Soft Skills are Leading Skills
When you think of a leader’s traits, what comes to mind?
It’s rarely technical brilliance alone. More often it’s how they connect using their soft skills – how they listen, how they respectfully challenge, and how they both involve and bring others along for the ride.
Soft skills are our interpersonal abilities shaping how we interact and work with others. They include communication, emotional intelligence, self-awareness, empathy for others, conflict resolution, and adaptability.
And these skills are crucial in the professional services workplace for building trust, motivating teams, and effectively navigating challenges. As Seth Godin (American Author with 20 books on customer management) says, soft skills are anything but soft — they’re real skills. And they help people collaborate, they help to solve problems, they can even help to lead through uncertainty.
Why soft skills matter more than ever
In today’s hybrid, high-pressure workplaces, management isn’t about control – it’s about connection. Leaders who invest in emotional and interpersonal capability see measurable gains in their team’s engagement, retention and productivity*.
At Edmonds Facilitation, we see this regularly. When a team learns to really talk and to manage friction before it becomes conflict, then performance improves. Culture shifts when leaders learn to read a room, with a curious mindset rather than critical one.
That’s why we treat soft skills in the workplace as strategic assets – not optional extras.
From knowing to doing
The good news is these skills can be learned. Through interactive workshops, we help participants turn insight into action through conversations, stories and shared experiences.
Our workshops, whether it’s DISC Team Building or Emotional Intelligence, build confidence in the human side of leadership. Participants discover how their own behavioural style shapes the way they lead, and how small adjustments can make a big difference in how others respond.
Managing isn’t about being someone else — it’s about understanding yourself and leading with purpose.
Soft skills in practice
Soft skills are the bridge between potential and performance. Consider:
- A manager who talks, but never really listens.
- A team leader who avoids hard conversations, right up until they explode.
- A technically brilliant engineer who struggles to give feedback.
These aren’t failures of intelligence — they are in fact gaps in awareness.
That’s where frameworks like the Johari Window, as we explored in Having the Conversation, become powerful. This particular framework help managers to see what’s hidden, invite feedback, and grow trust.
Building better teams
When teams focus on their soft skills, something shifts in the dynamics of that team. As we noted in How’s Your Small Talk?, small talk can turn into shared understanding. Leaders who take time to connect become more confident in those tricky moments that matter.
And as we explored at Speaker’s Corner, Brisbane, courage in communication is a learnable skill too.
The result? Teams with higher soft skills have better cohesion and collaborate more easily. Projects run more smoothly, and workplaces feel more human.
Why soft skills matter
At Edmonds Facilitation, we believe leadership isn’t about titles — it’s about relationships.
We help managers and their cross-functional teams build their skills to have the conversations that matter, those that build trust and alignment.
Soft skills aren’t “nice to have.” They’re the skills that make everything else work!
Ready to invest in your team’s real skills?
Contact us today to discuss tailored workshops for your leaders, and their cross-functional teams in 2026.
Evidence on the Impact of Emotional and Interpersonal Capability
* Leaders who invest in emotional and interpersonal capability see measurable gains in their team’s engagement, retention and productivity
- “Emotional Intelligence Has 12 Elements. Which Do You Need to Work On?” (Harvard Business Review, Feb 2017). HBR reports that emotional intelligence directly influences leadership effectiveness, employee trust, and team engagement. Leaders high in EI drive stronger collaboration and lower turnover.
- “State of the Global Workplace Report 2025” – Gallup. Gallup finds that managers account for 70% of variance in team engagement, and teams with engaged managers show 23% higher profitability and significantly lower attrition.
- “The Case for Leadership Development” (McKinsey & Company, 2021). McKinsey’s global study links investment in leadership soft skills (especially empathy and psychological safety) with a 50% increase in employee performance metrics and stronger retention outcomes. This is because these skills create a work environment where employees feel comfortable sharing ideas, taking risks, and collaborating, which in turn leads to higher performance and a stronger desire to stay with the company.
