Growing up in northwest Montana, you might say I grew up with a fly rod in my hand. Dad would take my brother and I fly fishing, probably three nights/week, as far back as I can remember.

Fish are smart. If you throw something at them that is just a little different than what they expect, they will not take it. We spent a lot of time examining bugs both in and out of the water, in addition to looking under rocks etc., to determine exactly what the fish were “expecting.” In essence, we were trying to “match the hatch.” We were trying to bait them with the nearest artificial resemblance to what they really expected.

This principle of, “matching the hatch” applies to all sorts of life and business pursuits. Marketing is about giving people what they want in a “package” that appeals to them. Sales is about giving a product people desire, that is as good as expected, or better. Human resources, simplified, is about putting the right person in the right position.

As companies like mine focus on developing tomorrow’s leaders, its also important to “match the hatch.” What are companies looking for? Where are new graduates falling short? How do we best prepare new graduates to meet present workforce needs? Companies like mine are “searching under rocks” trying to find exactly what employers want/need and trying to help future graduates match that need.

Linkedin has given us a great resource by conducting their LinkedIn Learning 2020 Workplace Learning Report. This is a great resource for those of us seeking to develop young leaders. They analyzed data from 660+ million professionals and 20+ million jobs to map the 15 most in-demand skills needed. I am going to focus on the five “soft” skills they give. If you desire to learn about the “hard” skills, please consult the study.

Five Most In-Demand Soft Skills:

1. Creativity: how to generate original ideas and solutions.
2. Persuasion: convincing others to support your ideas, buy your solutions, or to take action.
3. Collaboration: able to work on a team and unlock synergies towards a common goal.
4. Adaptability: thriving in change and uncertainty.
5. Emotional intelligence: able to perceive and understand the emotions of yourself and others and to modulate your own natural emotions.

These are skills you aren’t  graded for during your university work, but, nonetheless, are skills employers are saying they need in the workplace. If you are an emerging leader, how are you going to develop these skills? If you are a developer of people or an educator, how will you assist these emerging leaders in this pursuit?