What Are Soft Skills? Definition, Examples, and Why They Matter at Work

Think about a team you’ve been part of that worked really well together. Those team members had the technical skills and knowledge necessary to get the job done, but they also had something essential that can be hard to measure. They understood how to give and take, communicate, listen, think critically, stay positive, deal with setbacks, and adapt. Those skills (and others) are commonly known as soft skills. In this article, we’ll go over what soft skills are, why they matter, and how to develop and improve them to help your teams succeed. Soft skills are the interpersonal and self-management abilities that shape how effectively someone communicates, collaborates, leads, and adapts. Soft skills help people succeed in multiple types of work tasks and environments, while hard skills include the technical proficiency, certifications, and/or job training necessary to complete a specific task. Let’s look at some hard skills compared to soft skills to help clarify the differences. One key differentiator is that hard skills can be measured objectively, tested,…