Below is a list of 10 critical skills that future leaders need to possess, and I couldn’t agree with her more. We live in a fast paced world where the overlaps of media, technology, and environment converge in a much different manner than they did just 30 years ago. What we think and our ability to express those thoughts will determine where we fit and how we live. Your thoughts, ideas, processes, intellectual skills — all have inherent value in this new world of constant change where knowledge is more than an adjective, or a noun. Where it is an asset  known as intellectual property on balance sheets at the end of the day.

Original post at Successful Blog By  Liz Strauss

Working with Thoughts and Ideas Is the New Reality

The world economy has changed to one of service and ideas. Conversation is digital and content is king. The ability to work with ideas has become crucial to having a place in society. Thinking outside of the box is no longer a weird personality trait, but something to be admired and valued. It’s a key trait necessary to modern-day strategic planning and process modeling.

• Intellectual property — content — is an asset that not only gets produced, but reproduced, reconfigured, and re-purposed for variety of media.
• Those who produce intellectual property are builders of wealth.
• An original idea — a twist or tweak on an old process or product — that solves a problem or presents an opportunity is worth more now than it ever has been.

Those who develop, mold, and execute original thinking will own the future.

10 Skills Critical to Owning an Outstanding Future

1. Deep independent thinking and problem-solving – The ability to understand a problem or opportunity from the inside out, vertically, laterally, at the detail level, and the aerial view.
2. Mental flexibility – The ability to tinker with ideas and viewpoints to stretch them, bend them, reconstruct them into solutions that fit and work perfectly in specific situations.
3. Fluency with ideas — The ability to describe many versions of one answer and many solutions to one problem set and to explain the impact or outcome of each both orally and in writing in ways that others can understand.
4. Proficiency with processes and process models — The ability to discuss a problem in obsessive detail and to define a process, linear or nonlinear, that will solve the problem effectively within a given group culture.
5. Originality of contributions – The ability to offer a value-added difference that would not be there were another person in the same role.
6. A habit of finding hidden assumptions and niches — The ability to see the parts of what is being considered, including the stated and unstated needs, desires, and wishes of all parties involved.
7. A bias toward opportunity and action — The ability to estimate and verbalize the loss to be taken by standing still and missed opportunities that occur by choosing one avenue over another.
8. Uses all available tools, including the five senses and intuitive perceptions, in data collection — The ability to weigh and value empirical data, sensory data, and one’s own and others’ perceptions appropriately.
9. Energy, enthusiasm, and positivity about decision-making — The ability to bring the appropriate mindset to the decision-making process in order to lead oneself or a team to a positive decision-making experience.
10. Self-sustaining productivity — The ability to use the confidence gained from the first 9 skills to establish relationships with people at all levels — from the warehouse to the boardroom — knowing that ideas are not the pride and privy of only a gifted few.