Without the incidental human contact that happens in offices, it’s harder for managers to notice soft-skills gaps than ever. Managers also tend to have other priorities when business is precarious and home life's merged with work. What can you do about it? Everyone should take responsibility for their own soft skills.
One thing I’ve learned from developing private training for PR/comms consultancies over the last decade is that agencies generally value soft skills in junior staff more than technical skills. I’ve also found that junior staff can be confused about exactly what these desirable ’soft skills’ are and whether they can develop them at all.
When you look at job adverts, soft skills seem to include all the things that make someone a desirable employee and good person to work with - things like dependability, reliability, creativity and assertiveness. Many soft skills are considered personality traits, which leads people to thinking you’re either born with or without them. But you can definitely work on aspects of your personality. I bet you know who wasn’t very confident but made a conscious effort to do something about it - i.e. they worked on their soft skills.
One thing I’ve learned from developing private training for PR/comms consultancies over the last decade is that agencies generally value soft skills in junior staff more than technical skills. I’ve also found that junior staff can be confused about exactly what these desirable ’soft skills’ are and whether they can develop them at all.
When you look at job adverts, soft skills seem to include all the things that make someone a desirable employee and good person to work with - things like dependability, reliability, creativity and assertiveness. Many soft skills are considered personality traits, which leads people to thinking you’re either born with or without them. But you can definitely work on aspects of your personality. I bet you know who wasn’t very confident but made a conscious effort to do something about it - i.e. they worked on their soft skills.
What exactly are soft skills?
Soft skills aren’t considered often enough
Soft skills are vital to any agency that wants to stay in business. A balance of the right hard and soft skills are vital when it comes to keeping your clients and making sure your company keeps growing. It’s why they’re becoming more valuable to agencies than ever.
But while agencies (and probably all businesses) find teaching hard/technical skills is straightforward; teaching intangible soft skills proves much trickier, so a lot of them don’t bother. Managers tend to talk a lot about soft skills when they’re recruiting and doing annual reviews but forget them in their day to day opportunities to develop staff. But every day presents opportunities to work on them. Taking responsibility for your own soft skills means you can seize these opportunities to develop your abilities constantly.
But while agencies (and probably all businesses) find teaching hard/technical skills is straightforward; teaching intangible soft skills proves much trickier, so a lot of them don’t bother. Managers tend to talk a lot about soft skills when they’re recruiting and doing annual reviews but forget them in their day to day opportunities to develop staff. But every day presents opportunities to work on them. Taking responsibility for your own soft skills means you can seize these opportunities to develop your abilities constantly.

Soft skills can be learned and taught
Ten soft skills for junior staff to focus on
Empathy
Critical thinking
Creativity
Positive attitude
Resilience
Initiative/proactivity
Time management
Decision making
Active listening
Teamwork
We’ve been helping PR people learn soft skills for more than 30 years and we’re relaunching in 2021 with courses focused exclusively on soft skills for agency staff. We’d value your input, so please get in touch if there are subjects you’d like us to cover.
Liton Ali, Learning Director
Learning consultant, brand foundations specialist
About me
Liton helps agency professionals upgrade their performance by adapting their business techniques and building good habits. A former PR consultant, he has worked at numerous agencies, done a stint in-house and even worked as a journalist.