My title was just recently changed from Training and Documentation Specialist to People Development Specialist.  I believe it is more impactful now and I'm scared that I'm not able to fulfill the role in the truest sense of the title.  What if People will not develop?  That is the challenge - to keep the employees engaged, aligned to the business goals, and have the desire to develop themselves.


Now I don't want to worry about other people?  I will just think about what I need to develop in myself first and we'll figure out if that will be applicable to others.  Let us consider these soft skills that can be learned and applied early on.


Here are some of the essential skills that I can share based on the learnings in my leadership course at U of T and my training in UK last year:


Time and Cost are 2 of the 3 constraints of a project and definitely managing these 2 are your top priorities in order for your to become successful in whatever project or career you are into.


1. Money Management - knowing how to create budget, living within means and not accruing credit card debt is crucial.  In the past, financial literacy was rarely discussed except for those interested with studying commerce and business. Today, no matter where your income is coming from, you need to become good in your bookkeeping and balancing the debit and credit.  If you are good with managing your own money, then you'll be good at doing it for your organization.  Companies are now focusing on projects and initiatives that save money.  This skill is a must.


2. Time Management - With so many social media apps and other distractions, we sometimes lose focus on important things.  We don't want to miss an appointment, or be late in a meeting or submitting a school work or perform a task.  The skill to balance time is as equally important as in balancing the books.  There are so many things to do now, household chores, being physically fit, meeting friends, attending class aside from spending the bulk of your time at work.  The key is to learn how to balance the time, identify which are priority, which can be done at the same time with another (multi-tasking) without decreasing the value of the outcome or which can be transferred or shared with another. Learning how to self-manage your stress-level and your time, is an indispensable skill that everyone needs to be confident with.  Success is based on you and you alone.


3. Conflict Resolution - Employers are now adding this as a skill that they will look for in a candidate. Being in L&D, I have opportunities to attend training. I have attended numerous sessions about personality traits, finding out your temperaments and handling difficult people.  I also remember sessions about influencing and conflict management.  All these are good sessions except that the success of it depends on the application and experience. I hope that we will have opportunities to handle situations that call for preventing or resolving conflicts.  I only remember WIN -WIN as my keywords and it meant to always choose the positive outcome and whatever is best for everyone.