Soft Skills for the Professional Services Industry

CHAPTER 11Developing and Promoting People

A PROFESSIONAL SERVICES PROVIDER'S SUCCESS depends crucially on the qualifications of its employees. This applies to both professional qualifications and personal qualifications. Closely related to the personal qualification is the social competence of an employee as well as his soft skills. An essential and important task of a successful professional is therefore the professional and personal development and promotion of his employees. Anyone who wants to develop and promote other people should have two prerequisites:

1. He should have the willingness to develop himself professionally and personally.
2. He should be a positive role model.

A professional who believes that he has reached the zenith of his professional and personal qualifications after passing the exam to become a certified public accountant or lawyer has poor prerequisites for developing and promoting other people. Far predominantly they are not suitable for it. Because with the passed professional examinations a professional is only at the beginning of their professional career. This is true even if they already have many years of professional experience before passing the professional exams. Rather, the readiness for lifelong learning is inherent to professionals.

If you want to develop professionals, you have to demand something from them. Professionals develop with and through their tasks. For me, the principle is to encourage and challenge employees, but not to overtax ...