10 Essential leadership soft skills (and how to use them)

What are leadership soft skills and why are they important?  

Before delving into leadership skills examples, let’s take a quick look at what soft skills are, and how they apply to leadership and management roles. We’ve put together a soft skills list at the end of this section that you might find useful. You can read about these in more detail in our article 10 important soft skills examples and why your workforce needs them. 

Soft skills are more general traits that help employees to perform well at their job, and aren’t specific to any one role. Another word for soft skills is interpersonal skills or professional skills, which encompasses skills such as working as a team, showing empathy, and recognising other people’s capabilities and limits.  

Bad management can significantly affect employee wellbeing and business performance, leading to higher staff turnover rates and lower profitability. By focusing on improving key leadership skills, you can help to foster a working environment that’s better for employees and profits alike. 

​​Some examples of soft skills include: 

• Communication 
• Creativity 
• Adaptability 
• Work ethic 
• Emotional intelligence 
• Problem solving 
• Organisation 
• Positive attitude 
• Dependability 
• Initiative 

Leader versus manager – what’s the difference?  

To simplify the difference between a leader and a manager, it’s helpful to make a distinction between managing people and managing tasks. Much of a manager’s role focuses on tasks and objectives, and creating strategies to achieve them. However, managers need to be able to inspire and motivate people to achieve these goals, which is a leadership skill. When we consider the roles and responsibilities of a leader versus a manager, we can see a variety of differences between the two, and thus a different, although overlapping, set of essential leadership soft skills. 

You don’t need to have the word ‘leader’ or ‘manager’ in your job title to be a person that others rely on for leadership and support. A Team Leader would certainly be considered a leader, not just because of their job title, but also because of the requirements of their role. However, a senior member of their team may also be considered a leader in the eyes of more junior members, as they are able, and expected, to provide support and guidance to those who are less confident or experienced. ​Similarly, projects that involve collaborating with peers require team members to display leadership skills to complete the project effectively. 

Leadership soft skills are therefore not restricted to those in management positions, and are something that employees in many different roles can benefit from learning. ​Employees who are looking to move into more senior roles, including positions in leadership and management, should also look to cultivate key leadership skills to better their chances of a successful career development. Strengthening leadership soft skills is also important when you want to develop team members in preparation for succession planning, and for filling skills gaps in leadership. 

The benefits of soft skills for managers and leaders 

Don’t be misled by the name; leadership soft skills are anything but soft. In fact, they’re essential strengths that can help leaders to thrive in the workplace while also supporting their teams. Here are some of the benefits of soft skills for managers and leaders. 

Build connections  

Key leadership skills allow those in managerial positions to build stronger interpersonal connections with employees, helping to boost staff productivity, satisfaction and retention. By building better relationships throughout the organisation, leaders can more effectively manage teams and delegate tasks to meet business objectives. 

Establish trust  

The stronger a person’s leadership soft skills, the more likely they are to be looked upon as a trusted colleague. As well as gaining the respect of those they manage, showing great leadership skills helps to build the trust of senior managers that they report to. 

Support communication  

Effective communication is essential throughout all levels of an organisation. Leaders with strong communication skills are able to create relationships that unite teams, departments and upper management, helping to boost morale and complete tasks efficiently. 

Create resilience 

Learning to adapt to the changing demands of their team and organisation gives managers the tools they need to handle a variety of different situations. Developing their leadership skills helps leaders to inspire their teams, work proactively, and create innovative solutions to problems. 

Soft skills and emotional intelligence training for leaders  

Upskilling is a vital part of career development for employees of all levels, but it’s important to focus on the right skills for your role, as well as your future career path. As we’ve seen, there are many different benefits of soft skills for managers and leaders. While many of these skills can be gained through experience and self-directed learning, investing in management and leadership soft skills courses allows you to benefit from guided training and support. 

Access offers a variety of different courses to support emotional intelligence training for leaders. We’ve put together an overview below of some of our most useful soft skills courses for leaders. 

Change management 

Our change management training course helps leaders to become more adaptable to different situations. 

In this course, we help you to understand your own strengths and weaknesses within the context of change, and cover some useful exercises to help you to think outside of the box and gain a fresh perspective. We also explore the seven steps of the change process, and how understanding them can better prepare you for adapting to change quickly and effectively. 

Management and leadership 

Our management and leadership training course introduces the key elements of leadership, what it is, and what qualities make a good leader. 

In this course, we introduce you to a variety of different leadership styles, helping you to distinguish between them and recognise which ones are most effective for you and the specific members of your team. We also explore a variety of in-depth leadership soft skills, including operational agility, performance management and workplace ethics. 

Disciplinary and grievance procedures  

Our disciplinary and grievance procedures training course details how to manage issues at work to ensure the best outcome for everyone. 

In this course, we examine what grievance and disciplinary procedures are, and explore the guiding principles and government legislation that apply when handling issues in the workplace. We also cover how to establish the facts, the process of conducting a disciplinary hearing, and how to take action to resolve grievances amicably while upholding your employees’ rights.