Living with the pandemic is becoming the new normal and industries now are gearing up to address a new set of challenges. The only question is-Are we prepared to handle it. What are the required competencies and skills rthat will be needed to succeed in the new normal? We at Marching Sheep rolled out a pulse survey and asked respondents across industries to rank the top 5 behavioral competencies needed to succeed in the new normal. Amongst other critical priorities , organizations should invest on preparing its workforce to be future ready, keeping these competencies in mind.

Here are the top critical competencies as per the survey:

1. Agility and Responsiveness: Being agile and responsive is very important for an individual as well as an organization with the changing trends in the business world to succeed. And today, it is even more critical as the pandemic has forever changed the way the world with consume and experience products and services ―as customers, consumers, partners, employees, and humans. Companies will need to embrace the impact of these changes on the way they design, communicate, build and run the experiences that customers need and want.For them to be cater the the evolved needs of the market, agile thinking and quick responses will make or break a deal.
2. Emotional Resilience:Balancing both office and personal space in the current environment is both daunting and stressful, to say the least. It is natural feel stretched having to juggle domestic chores and official deadlines. Add to that a hieghtened sense of ambiguity and uncertainty around job security, concern over skills and ro;es being relevant in new normal. In these situations, it is critical to build emotional resilience – the ability to bounce back from challenging situations, the ability to stay calm and positive, handle stress constructively and try to have the emotional balance to see through your work to completion.
3. Building Collaborative Relationships:New normal bring in unique challenges of getting work done while working remotely, engaging with new partners to deliver new products and services in an environment with restrictions.Hence the need to build collaborative relationships within and across teams, within and across organisations. Building a support network that helps achieve common goals and helps us heal as a community, and as an economy.
4. Change Management: Disruption is the biggest source of change. With economies and businesses disrupted on a global scale, it is ever important for organizations and employees to click the reset button, reboot,upskill, reskill and embrace the new normal.If we continue to do what we were doing a year back, we will get wiped out. It will be imperative to drive change in a systemic and empathetic manner and take teams along
5. Flexibility and Adaptability: In order to successfully adapt to the given situation and thrive through it, employees need to be open to change. Be ready to unlearn and relearn. Adjust to changing times.The key to survival today is to be ready to accept that things have changed, and I need to evolve- as an individual and as a professional. Desparate times call for desperate measures, whether it is remote working, or social distancing norms, employees will have to be quick to adapt to the new ways of working and living.