Editorial
What does it take to thrive in a workplace shaped by AI, uncertainty and constant change?
Beyond technical know-how, the future-ready worker needs a new blend of human and digital capabilities — anchored in awareness. In this article, I explore how ‘power skills’ — a more strategic framing than ‘soft skills’ — combine with digital fluency to build not only performance, but agency, meaning and flourishing in modern work.
From Access to Agency: Deepening Digital Capability
Digital literacy is the key that provides access to communication, services and work in today’s interconnected, technology-driven world. It underpins not only participation in the digital economy but also basic social inclusion. In 2021, the United Nations formally recognized access to the internet — and by extension, digital skills — as a component of the right to education and freedom of expression. Yet an estimated 54% of the global population still lacks what the OECD defines as “foundational digital skills.” Governments and organizations play a critical role in raising digital literacy through policy, infrastructure and training.
While basic digital skills are a foundational requirement to work many jobs, the future-ready workplace needs more than just foundational capabilities. As I’ve argued for some time at Digital Work Research, a future-ready understanding of digital skills must move beyond ‘clicks and swipes’ to a more nuanced perspective. It extends beyond technical knowledge to include our attitudes, perceptions and behaviors in digital environments. This means recognizing the importance of digital confidence, our capacity to troubleshoot and adapt, and even our emotional and ethical stances toward technology. Increasingly, we move toward a notion of digital fluency — where we are not only competent users, but creative, discerning and intentional in how we engage with digital tools. This shift supports digital empowerment, where technology enhances — not controls — our working lives.
As we grow in competence and confidence, we also need to cultivate digital curiosity — the desire to keep learning, experimenting and exploring new digital capabilities. This isn’t just about keeping up with tools and trends, it’s a mindset that supports adaptability and experimentation. Research on workplace learning increasingly highlights curiosity as a driver of resilience, engagement and continuous upskilling in fast-changing environments. In this way, digital curiosity becomes a power skill in itself — it also contributes to our sense of digital agency.
Digital agency refers to our capacity to make informed, intentional choices in digital contexts — whether that’s around how we manage our attention, protect our data or participate online. It’s where digital literacy and power skills meet: combining technical know-how with awareness, judgment and values. Research from the University of Greenwich defines digital agency as “the ability to act critically and confidently in a digitally mediated world,” and it becomes increasingly relevant as algorithms shape more of what we see, do and believe. Digital agency allows individuals to move from passive users to conscious participants — aware of their rights, risks and responsibilities in digital life.
As well as being confidently digital, we also need to be mindfully digital. My recent study, published in PLOS ONE, demonstrates how powerful it can be to bring a mindful attitude to our use of technology in the workplace. In this context, digital mindfulness refers to the application of core mindfulness principles — such as present-moment awareness, intentionality and self-compassion — to digital behaviors. It includes managing attention in tech-saturated environments, noticing the emotional and cognitive impact of digital interactions, and approaching digital tasks with care and reflection rather than reactivity.
This builds on earlier work in the information systems literature: In 2018, Thatcher et al. introduced the concept of IT mindfulness, emphasizing openness to new technologies, awareness of features and flexible thinking in digital use. My research-in-progress expands this by situating mindfulness not only as a cognitive stance but as an emotional and behavioral one: being more intentional, attentive and kind to ourselves in our digital environments. In doing so, we move from digital autopilot to digital presence — from reacting to our devices and platforms to relating to them with awareness and choice.
From Soft Skills to Power Skills
Digital proficiency alone is not sufficient for a future-ready workforce. We’ve been trying for some time to get at a broader set of skills with terms like ‘soft skills’ and ‘twenty-first century skills,' however they fall short in conveying the full potential. I was interested to find that the term ‘soft skills’ had its origins in the U.S. military as a way of distinguishing human, non-technical skills. While pragmatic, it plays down their importance and seems high time that organizations shift away from its use. In 2022, Udemy Business coined the term ‘power skills’ to encompass a set of core human competencies needed in addition to technical skills in the workplace. The term elevates their importance, placing a clear emphasis on these not being a nice-to-have or optional extra.
Awareness Is the Real Power Skill
The various ‘takes’ on what these power skills look like often include elements such as empathy, flexibility and resilience. When I reflect on where the real power resides in ‘power skills’ — and how we as individuals wake up to the power available to us — it’s in the qualities of awareness that we bring to our life and work. Power skills aren’t just interpersonal traits, they’re awareness skills.
In a world of distraction, automation, and constant, rapid change, being aware — of ourselves, others and the moment — is what unlocks adaptability, insight and meaningful action.
Power skill | Type of awareness | Practical application |
Self-awareness | Inward awareness of thoughts, emotions and patterns. | Recognizing what's driving our behavior and reactions. |
Present-moment focus | Temporal awareness; attentional stability, control and efficiency; creative flow and deep focus; self-regulation. | Staying grounded in the now to respond wisely, not reactively, and cultivate deep focus when needed. |
Empathy & compassion | Social/emotional awareness of others as well as compassion and care for them and for ourselves. | Sensing and responding to others' and our own needs with presence and sensitivity. |
Adaptability | Awareness across time and context. | Reading the moment and adjusting with intention. |
Curiosity | Awareness of unknowns; openness to new input. | Leaning into uncertainty with interest, not fear. |
Meaning-making | Reflective awareness of purpose and values. | Imbuing our actions with a sense of meaning and purpose. |
Work crafting | Awareness of the importance of mastering our work, reframing tasks, focusing on quality. | Knowing that how we do our work matters. |
Ethics & integrity | Systems and consequence awareness; environmental and social consciousness. | Rooting our actions in an understanding of their wider impact. |
The awareness framing of power skills resonates with me because it's foundational for continuous learning, effective communication and personal resilience — among others. It is also trainable via routes such as mindfulness, coaching, reflection and feedback. It’s resilient to automation: machines can't replicate genuine awareness of self, others or the world. And it’s something that we can apply for ourselves as individuals as well as to our teams and organizations. It's also substantiated by research as the bedrock for leadership effectiveness, team energy and performance, creative flow, relationships and productivity — and more.
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Humanly Digital, Digitally Human
Cultivating both our expanded digital capabilities — including competence, confidence, curiosity, agency and mindfulness — and our power skills, rooted in the manifold facets of awareness, is a powerful combination for a future-ready workforce. This integrated approach sets us up for success and flourishing in the present as well as the increasingly uncertain times ahead.
It also shifts our relationship with technology. Rather than being driven by digital systems, we become more intentional in how we use them — harnessing digital tools to serve human goals, not the other way around. In this way, we strengthen our capacity to stay present, stay grounded, and stay human — no matter how fast the digital world moves.
Related Articles:
- These 6 Soft Skills Will Be Critical in the Future Workforce — Taking decisive action now to develop these six soft skills will position your organization to meet future challenges.
- Forget AI, These Soft Skills Are in Demand — Soft skills act as the bridge between hard skills and impact. And leaders across industries recognize their importance.
- Make Skill Agility Your Currency for Success — Cultivate curiosity, navigate risk and other strategies to stay agile.
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