In this presentation, Charlotte Kemp argues that long‑term relevance and agency in one’s career or organization depend on mastering seven foundational competencies that act as a latticework beneath all future‑oriented skills. She enumerates the competencies—strategic foresight, systems thinking, adaptive leadership, innovation and creativity, anticipatory planning, strategic communication, and ethical decision‑making—explaining that they help individuals frame challenges, discern meaningful trends, and make better decisions. Kemp stresses that these competencies are not the sole remit of senior leaders; anyone can develop them to become future‑fit. She warns that they cannot be acquired instantly through a single workshop, but must be discovered, nurtured, and practiced over time. To support development, she offers multiple resources: a webinar (live or recorded), a book on Future Fit Leadership, an assessment tool, a 21‑day video series that unpacks each competency, and options for keynotes, workshops, or coaching. The talk concludes with an invitation for the audience to engage with these resources to cultivate thinking that is fit for the future.
Chapters
Underneath the skills of all the things we need to learn in order to be relevant for the future, there is a set of competencies that form the foundation, like a latticework on which we can build the various skills that we, we need. Those 7 competencies are essential for any organization, for leaders who are trying to prepare for the future, for anybody who wants to have ownership agency over their own career opportunities into the future. I'll give you a quick list. It's strategic foresight, systems thinking, adaptive leadership, innovation and creativity, obviously anticipatory planning, strategic communication, and ethical decision-making. If we can explore these competencies and develop them, then we become more prepared for the future and we have more agency and control and influence over what is coming. When we look at these, especially adaptive leadership, people often think that this is something that the leadership should take care of. This is the board's responsibility. But anyone who wants to be prepared and relevant for the future should be able to explore these, should be developing them in their own lives and careers. These competencies will help you to frame what it is that you're dealing with in your career or in your organization and make better decisions about what you need to lean into, what you need to mouthball and which trends are relevant or which are just passing fads. It's important to know that these competencies can't just be learned quickly on a workshop or on a weekend retreat and they're going to come back and they're all going to be perfectly evident in, in your life and decision-making. These are competencies that need to be discovered identified, nurtured within us, and we will see ourselves and we'll see others using these competencies well or using them poorly, and that is the process of how we develop them. So there are lots of different ways of exploring that. There is a webinar either coming up or you can watch the recording. There is a book about developing Future Fit Leadership that really goes into these 7 competencies. There's also an assessment, and there's also a 21-day series of videos, and you'll get a video once a that will unpack each of those competencies just a little bit more so that you can start to identify them. So please engage in any way that makes you feel comfortable. A lot of those resources are for free, but this topic is also available as a keynote, a webinar, or a workshop that should lead to microlearning or potentially even coaching. So please do engage with me and engage with this content so that You too can develop thinking that is fit for the future.
