Technical expertise is not everything! It is only through soft skills that employees become a true asset to your company. We reveal which five soft skills are particularly important in companies – and how employees can best acquire them.
Soft skills in companies, together with hard skills, determine professional success and thus often the success of your entire business. These non-technical competencies include:
personal competencies such as self-confidence,
social competencies such as teamwork,
methodological competencies such as self-organization.
In the following, we present the top 5 soft skills in companies that are crucial to being truly successful – and explain what soft skill training for the most important soft skills for your employees can look like.
These are the top 5 soft skills in companies
As part of the Workplace Learning Report 2019, LinkedIn analyzed global data to identify the most important hard and soft skills in companies. While key hard skills naturally depend heavily on the industry and field of work, the following five soft skills in companies are important in all areas:
Soft Skill 1: Creativity
Soft Skill 2: Persuasion
Soft Skill 3: Analytical thinking
Soft Skill 4: Teamwork
Soft Skill 5: Adaptability
But why are these exact five soft skills so important in companies, and how can your employees learn or practice them?
Soft Skill No. 1: Creativity
Creativity as a soft skill is the ability to develop good and, as far as possible, novel solutions to problems. (soft-skills.com)
Solving problems and finding strategies is the foundation for the development of any business. Whether it's new products, unique marketing, or innovative sales strategies – creativity as a soft skill is needed in all areas of the company!
Creative employees constantly develop new ideas, try out new strategies, and bring the creative drive. Provided that creativity as a soft skill is not only encouraged but also directed into productive channels, because without goal orientation, even the most creative idea will not lead to success.
Learning creativity
To a certain extent, creativity, like all soft skills in companies, is more pronounced in some employees than in others. However, employees can also learn and train creative thinking. There are countless tips and guides for this, such as these 7 tricks for more creativity.
As mentioned, it is particularly important for companies to give creativity a framework. For instance, it helps to ask the following questions:
What for? – Focus on the purpose of the creative work.
How? – Find different ways and approaches.
Why not? – Break out of habits and old thinking patterns.
You can teach such and many other methods to employees in training courses to strengthen creativity and align results with company goals. To make the soft skill training immediately creative, you can, for example, use sketch notes directly!
Soft Skill No. 2: Persuasion
Persuasion describes the ability to assert oneself argumentatively in communicative interaction with others. (soft-skills.com)
The newest idea, the most innovative product, the best service: None of this brings a company to the top if others are not convinced by it! Therefore, persuasion is an important soft skill in companies – especially in sales or as a leader.
Learning persuasion
Persuasion as a soft skill is not a single competence, but contains many components:
The mental attitude towards the company, the idea, or also the counterpart
The basic knowledge, for example, on didactics and conversation management
Special techniques of communication and argumentation
Specifically, the knowledge and techniques that contribute to persuasion can be taught in special soft skill training sessions. Practical exercises, for example with coaches or other employees, are also particularly important here. Communication can only ever take place in dialogue!
Soft Skill No. 3: Analytical thinking
Analytical thinking describes the ability to generally identify and solve problems. (karrierebibel.de)
Analytical skills are particularly important when work processes are not very routinized and are subject to frequent changes. Flexible working hours, modern work concepts, digitalization: Work 4.0 says hello!
Analytically thinking employees approach all situations as systematically and scientifically as possible, place all connections into the "big picture", and derive logical conclusions from them. This way of thinking significantly contributes to not only optimizing one's own work but also to benefiting the entire company.
Learning analytical thinking
The soft skill of analytical thinking has a lot in common with creativity: Employees should primarily learn structures and working methods that are aligned with company goals. In the context of soft skill training, this also includes your employees' self-directed learning skills.
Business simulation games are also particularly suitable for leadership training. This works like the flight simulator in pilot training: Situations from the business context are represented, analyzed, and developed as realistically as possible. This sharpens analytical thinking through a practical example!
Soft skills such as creativity, teamwork, and analytical thinking are important to effectively drive companies forward in the working world 4.0.
Soft Skill No. 4: Teamwork
Teamwork is the umbrella term for the willingness and ability to interact productively and constructively with other people in groups. (soft-skills.com)
Teamwork is probably the most frequently requested soft skill for applicants. No wonder: The globalization of work brings together ever larger, often internationally operating teams to work collectively on key company goals.
Employees with high teamwork skills can fit well into a group, work out constructive solutions together, and combine the strengths of each individual for a common (company) goal.
Learning teamwork
To achieve good teamwork skills, employees should primarily learn and improve the following competencies:
Willingness to compromise: Combining one's own ideas with those of other team members and making the best choice for the set goal.
Verbal skills: Discussion and persuasive power to present one's own ideas convincingly in the team.
Ability to take criticism: Communicating constructive criticism and – often forgotten! – accepting and implementing criticism from others.
These and many other skills significantly improve the productive collaboration of teams. As with all soft skills, your employees learn these skills best with a combination of theoretical knowledge, for example on communication models, and practical exercises and experiences.
Soft Skill No. 5: Adaptability
Adaptability describes the individual ability to contribute in often difficult situations in such a way that common goals are achieved faster and better. (kompetenzatlas.fh-wien.ac.at)
Why adaptability is one of the top soft skills in companies today is once again evident in the context of "Work 4.0" and "New Work": Working models are changing, processes are constantly being optimized, and digitalization opens up new possibilities virtually on a daily basis that one must first adapt to.
Employees with high adaptability can easily find their way in a new working environment and quickly adjust their way of working to new situations. An asset, especially for internationally active or highly digitalized companies!
Learning adaptability
Adaptability combines many other competencies such as creative problem-solving, analytical approach, and teamwork. To foster the adaptability of your employees, supporting knowledge also helps:
Different models for project and time planning
Clear communication of company goals
Special training for agile working
These measures help your employees to develop their own concepts and deal with new processes. Since such concepts depend heavily on personality, individual coaching is a good supplement, especially for (future) managers.
How to succeed in modern soft skill training?
As diverse as the top 5 soft skills in companies are, they have a lot in common when it comes to learning or improving them:
Soft skills are individual!
Soft skills are backed by knowledge!
Soft skills need practical training!
For soft skill training in companies, training methods are needed that are both individual and convey factual knowledge, while additionally containing a practical component.
Particularly in the context of Learning & Development, soft skills should not be trained in isolation, but clearly linked to strategic company goals. When competency models, career paths, and further training opportunities are aligned with one another, a sustainable development program emerges from individual training measures.
The perfect soft skill training with Blended Learning
Targeted promotion of soft skills in companies: What sounds terribly complex at first can easily be realized with the Blended Learning method.
In Blended Learning, different forms of learning are interlinked. In corporate training, online courses are combined with practical training or coaching to leverage the benefits of both training methods.
Factual knowledge is imparted in the online course, independent of location and time. Here, a wide variety of media can be used flexibly: Texts, graphics, and videos can easily convey even complex concepts and models.
In the face-to-face portion, a trainer or coach supports the employees in implementation, clarifies questions, and guides practical exercises. Through group discussions, situational exercises, and direct feedback, new processes and behaviors are tested and consolidated.
You can freely adapt Blended Learning to the training objective: You can use an online course to prepare for face-to-face exercises, or use a face-to-face day as an impulse for long-term online support.
Conclusion
Soft skills become a competitive advantage when they are developed strategically and integrated into personnel development on a long-term basis.
Creativity, persuasion, analytical thinking, teamwork, and adaptability are not "nice-to-have" traits, but central success factors for modern companies. However, the decisive factor is not just which competencies are promoted, but how systematically and purposefully this is done.
With well-thought-out learning concepts and a clear development strategy, soft skill training becomes an integral part of a future-oriented Learning & Development culture.
Frequently Asked Questions and Answers
Why are soft skills so important for companies?
Soft skills influence how well employees work together, solve problems, cope with change, and implement ideas. Professional knowledge alone is not enough for this. Creativity, persuasion, analytical thinking, teamwork, and adaptability specifically help companies to react flexibly and effectively to new requirements.
Can you really train soft skills?
Yes, soft skills can be systematically developed. Some skills are more pronounced in individual employees, but knowledge, methods, and practical exercises can significantly improve them. Training is particularly effective when theoretical basics are combined with realistic situations, feedback, and reflection.
Why is Blended Learning suitable for soft skill training?
Blended Learning combines digital knowledge transfer with practical exercise. In the online course, employees can flexibly work out basics, models, and methods. In face-to-face phases, coaching sessions, or live sessions, this content is then applied, discussed, and consolidated through feedback.
Which soft skills should companies promote first?
That depends on the company goals. Creativity and analytical thinking are particularly important for innovation. For sales, leadership, and collaboration, persuasion and teamwork play a major role. For change processes, adaptability is central. It is important not to plan soft skill training in isolation, but to link it to concrete challenges in the company.
