Building Your 2025 Team

I have been thinking a good bit about 2025 recently. I have a couple of teams that are doing Vision 2025. I also just went to my 2nd Daughter’s College Orientation at James Madison University and she will be in her first job in 2025. Also, watching the US Women’s soccer team win the World Cup and seeing how different the team was in 2019 vs. 2015 has me thinking a lot about developing our future leaders.

Sometimes it helps to go backwards first. What were you thinking about in the summer of 2013? (same distance from the 2025.) A few of the most popular fads included—

Word of the Year-Selfie

Media Site of the Year-Vine (where did they go?)

Co-working spaces were becoming a thing

We were waiting for Prince George to be born

We were listening to Blurred Lines by Robin Thicke and others

Wow, a lot has changed since 2013. Now, look around your workplace. What has changed?

Voltage has added superstars to our team, lost some strong team players, added an office, wrote 2 books, did a radio show, brought on many great clients, etc.

Do you still have the same team members? Are they in the same seat? What skills do you have now? What skills are missing?

Okay, what do you expect your team to look like in 2025? What skills will you need? Will you need new leaders? Do you plan to still be in your company? These are important questions to ask yourself as you start to think about the future success of your team and your organization.

A few trends to consider. The number of baby boomers is shrinking in the workplace daily. The newest generation-Gen Z or Digital Natives—will be joining the workplace in droves. The oldest are about 25 now. The Millennials will be moving into senior management roles and Gen Xers will in many of the C-Suite Roles. Other trends to think about—more people are moving to the biggest cities when they move. However, fewer and fewer people are willing to move for work. Thus, you will probably be managing virtual workers and trying to build a team that might be located in multiple locations. The speed of information and technology will only increase with 5G, more data analytics, and quicker processes. Life will get faster as the info comes to us more quickly, so staying ahead of this quickening pace will only help you!

So, what are you going to do about your 2025 team today? Start the conversation with your teams. What skills and talents will be critical in the future? Ask how your leadership will need to change to grow the team (learn about the multiple generations, collaborate more, get comfortable with virtual teams, teams may form and disband quicker, etc.) Also, what characteristics will your new hires need to be successful? Think learning agility vs. being an expert, adaptability and a willingness to always be learning.

The final thing is to do is get started now. Start by putting some of your team members in stretch assignments so they can be great by 2025. Ask key high potentials how they would like to be developed and provide them the time and resources to grow. Start on a book club and invite interesting people to the discussion to stretch everyone’s thinking. Have fun and embrace that the team will change and your team in 2025 could be your best one ever if you focus on it now!!! Good luck and let us know how your team development is going!