What they haven’t been taught – even at top-tier institutions – are vital soft skills like resilience, empathy and confidence.

In a recent McKinsey survey, 60 percent of employers said that new graduates were not adequately prepared for the world of work. Forty percent reported the main reason for entry-level job vacancies to be a lack of skills – notably, including in soft skills such as communication, teamwork, a love for learning and a willingness to take risks. These traits aren’t always listed as requirements in job postings, but they’re essential for success in the modern workplace.

I’m hardly the only CEO who feels this way. Last year, a Wall Street Journal survey of nearly 900 executives showed that 92 percent consider soft skills to be as important as or more important than technical skills. At the same time, nearly as many CEOs reported that their companies find it very or somewhat difficult to find employees with these attributes – even looking across all age groups and experience levels.

Why soft skills matter

But just why are soft skills – human skills – so crucial? First, they’re adaptable. As the economy and technology continue to change in unpredictable ways, skills like confidence, resilience, and critical thinking will prove invaluable in helping workers succeed in the face of unexpected workplace demands.

Moreover, they’re the skills that are safest from automation. Entire industries are built on trust, and building trust still requires advanced social-emotional and interpersonal skills. Even as new technology comes into the workplace, the human element will remain not only vital but the exclusive domain of humans.

As the CEO of Tupperware Brands, I’ve had the opportunity to observe the impact of these soft skills first-hand, because our entire business is built on interpersonal relationships. Even as online sales rise, the Tupperware parties that have long been associated with our brand remain at the heart of our sales model, and our most reliable conversions still come from person-to-person demonstrations.

That’s not to say we’re not changing. New technology is critical to us, from both a sales and an R&D perspective, and our supply chain is evolving. But our three-million strong global sales force remains our single greatest asset. They serve as grassroots advertisers, brand advocates, and cultural ambassadors in new markets.

We can’t succeed without them, and they couldn’t succeed without their human touch.

Human potential leads to human prosperity

Given how vital we know these soft skills to be for our own brand, we’ve fostered them in various ways for decades. But more recently, we decided to take a more empirical approach: we partnered with Georgetown University to explore whether positive confidence cycles can have the same impact in other companies.

The Hard Value of Soft Skills report conducted in partnership with researchers at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business, clearly illustrates that social and emotional skills – and in particular, confidence – is a strong driver of business and professional success. Most importantly, confidence can be systematically cultivated among workers, regardless of geography. Best of all, workers who are more confident also report increased productivity and an improved ability to overcome challenges.

The research did uncover that millennials clearly see confidence as a driver for workplace success (89%) but so do most other workers (86%). And this is true across gender, age and geography. That said, what is interesting is that the “Confidence Effect” is seen as something that goes beyond on-the-job experience or even years of experience. What most found empowering was that confidence was something that could be cultivated and is not something one is necessary born with or without. As someone who has spoken about the value of confidence over the years, I’ve seen that in some cultures and workplaces, confidence can be mistaken for arrogance. While both arrogance and confidence relate to holding a strong belief in one’s ability, arrogance is found in one who views themselves as superior to others, unwilling to admit mistakes, whereas one who is confident finds strength in not only admitting their mistakes but learning from them.

Our research further validated this belief. We found that organizations that give workers permission to fail, and promote this belief, had the ability to increase their employees’ confidence up to 30%.  It’s also important to note that across gender, geographies and organizations, workers responded better to this pro-failure message when it was seen as integral part of the company culture rather than a message directed by a direct supervisor.

And while millennials might not see the immediate benefits of the Confidence Effect, our research shows building confidence boosts employee productivity and positively impacts results. This research underscores my rallying cry for other CEOs: do not ignore soft skills. Focus on building organizational cultures that both nurture the personal development of individuals and benefit the bottom line.

There’s no telling where technology will take us in the years to come. But I’m certain that no matter what new developments arise, innovation will never outpace the power of human potential. That’s why today’s leaders must focus on developing their most valuable resource – human capital.

Business leaders need to help workers to develop their full range of skills. Only then will we be able to close the gap between human capacity and capability, and turn human potential into human prosperity.

About the author:

Rick Goings is Chairman and CEO of Tupperware Brands Corporation.  Throughout his career he has held a number of global senior management positions in Europe, Asia and the U.S. He is a Steward of the World Economic Forum’s Gender, Education and Work initiative and many other initiatives.

The result of this transformation: We are moving into a post-corporation world, with an economy based not on hierarchies, but collaboration. Let me be clear: neither big business nor small enterprises are dead. However, they will have to change – to provide employment, and to survive.

The transition to this Collaboration Economy will not be easy.

• Too many people are not equipped to thrive in it.
• Too many companies cling to their old hierarchies and sclerotic supply chains.

Without support, they will not succeed.

The entrepreneur is dead. Long live the entrepreneur.

Our world doesn’t have a jobs crisis. Instead, there are not enough opportunities to earn money. We know that job creation by decree doesn’t work; it’s unaffordable and pushes people into dead-end jobs. So when jobs are scarce, entrepreneurial opportunity is critical. We have to help people identify the skills they have, teach them the skills they lack and equip them for work they love.

However, tell most people that they should become an “entrepreneur” and they panic. That’s because in the public mind, “innovators” and “entrepreneurs” are mythical beings riding the unicorns of Silicon Valley. The media and pundits have created an unrealistic image of what an entrepreneur does and what innovation means.

Being an entrepreneur is not about coding apps or closing a funding round. We have to bring expectations back to a human scale. A Chinese homemaker in Chongqing, a young school leaver in South Africa’s Diepsloot township, or even a Ph.D. in Santiago de Chile will struggle to be the next Mark Zuckerberg. 90% of the world’s population under the age of 30 live in emerging markets. They can’t all find work by boosting their SAT scores in STEM subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics).

If we want to help people enter the Collaboration Economy, we have to reposition the “innovation bar.” Inventing flying cars and better rockets is great, but not everybody has to be a tech entrepreneur. Let’s celebrate new business concepts and the gig economy as well, because they can also offer meaningful careers, especially ones which don’t require tech training.

Moreover, if we break down the tasks of running your own business, people quickly say: “Hang on a minute, I can do that.”

I recently visited our teams in Indonesia and China. When you hear the stories of these women, regardless of their background, they have what it takes to be a real entrepreneur.

Like entrepreneurs the world over, they have three basics in common:

1. Tools: People need the right tool set, both regarding technology and fundamental business knowledge.
2. Formula: An excellent idea does not make a successful business; it helps to have a simple, consistent and scalable, proven method, while those with a genuinely original idea may need mentorship to turn that spark into their formula.
3. Mindset: That’s arguably the most important ingredient. Entrepreneurs need some grit and confidence. With the right support, this mindset can be learned.

Success in the collaboration economy needs these three basics.

Young people can get this help fairly readily. Adults are usually left to their own devices. No wonder that many start-ups fold within four to five years. Passionate people may run them, but they lack a formula and business tools.

For the Collaboration Economy to thrive, we need to give everybody a chance to learn these tools, find the right formula and get the mindset – so that they can earn an income. Uber is a taxi company that has no taxis but a successful formula. Not long ago I met an older woman working as an Uber driver. She used to clean houses. Now she earns more money and has more flexibility. “Now I can pick up my granddaughter from school,” she told me. She knew how to drive, so didn’t need to learn anything new. What she needed was a successful business model.

In China, we now have 5,500 Tupperware studios. When I speak to our entrepreneurs, it’s evident that their success comes from a combination of tools, formula, and mindset – especially non-cognitive skills.

The Collaboration Economy is taking shape, whether a “formula”based on business models  like Tupperware’s, or the ability of entrepreneurs to plug into technology ecosystems like Uber, or -locally -companies like Orahi in India, PortoLeve in Brazil or SafeMoto in Rwanda. They all draw their strength from the entrepreneurial grit of thousands of businesses and individuals.

There’s probably never been a better time to be an entrepreneur. People can right-size their business because they can be agile and scale – all the way from having a gig to growing a big enterprise.

Companies as conveners

Where does that leave traditional businesses? Once there was a corporate staircase, from sole traders up to multinational giants, and entrepreneurs trying to climb it quickly realized: Mount Everest had nothing on it. Now this staircase has been transformed into a sliding scale, where technology and new ways of working have removed much of the friction. Small companies can be as powerful as their biggest rivals, and the giants can be as nimble as tiny competitors.

However, many businesses are held back by their old hierarchies and cumbersome procurement processes. If these firms hope to succeed in the Collaboration Economy, they have to disentangle themselves from their rigid ways of working.

They have to identify their core business, the source of their competitive advantage. It’s only here that they’ll win. Everything else can be left to outside specialists – to their collaborators in the Collaboration Economy.

This kind of set-up, powered by a clever and open procurement process, is especially attractive for emerging markets. They have already managed to leapfrog whole generations of technology – using mobile solutions instead of landline phones and traditional banking. They can do the same with corporate models.

Many large enterprises, meanwhile, will realize that they are lumbering under the weight of vertical integration. To win, they need to be exceptionally nimble.

Too many of them are trapped, however, in the momentum of their corporate structure. Bosses and boards fear failure and focus on quarterly performance, compliance, and efficiencies. They don’t scan their strategic horizon for the next big shift. When they fail, it’s often because their strategy was looking backward and inward.

Ultimately, the company of the future has to be a collaboration tool; a platform or ecosystem underpinned by a set of values and a core business model. Companies have to become the conveners of the Collaboration Economy and help people plug into their business.

The economic fault lines are rupturing already, everywhere. We can protect ourselves against these jolts if we equip both individuals and corporations with the frameworks necessary to build the Collaboration Economy.

About the author:

Rick Goings is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Tupperware Brands Corporation, a leading global marketer of relationship-based selling. The portfolio includes not only Tupperware, but multiple beauty brands including Avroy Shlain Cosmetics, BeautiControl, Fuller Cosmetics, NaturCare, Nutrimetics, and Nuvo Cosmetics brands.