Chapter 1: Identify Essential Soft Skills

A simple, tailored approach to address your soft skills gaps

Navigating soft skills overload

Hundreds of soft skills shape success across industries. The challenge isn’t identifying them—it’s deciding which ones to develop. The possibilities may seem endless, but your resources aren’t.

Time

Employees cite lack of time as the biggest obstacle to learning new skills at work.

Capacity

Overloading an employee’s working memory leads to less learning, not more.

Without a strategy, companies risk wasting energy on peripheral skills while ignoring critical competencies.

This chapter helps you identify and prioritize the soft skills that best align with your business needs, industry context, and workforce capabilities.

STEP 1

Align soft skills with business objectives

Try this two-part process to develop a soft skills strategy that aligns with your organization’s needs:

Part 1: Define your goals

List your top priorities for the next 12-24 months—from company-wide initiatives down to departmental and role-specific objectives. What projects are in the pipeline, what do you aim to achieve, and what outcomes are critical to success?

Part 2: Map soft skills

Identify the soft skills that support your objectives. For example, a company-wide structural change may require adaptability across all teams, while improving customer satisfaction might demand enhanced empathy for support staff.

A practical example

After defining your goals and identifying relevant soft skills, you can map them in a simple 3-column chart. Here’s an example:

Goal	Relevant roles	Applicable soft skills
Boost project speed by 15%	All employees	Time management Problem-solving
Improve project planning	Project managers	Strategic thinking Decision-making
Reduce asset revisions	Designers	Interpreting creative direction Applying feedback

STEP 2

Validate your skills strategy

You’ve identified the skills that align with your business objectives. Did you miss anything? Validate your list against broader patterns with the following strategies:

Check universal trends

Some soft skills—like communication, problem-solving, and adaptability—are essential across industries and time. Research workforce reports from organizations that track job market trends and employer priorities to uncover these in-demand skills.

Analyze industry-specific patterns

Different industries require different skills, so review sector-specific reports and competitor job descriptions. Don’t forget your internal experts either! Send a survey or interview department heads to discover what patterns they’ve detected.

Forecast future needs

Trends reflect the past, but what about the future? Research organizations regularly predict which skills will become critical in the years ahead—especially as technology advances.

Find the patterns

Focus on consistent signals rather than isolated data points.

Skills that appear regularly across multiple sources are the strongest indicators of lasting importance.

STEP 3

Crowdsource your priorities

Your soft skills list is likely packed. Which skills should you assess and develop first?

Identify your priority skills by gathering input across your organization. You can send a survey or hold roundtable discussions. For example, you might ask:

Executive leadership: “Prioritize the following skills based on their potential to drive long-term objectives and future success.”

Team managers: “Prioritize the following skills based on which ones most directly impact your team's performance.”

Individual contributors: “Prioritize the following skills based on which ones you most need to succeed in your role.”

Prioritize high-ranking skills. Focus on those that consistently top the list and revisit lower-ranked ones later.

STEP 4

Uncover the skill gaps

You’ve identified which soft skills employees need most. But how many of those skills do employees need help developing? Use a mix of surveys, performance data, and objective testing to pinpoint the best candidates for soft skills training—and to establish a baseline you can revisit later to measure impact.

Company-wide surveys

List your priority skills and ask employees to rate how comfortable they feel using them. Managers can also submit rankings on where they think their teams need support.

Objective testing

Go beyond self-perception with knowledge checks, scenario-based exercises, and branching simulations to measure how employees apply soft skills in real-world situations—helping you separate competence from confidence.

Tip: We’ll explore how to create these checkpoints in the next chapter.

Performance assessments

Chances are, this isn’t your first skills evaluation. Tap past performance reviews, customer feedback, and productivity metrics to identify recurring skill gaps.

Scaling soft skills training

How many soft skills do you need to develop? The answer might feel overwhelming. But even a long list doesn’t require a large team to make meaningful progress.

Take the Irish Rugby Football Union. With just two people on the L&D team and a long list of training priorities, they equiped subject matter experts with intuitive course creation tools. Now, experts can draft high-quality training in as little as 15 minutes—keeping pace with demand without burning out.

Read their story

Your soft skills checklist

Need help? This list serves as an extra resource to help you stay focused on soft skills and revisit your priorities as your strategy evolves.

Self-Management	Critical Thinking	Communication	Relationships	Leadership
Accountability	Analytical reasoning	Active listening	Collaboration	Coaching and mentoring
Adaptability	Problem-solving	Feedback skills	Teamwork	Delegation
Emotional regulation	Creative thinking	Strategic storytelling	Empathy	Motivating others
Resilience	Decision-making	Presentation skills	Conflict resolution	Change management
Focused attention	Process improvement	Diplomacy	Networking	Ethical leadership
Personal initiative	Research and analysis	Meeting facilitation	Negotiation	Cross-team collaboration
Self-awareness	Risk assessment	Conversational agility	Influence and persuasion	Organizational strategy
Stress management	Strategic planning	Crisis communication	Cultural competence	Resource management
Time management	Systems thinking	Business writing	Conflict mediation	Team development
Work-life balance	Ethical judgment	Clarity and conciseness	Trust-building	Crisis leadership

No two teams, businesses, or challenges are alike—which makes customization the cornerstone of impactful soft skills development.

Now that you’ve identified priorities and gaps, you’re equipped to develop the skills that will move your business and people forward.