Nurturing Soft Skills: A Practical Guide for Developing Leadership and Financial Literacy Skills in Children

By Peace E. Ani

The speed of change, advances in technology and communication mediums means we are required to be more nimble in order to adapt to the rapidly evolving competitive landscape. Research by the World Economic Forum (WEF) and McKinsey (Management consultancy) highlights the increasing importance of soft skills, setting out the critical skills that will be required from the future workforce. Furthermore, it is becoming increasingly challenging for parents to equip their children with the qualities to be resilient to face life’s challenges and flourish.
Nurturing Soft Skills introduces the COACH framework to help parents nurture Confident, Outgoing, Articulate, Creative and Happier children, who feel empowered to try new things and believe they can always bounce back if success is not immediate.
This book is about creating a caring and supportive environment for nurturing such qualities, laying solid foundations during a child’s most formative years, developing enquiring minds with the ability to problem-solve, the motivation to excel, and for lasting happy childhood memories.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Troubador Publishing Ltd
• Release date: Feb 9, 2021
• ISBN: 9781800468344

Peace E. Ani

A financial services professional with over 15 years’ industry experience, Peace Ani has worked for leading global financial services institutions, across Investment Banking, Asset Management and the Specialty insurance market.

Book preview

"Soft skills are absolutely critical to maximise one’s potential. Sometimes parents make the mistake that because their child is academically brilliant that they will reach unprecedented heights of success, however they underestimate the importance of emotional intelligence and interpersonal skills that will get them there.

Peace is on to a winner here with this insightful book. It is great to see that she has written this book covering some of the ideas she shared with me (approximately 20 years ago), when she started to become aware of the importance of interpersonal skills as a means of achieving success in life and in the corporate world.

This is a must-read for all ages who want to be successful in their interpersonal relationships on their way to business and leadership success."

Mrs A. D’Almeida,

Pastor, Author, Social Entrepreneur and Director of Administration.

"Congratulations and very well done on writing this magnificent piece – truly practical and very comprehensive! A must-read for all parents. I learnt so much from reviewing the manuscript. A lot of time, thought, effort, hard work and diligence must have gone into this.

I love that the illustrations are evidence-based from respected and irrefutable sources, which gives credibility to the assertions. I found the approach very balanced, with lots of practical tips and detailed guidelines around implementation which adds value to the book as it’s not just theoretical.

The use of summaries at the end of each chapter combined with the personal examples is in itself innovative for this type of book. It will encourage the reader."

Mr A. Odunsi

Minister, Management Consultant and Businessman

As a former primary school teacher with many years’ experience, I found this book very interesting and have enjoyed editing it.

Mrs J. Hoyle

Education Professional

The skills mentioned in the book are useful for parents and children, but it can be a challenge to achieve them (as a full-time working executive); that’s why I send my children to independent schools to learn and enhance all those good soft skills.

Mrs R. Oliver

Head of Operational Agility, Specialty Insurance

My son was one of the early participants of the Child Prodigy pilot programme back in 2014 and I believe it’s a great vision. I encouraged Peace to share some of her ideas in a book for the benefit of those who are not able to attend the workshops, and I’m glad she finally did. I believe there are a lot of children’s destinies that will be unlocked from applying the tips and content from this programme and the book.

Pastor G. Gbedawo

Author and Founder of SIM

I warm very much to the general material in the book as it covers such useful information on how to encourage healthy, happy, confident and creative children. To me these key qualities (and others) are appropriate for all children. Teachers and (future) employers may also have an interest in helping to encourage such ‘rounded’ qualities in developing personalities.

DC

Journalism and Media Professional

My son joined the Child Prodigy club when he started reception in 2014. Though it was for a short time, he thoroughly enjoyed it. The emphasis on building Soft Skills such as, leadership qualities and confidence at such an early stage was what appealed to me. I’m looking forward to the club restarting in the future.

Ms Dzifa

Nurse, mother of 11-year-old

Copyright © 2021 Peace E. Ani

The moral right of the author has been asserted.

Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, this publication may only be reproduced, stored or transmitted, in any form or by any means, with the prior permission in writing of the publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction in accordance with the terms of licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside those terms should be sent to the publishers.

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ISBN 9781800468344

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Matador is an imprint of Troubador Publishing Ltd

Dedicated to my children,

and all children for hope of a bright future.

Train up a child in the way they should go: and when they are old, they will not depart from it.

Proverbs 22:6 (KJV)

About the Author

Peace E. Ani started her career in investment banking in the City after graduating with first class honours in BSc Mathematical Sciences in 2004. She is also the co-founder of Child Prodigy, a soft skills development workshop programme for children. Peace has over 16 years of professional experience within leading global institutions. She blogs for City Parents, where she has published several popular blogs.

As a senior professional and full-time working mother, she has a first-hand understanding of the challenges that new parents deal with trying to balance it all, as well as key insights into the skill sets that our children will need to develop early on to be more successful.

Peace has an MBA from Imperial College Business School and is also an Oxford University scholar where she completed a post-graduate degree in Strategy and Innovation. She holds a Fellow membership of the Chartered Management Institute (CMI), a chartered professional body in the UK, committed to the highest standards in management and leadership practice.

Peace believes in the unlimited potential in children with the right nurturing, and has a passion for inspiring young minds to maximise their potential. She is regularly called upon to give keynote speeches and inspirational talks at seminars, school events and conferences.

Contents

Foreword

Introduction

Part I

Chapter 1: Hard Skills versus Soft Skills

Chapter 2: Confident

Chapter 3: Outgoing

Chapter 4: Articulate

Chapter 5: Creative

Chapter 6: Happy

Chapter 7: Financial Intelligence Quotient (FiQ)

Part II

Chapter 8: Parental Attributes

Chapter 9: Mind-set and Values

Chapter 10: Future Proofing

Conclusion: A leadership culture

Epilogue: Leaders Never Stop Learning

Acknowledgements

Additional Resources

Reference Notes

Foreword

Although schools play a vital role in educating children, Nurturing Soft Skills focuses on the role parents need to play in equipping children with essential life skills. Lengthy COVID-19 lock-down periods, which have left some children without formal schooling for six months, have brought this into sharp focus.

Nurturing Soft Skills provides practical advice on how parents and guardians can use everyday activities to develop self-confidence and independent thinking skills in children. Peace Ani has carried out extensive research into approaches and theories on child development and introduces the COACH framework to facilitate the development of these skills in young children. This book skilfully demonstrates how parents can guide their children through a journey of self-discovery to become Confident, Outgoing, Articulate, Creative and Happy. Peace shares numerous examples from her own experience as a parent, and case studies based on her research, about how to develop leadership skills and enquiring minds in children.

Why is this important?

Today’s children will be entering a globally competitive workforce where academic qualifications alone will not be enough. Employers are starting to place much more value on resilience, effective communication, self-motivation and confidence. This was confirmed in research conducted by the Sutton Trust in 2017, where 94% of employers surveyed indicated that life skills, including communication and teamwork, are as or more important than academic qualifications in the workplace.

Parents will learn the importance of playing an active and critical role in the development of their children, with tools and tips on how to lay the right foundation to nurture confident, creative and inquisitive minds; skills that will be of use throughout education, work and life.

Alice Sterling Honig, PhD, a professor in Child Development, and a licensed psychologist, averred, Family is the first school for young children, and parents are powerful models.

If you think the responsibility to educate your child sits in schools, this book will challenge you to think again!

Teresa Esan, MBE

Education Consultant and Career Coach

Introduction

Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.

John F. Kennedy

In today’s world of technological and social media advancement, the world is described as a ‘global village’ – a single community closely connected by information technology, with distance rapidly reduced by electronic social media. The term ‘global village’, coined by the Canadian media theorist Marshall McLuhan, was popularised in his book Understanding Media (1964). McLuhan described how technology has contracted the globe into a village due to the instantaneous movement of information. The use of technology has resulted in positive progress for society, in terms of people having the ability to reach out and transcend their neighbourhoods. This has resulted in increased communication between acquaintances, friends and families through social media, which may not have been possible otherwise. However, the digital age also has implications for forming new social norms, and the sociological implications of the ‘global village’ are yet to be fully realised.

Borrowing the term ‘village’ and its conceptual meaning, I am going to leap to another instance where a similar idea, albeit within a different context, forms the basis for this book.

The old saying ‘it takes a village to raise a child’ is still relevant today. This conceptual village can include: parents, teachers, mentors, sports coaches, music teachers, swimming instructors, private tutors, Sunday school teachers, friends’ parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles, nannies, au pairs, childminders, doctors and nurses, neighbours, TV or, dare I say it, social media. The various individuals or elements that make up the cohort of our customised ‘village’ sometimes act as an oversight or engagement tool. In some instances, the individuals involved go beyond their professional capacity, demonstrated by the advice they offer, keeping an eye on the children on behalf of the parents, reinforcing discipline or reporting any unusual goings-on in the neighbourhood. Essentially, this ‘village’ is composed of people or tools that contribute to a child’s well-being, learning and development in one way or another. This includes anyone who has pointed out an undesirable behaviour in a child, exposed them to enriching experiences, offered babysitting services or helped to support the parents in any way. Fundamentally, for a child to maximise their potential, it takes more than the parents being fully engaged and playing their role as best as possible. This is especially true in situations with different family dynamics from the traditional setup, or where the parents have to rely on external support for some elements of their childcare and the child’s development.

Typically, parents taking an interest in good child-rearing and education want their children to be happy, courageous, authentic individuals who flourish in their endeavours, and do better than they have. Most parents want their children to be successful – to aspire and one day inspire, while getting the most out of life. However, success in this area can mean different things depending on the circumstances and phase of life. Success can mean: a fun and memorable childhood; good SATs or eleven-plus secondary school common entrance exam result; raising conscientious, kind and empathetic children; or for your child to have the analytic prowess to escape the grasp of superstition and fake news. Therefore, success in applying the best practices is of course relative and defined by different idiosyncratic measures.

In my personal experience, I find that some people, who measure success by how much money they have in the bank account, find they are still lacking something and are still not happy when they get the money they thought was all they needed. We all want to be successful and maximise our potential, but in my opinion, success should be measured by influence and positive impact on society. Therefore, as parents and caretakers, our children’s journey is in our hands to some extent. This is because we have the responsibility to start them off, through teaching and modelling the skill sets and behaviours that they will need for a fulfilling life experience. As they lead themselves and others into a future world where the only certainty is change, parents have the first opportunity to either set their children up well – or let the status quo decide their future.

Whilst this is not a responsibility to be taken lightly, the beauty of it is that the little things we do every day can make such a big difference in the long term, in nurturing and supporting children to maximise their potential.

Nurturing Soft Skills is a guide for developing soft skills, specifically authentic leadership, and financial literacy as a key area of competency in children. Leadership is a term used frequently in politics, business or corporate environments, as employers