A survey of 300,000 people found that personal fulfilment is now the second most important workplace priority. Right up there with continuous skill-building and empathetic leadership.
Not job security. Not salary. Fulfillment.
This matters because at the same time, 39% of current skills will become obsolete in the next few years. One in four jobs will change significantly by 2030.
So we're in this moment where people want meaning from their work more than ever. And yes, the ground is shifting. But people aren't just trying to survive the shift. They're asking for something deeper.
What Can't Be Automated
The research also found that tasks tied to empathy, creativity, leadership, and curiosity have only a 13% chance of being transformed by AI.
Why? Because they depend on human judgment, context, and lived experience.
But here's what struck me: these aren't really tasks at all. They're expressions of who you are as a person. How you show up. What you bring.
You can't automate empathy because empathy comes from your capacity to be present with another person's experience. You can't automate creativity because creativity emerges from how you see the world. You can't automate leadership because leadership is fundamentally about your relationship with yourself and others.
These things aren't skills you acquire. They're capacities you develop through the inner work of becoming more fully yourself.
The Inner Work of Leading Through Uncertainty
When everything's changing and nothing's certain, the question shifts from "what skills do I need?" to "who am I becoming?"
Because when the ground is shifting, you can't rely on what you know. You can only rely on who you are.
If you've been doing purpose-driven work in complex environments, you've probably been doing this inner work whether you named it that way or not. Every time you've led without having the answers. Every time you've held space for difficult conversations. Every time you've found your center when everything felt chaotic.
That wasn't just doing your job. That was developing yourself as a leader.
Reconnecting With What Drives You
Here's what I'm noticing: when everything's changing this quickly, it's easy to lose touch with what actually matters to you.
You get caught up in trying to keep up. Trying to stay relevant. Trying to figure out what's next.
But the research is pointing to something important: people want fulfilment. They want meaning. They want to know that what they're doing matters.
And you can't find that by constantly adapting to external demands. You find it by reconnecting with your own values. With what drives you. With why you do this work in the first place.
When you're clear about that, the uncertainty becomes less destabilizing. Not because you have all the answers, but because you know what you're oriented toward.
The Question I'm Sitting With
So much of the conversation right now is about what capabilities you need, what skills to develop, how to stay competitive.
But I think the more important question is: what kind of leader are you becoming?
Not what you can do. But who you are. How you show up. What you stand for.
Because when 39% of skills become obsolete and the ground keeps shifting, the only thing that stays constant is you.
The question is whether you're doing the inner work to develop yourself, or just scrambling to keep up with external change.
Responses