You can get there from here. I’m speaking of the future, which many managers and leaders I meet seem to consider far more of a threat than an opportunity. There’s a reason for that.

Any athlete, artist, health provider, politician or scientist who — when about to perform — quakes with fear if he or she has not prepared for the moment. Ditto the person in business who senses the need for change in the future but isn’t prepared to meet the challenge of that change.

That’s why, when I was given the chance to write a blog post for the prestigious Peter Drucker Society Europe [link], I chose to focus on the capabilities that everyone will need in a leadership position tomorrow. To my mind, there are four key skills that you, personally, will need to develop in order to be able to lead your enterprise in the coming years. But I had help in identifying these skills.

The Nextsensing Project is blessed with 26 other team members representing 17 different nationalities and based in 24 cities [link]. Via a poll of these thought leaders, as well as extensive dialogue, we arrived at four capabilities that leaders must hone in order to keep their organisations viable in the difficult marketplace environment of the coming years. We even named these four skills “nextabilities.”

What are they?

Drucker Forum

I invite you now to jump to the Drucker Society Europe blog to read my post, “Time to Clean the Management Lens” [link]. As always, I would love to hear your thoughts about the absolutely essential skills that you believe will be needed in the years ahead, and I hope you will share your comments here.

And I hope you will join me 5-6 November 2015 for the Drucker Forum meetings in Vienna. The theme is “Claiming Our Humanity: Managing in the Digital Age” [link]. Without doubt, the quickening pace and enormous impact of technological change is at the heart of many fears about managing the future.

What’s key to stress is this: if you are feeling either slightly intimidated or all-out terrified about the future, I assure you — you are not alone. What will separate future top performers from the managerially imparied is how well they prepare today.