Most Important Skills For A Director Of Development At GridStor
Matthew, a Director of Development, emphasizes both "tenacity and a willingness to run through walls" as crucial soft skills, alongside strong communication and empathy to navigate the complexities of securing project approvals. The technical skills highlighted include a foundational understanding of earth systems, real estate finance (specifically discounted cashflow models), and land use permitting and law.
Tenacity and Resilience, Communication and Empathy, Understanding of Earth Systems, Real Estate Finance Knowledge, Land Use and Legal Background
Advizer Information
Name
Job Title
Company
Undergrad
Grad Programs
Majors
Industries
Job Functions
Traits
Matthew Gilliland
Director of Development
GridStor
UC Santa Barbara
UCLA Anderson MBA
Environmental & Related Sciences
Energy & Utilities
Operations and Project Management
None Applicable
Video Highlights
1. Tenacity and perseverance are crucial for overcoming obstacles and achieving project goals.
2. Strong communication, empathy, and influencing skills are essential for collaborating effectively with diverse stakeholders.
3. A baseline understanding of environmental geography, real estate finance, and land use permitting is highly valuable for technical success in the field of development.
Transcript
What skills are most important for a job like yours?
I would break the skill sets needed into two different buckets. One is your qualitative, "who are you?" skills. The other is technical training skills.
On the qualitative side, core skills for a developer include tenacity and a willingness to push through challenges. You need to be able to hear "no" four times and keep working until you get to "yes." That's fundamental to the job.
To achieve this, you need to be a good communicator with high levels of empathy. Understand where people are coming from and why they might provide certain information. Then, influence them in a way that aligns their goals with yours. These are essential soft skills.
They can be learned and honed. You might want to evaluate if you are good at or particularly enjoy these tasks before entering the role.
On the technical training side, a strong baseline understanding of environmental geography is important. This includes how site conditions, land, and water might affect you or how a project can affect them. Having a background in understanding earth systems is helpful.
An understanding of real estate finance and cashflow models for real estate projects is also important. Most of how we value and finance our projects is based on discounted cashflow models.
On the other technical side, a good sense of land use permitting and a little bit of legal background is beneficial. You don't have to be a lawyer, but having taken a law class or learned about land use law and zoning is a really helpful set of skills for land development.