We often hear that human skills (or soft skills) are important to create thriving and high-performing teams. But the changing nature of work—with fully remote to hybrid arrangements—makes these skills even more crucial to develop now.

What exactly are human skills?

Sometimes known as “soft skills,” they constitute our ability to relate to one another and refer to aspects such as empathy, compassion, and authenticity. People with strong human skills can form deeper connections with colleagues and customers. This ultimately serves as a strong foundation for positive workplace performance in terms of innovation, adaptive thinking, collaboration, and more.

This surfaced as one of the key themes during the 2021 Partners’ Meeting—Learn, Lead, Illuminate. As we sat down virtually with organizational development leaders, the idea that human skills are crucial for a more adaptive, inclusive, and digital future resonated.

For many, this became more apparent than ever during the pandemic. Quickly evolving work arrangements amplified relational issues, as everyone tried adapting to the dramatic changes.

Struggles faced by their teams included:

• New hires feel disconnected from their teams during on-boarding
• Team members have become disengaged with less face-to-face time
• Employees over-connecting online to compensate for the lack of face-to-face time
• Increased burnout as some find it hard to “switch off” online while working from home

Even with most employees returning to the office to some degree, work norms have forever changed. With these challenges likely to remain to some extent in future work arrangements, our participants identified the development of “human skills” as key to navigating these challenges.

5 HUMAN SKILLS THAT WILL HELP LEADERS THRIVE IN THE NEW AGE OF WORK

#1 Empathy
Having empathy and compassion involves genuinely caring for others and being able to understand another person’s situation and perspective. These are qualities that may not immediately come to mind as essential workplace skills. But many are realizing that this is an essential part of cultivating long-term relational harmony and resilience at work.

Especially during these uncertain times, we’re all forced to move out of our comfort zones. During intense change, there is an increased likelihood of conflict and friction. Being able to put yourself in the shoes of another person and feel for others is more important than ever to overcome these challenges and stay connected and united as a team.

What does this look like exactly? Some participants suggested that they’ve been taking extra time and care to communicate with new hires who are looking for a stronger sense of office culture to meet their relational needs. Others are focused on supporting burned-out team members by working with them to develop better boundaries and self-care habits like mindfulness practices.

Participants also highlighted that demonstrating empathy requires effective interpersonal communication, which leads to the next set of skills.

#2 Communication
Strong communication skills have always been important in the workplace. But what makes a good communicator has shifted now that we’re so often talking and collaborating online through video calls and group chats.

Maintaining effective core communication skills whether online or offline is still essential:

• Practice active listening
• Reframe what’s been said to clarify meaning
• Be mindful of body language
• Be clear about the point you’re trying to make

Online working environments warrant paying extra attention to specific skills. For example, some try to be even more conscious of active listening and reframing what’s been said during Zoom calls to prevent miscommunication. There’s also a need to take extra care that everyone’s voices are heard.

#3 Adaptability

The pandemic has served as a good reminder to always expect the unexpected—especially when movement restrictions can be implemented at any time.

Flexibility and adaptability are skills that are essential for staying optimistic about overcoming unexpected challenges, and also help us to be more resourceful and innovative in the way we solve problems as we learn to make do with what we have.

One participant highlighted that emotional and social adaptability is particularly important for leaders managing different personalities and situations frequently. This requires honing emotional intelligence to discern and adapt to what is needed for each circumstance to make navigating work relationships as smooth as possible.

#4 Coaching
Several participants identified that coaching teams is a key skill for drawing out the best in others. Managers recognize that the old-school directive style of management creates stifling environments that do not help develop talent—and this ultimately translates to poor business outcomes.

Participants suggested that managers need to develop coaching abilities like knowing how to ask the right questions (instead of giving answers), listening well, empowering others, and guiding action plans. Creating a widespread coaching culture will help to foster an environment where employees feel supported in their growth. This can lead to long-term benefits to the organization like greater innovation and talent retention.

#5 Trust Building
This was a skill that resonated with many of our participants as an essential part of any team’s success. As one mentioned, “Trust is foundational, and you need to build that first before doing anything else.”

When people are in a team environment where they feel safe and are able to trust others, they’re able to do their best work. It’s no easy task for leaders to create such an environment. But participants suggested leaders can start off by being authentic, honest, transparent, and compassionate.

Leaders can do a lot to set the overall tone of the work environment simply in the way they’re behaving and “being” in a group. And when team members see leaders owning mistakes, looking out for others, and being upfront about challenges, it signals to the rest that it’s safe for them to do the same.

It ultimately shows that work is a place for mutual learning, and where people can feel safe to be who they are.

Human Skills for Creating “A New Better”

We’re all entering a new frontier in the way we work, and human skills will become even more important for people and organizations to thrive in this digital age. The more individuals are supported in developing these skills, the more likely they’ll be able to build a better future for themselves and their organizations.

As a leader, how are you working to develop human skills across your team?

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Abbey Lewis is senior product manager at Harvard Business Publishing Corporate Learning. Email her at abbey.lewis@harvardbusiness.org.