One Development

This is a serious question, because we don't know. The new England rugby coach has undoubted game skills and experience, tremendous leadership skills and presence and an inspirational record. But as he admitted himself, he has no coaching experience. This is an extreme example, I know, but it does illustrate a point that we tend to think (a) that coaching skills are unimportant and can be learned on the job and (b) that training seems to be seen as less important the higher you climb the management ladder. An employee may need an NVQ before they will be considered for a job in their local leisure centre but it's okay to choose a top coach with no previous coaching training or qualification and keep our fingers crossed that he is a 'natural'.

There has been a great deal said by employers and HR professionals about the relative importance of skills and qualifications. Of course qualifications play a vital role in confirming that certain standards have been achieved and can be quantified. However, one of the key shortcoming many employers flag up is the lack of the softer skills... the general management and interpersonal skills. Interestingly, it appears the higher the qualifications... in many cases the lower the other skills. Rarely are this skills 'taught'. In fact it may be true that such skills are more amenable to training and coaching than teaching. I have worked with some very highly qualified people such as lawyers and doctors. They are often are first to recognise the need for the development of those soft skills. Other professionals however, engineers, architects etc. though equally qualified, seem slower to embrace training in more general skills. There seems still to be an assumption that skills like rel