts in
which they can be used? Conscious plan-
ning and goal-setting are essential here,
deciding which areas of relevant vocabu-
lary you should learn for which role. For
example, if you’re a head of production
in a pharmaceutical facility, you might
focus on learning terms connected to
macroeconomics, business, pharmaceu-
ticals, production, finance, leadership,bias [(baIEs]
, Voreingenommenheit;
Vorliebe, Neigung;
hier: Einseitigkeit
collaborative
[kE(lÄbErEtIv]
, hier: teamorientiert
core [kO:]
, Kern; hier: zentrales
Element
decisive [di(saIsIv]
, entscheidend
engage with sb.
[In(geIdZ wID]
, mit jmdm. interagieren
expense: at the ~ of
sb./sth. [Ik(spens]
, zu Lasten von
jmdm./etw.
industry [(IndEstri]
, hier: Branche
internalize sth.
[In(t§:nElaIz]
, etw. verinnerlichen;
hier auch: im Gedächtnis
abspeichern
pharmaceutical facility
[)fA:mE(su:tIk&l fE)sIlEti]
, pharmazeutische
Produktionsstätte
recall sth. [ri(kO:l]
, sich an etw. erinnern
skill set
[(skIl set]
, Fähigkeiten; hier: Kate-
gorie von Fähigkeiten
soft skills [(sQft skIlz]
, Sozialkompetenz
undermine sth.
[)VndE(maIn]
, etw. beeinträchtigenIllustration: tomozina/iStock.com