Leaders want people who know their way around prompts. But old-school analytical skills have plenty of value.

For the most recent set of Associations Now Deep Dives, I spoke with a few association meeting professionals about what skills they feel are most essential to the job today. I expected to hear a lot about AI, personalization, and technology. Instead, I heard a lot about people.

For instance, Bonnie Stetz, CMP, senior director of event strategy at the Institute of Food Technologists, explained that there’s no shortage of tech-savvy pros who understand event logistics. But skilled negotiators who grasp the importance of engagement? That’s a little more rare. “When I was searching for someone for audience engagement and strategy work, there were a ton of amazing resumes for people who were very good at logistics, operation, and negotiations, but few who had the strategy and audience work that I needed on the engagement side,” she told me.

That focus on people skills in the meetings department applies to leadership roles of all sorts. A new survey of corporate recruiters by the Graduate Management Admission Council found that, yes, companies want to know about a potential hire’s AI savvy. But is it the most valued capability they’re looking for? No. The second, the fifth? Try fourteenth.

What’s more prized, according to the survey, is an ability to synthesize information, develop fresh ideas and communicate them. Now that AI is so ubiquitous that saying you have “AI skills” is like saying you know how to power up a laptop, employers are seeking “employees who can analyze its output, change direction based on the new information, and effectively communicate a path forward.”

Indeed, it’s those soft(er) skills that take precedence in organizations, partly because survey respondents say they’re sorely lacking things like “grit, managing human capital, and emotional intelligence.” Only one in five employers say the current batch of biz-school graduates are equipped to bring those skills to the organization.

Moreover, the need for successful communication skills is one that cuts across all regions and all industries. It’s revealing what the GMAC survey found when it drilled a little deeper into what communications challenges it’s prioritizing. Among the top skills were presentation and verbal communication, followed by active listening and conflict resolution. As the survey report puts it: “As ‘return to office’ policies solidify and new technologies continue to facilitate both in-person and digital communications, communicating effectively continues to be a core expectation among employers.”

This may suggest a different path for association education and training leaders than perhaps they’ve been pursuing. For the past three years, associations have scrambled to educate its members about AI tools, and there’s no question it’s not wasted effort—its impact is simply too broad. But it’s just as important to provide members with the necessary skills to interpret and discuss what they’ve learned, communicating effectively and understanding how ideas fit into overall organizational strategy. We still need thinkers and communicators. 

That speaks to another matter that came up in talking to association meeting planners. They are no longer just event professionals but ambassadors for the association’s overall strategy. Are your key volunteers and staffers equipped to play that role? And if not, what gets them there?

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