Covering all the character traits that enable us to navigate our lives, soft skills can be difficult to quantify, but that doesn’t detract from their business desirability. In this guide, we’ve compiled a list of some of the most useful soft skills for professionals – examples that are of significant benefit to organizations and teams.

Communication soft skill examples

Every business can gain from improving employees’ communication skills. They encourage the ability to spread new ideas, speed up processes, improve staff relations and are crucial to generating revenue. Personnel in HR, sales and managerial positions – roles heavily dependent on interpersonal abilities and relationship building – can benefit most from strong communication skills.

• Verbal communication
• Written communication
• Body language
• Storytelling
• Humour
• Listening skills
• Public speaking

Teamwork soft skill examples

Teamwork-based soft skills are essential in practically every workplace. If employees are unable to operate as one, work quality, productivity and staff retention will suffer, making teamwork skills necessary for staff at every organisational level.

• Facilitation
• Collaboration
• Cooperation
• Emotional intelligence
• Empathy
• Persuasion
• Self-awareness
• Tolerance

Problem-solving soft skill examples

Most companies are in the problem-solving business, and with strong skills, challenges can be surmounted intelligently, quickly and efficiently. Employees responsible for production, planning and strategy often rely most on these sorts of skills, given their need to weigh options and actions against one another and deal with complex, changing problems economically.

• Adaptability
• Analytical skills
• Initiative
• Critical thinking
• Lateral thinking
• Logical thinking
• Resourcefulness

Leadership soft skill examples

Businesses need strong direction and smart management to thrive. Leadership skills help guarantee this, bolstering processes and people to help organisations achieve their goals. Such skills are normally essential for senior-level employees, relied upon to steer and manage businesses so they perform effectively.

• Strategic thinking
• Mentorship
• Delegation
• Conflict resolution
• Diplomacy
• Constructive critique
• Decisiveness
• Managerial skill
• Persuasion
• Motivation
• Negotiation

Work ethic soft skill examples

A well-developed work ethic benefits every aspect of an employee’s work, helping them be more productive and professional. These skills are especially important for lower-level employees and those changing their role or career; individuals who need to be able to confidently take advantage of opportunities, excel at tasks and impress managers.

• Confidence
• Courtesy
• Energy
• Enthusiasm
• Friendliness
• Honesty
• Patience
• Respectfulness
• Attentiveness
• Dedication
• Dependability
• Discipline
• Independence

Further reading

Creative soft skill examples

Key to producing and promoting effective products and services, these soft skills help employees in creative roles find new, interesting and powerful solutions to business and customer challenges.

• Imagination
• Curiosity
• Semantic understanding
• Flexibility
• Inspiration
• Investigation
• Scepticism
• Experimentation

By developing the soft skills of your workforce, you can unlock considerable benefits for your organization. View our guides to learning the difference between hard and soft skills and why soft skills are so important for businesses.

Find out more about Learnlight’s soft skills training programmes, request a demo of the Learnlight 11 platform or contact our team today.