Did you learn your soft skills from The School of Hard Knocks?

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Despite AI’s growing impact on the world of work, new data shows that soft skills are still the most sought after by UK employers.

LinkedIn’s 2024 most in-demand skills data finds that soft skills make up four of the top five most in-demand skills by UK employers, with communication the most sought-after skill.

When I was training to be a project manager, we didn’t really focus on soft skills. They aren’t really taught by any of the methodologies and most of the people who project managed before me definitely had to learn the hard way, via The School of Hard Knocks! 

Soft skills are critically important for all senior leaders, whether you are a project manager or CEO, the capability to be able to have difficult conversations in a compassionate way is critically important especially when dealing with a 'crisis'! I have seen first-hand how important these skills are and I'm constantly tweaking and honing these skills. 

There are some basics that are a ‘must have’ for project managers and their teams, here's a non exhaustive list of things that I think one needs to be able to do:

  • Compassion - being able to deliver bad news

  • Professionalism - having the difficult conversations

  • Creative thinking - being solution focused and making others solution focused

  • Critical thinking - assessing options

  • Dealing with confrontation - be ready for a fire fight

  • Teamwork - making sure people collaborate for solutions

  • Conflict resolution - being trusted to deal with the issues

  • Trust - gain credibility with stakeholders 

  • Strategic thinking - being seen to control and lead a situation

  • Time management - prioritise, organise tasks and allot time across different activities

  • Having emotional resilience - being calm in stressful situations

  • Deductive reasoning - understand where your interests lie

Being part of the ‘school of hard knocks’ and learning these on the job isn’t the only way to learn these skills and AI can most definitely play a role in helping you with these on a daily basis, but at some points in a project, you will need to talk to people directly and that’s where these skills will help you shine. 


I’d love to hear of any other soft skills that I've missed from the list, so do let me know any you think should be added. 


For more blogs like this and discussions around project management for senior leaders, follow me on LinkedIn and join the conversation.
Location: Cambridge, UK

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