20. Developing Human Skills

Human skills are also known as ‘people skills’ or ‘soft skills’ – those intangible things that really drive who you are, such as your strengths and weaknesses, resilience, how you plan your time, delivering on your promises, your self-awareness, your ability to communicate – and to communicate with impact and influence.

These aspects of who you are, are just as important as the skills you have.

 As the world of work has shifted, with many of us still not working in person in their workplace, these skills have become more important than ever before.

Renata Sguario is the founder of Maxme, a business that empowers tertiary students and new job seekers who are looking to improve their human skills.

Renata believes our school system is unevenly skewed towards developing skills and technical learnings, when the reality is that when we hit the workforce, we’re human beings working with other human beings, servicing human beings – but the value isn’t placed on the aspects that drive success, such as empathy and connection.  

As someone who has always been heavily involved in the graduate programs in her workplace, Renata has solid experience in mentoring young people through issues such as a lack of confidence, not knowing what they’re good at and how they can contribute. She quickly became known in her workplace as the go-to for her younger charges, and decided to contribute positively to this demographic by helping them solve their confidence and competence issues BEFORE they hit the workforce.

Renata says: "As women, we’re in a unique situation when it comes to human skills. Generally, we’re more nurturing than our male counterparts, but we aren’t always great at being self-aware when it comes to our value proposition. Once you recognise what you’re good at and where your strengths lie, you can invest in those areas within yourself that you’re naturally predisposed to be good at. Once you know your value, you become a lot more comfortable within yourself, and can act from a position of self-awareness and strength."



Renata believes that when women learn to empower themselves with the self-awareness and confidence that often seem to come so easily to their male counterparts, this is when their career has the potential to skyrocket.

Maxme exists to help young people maximise that potential.

Through immersive learning experiences, apps, programs and coaching, the team aims to equip users with the human skills they need to thrive in work and life.

Maxme’s associated app, Hodie, challenges users with ‘Mini Quests’ to help them tackle specific life and career challenges as they happen.

If you're a young person in the workforce, or have young people in your team, this is definitely a program you should check out.

To listen to my conversation with Renata Sguario, visit the Lady Leadership Podcast here.

To learn more about Maxme and the Hodie app, click here.