Managing in 2025: soft skills that really make a difference

In 2025, the role of the manager has changed profoundly, making effective recruitment process essential to guarantee the performance of the teams. While technical skills (hard skills) remain essential, soft skills are now essential to ensure the cohesion and success of employees.

An effective manager combines technical expertise and soft skills to manage their team, solve complex problems, and create an innovative work environment. These skills make it possible to develop cohesion within the team and to adjust practices according to the evolving needs of the company. Soft skills, such as emotional intelligence, communication, teamwork, teamwork, critical thinking, and stress management, are key assets in a constantly changing professional world.

These behavioral skills allow managers to adapt to challenges, especially those related to the integration of artificial intelligence. In this article, discover why soft skills are important, how to assess them, and their impact on managerial performance in 2025.

Understanding soft skills: more than just personal qualities

What is a soft skill?

Soft skills, also called soft skills, refer to behavioral traits and personal habits that influence the way you work, both individually and in a team. Unlike hard skills, which include specific technical knowledge acquired through training, education, or practical experience, soft skills are more subjective and focus on qualities such as communication, empathy, conflict resolution, and adaptability. The term “soft skills” was introduced to differentiate these skills from hard skills, which are easier to measure and define.

While hard skills represent the specific tools and knowledge required for a position, soft skills embody the finesse and interpersonal skills essential to make optimal use of these tools.

Why have soft skills become essential in management?

In recent years, the world of work has undergone profound transformations, making soft skills essential to evolve in a constantly changing environment. With the rise of hybrid work, combining remote work and face-to-face work, managers must adjust their skills to ensure effective communication and maintain the motivation of their employees. The ability to Seduce candidates who possess these behavioral skills becomes strategic to ensure optimal and sustainable management.

At the same time, the increasing complexity of projects and the need to collaborate between different functions have made soft skills an essential asset. Managers must be able to work in a team, to make strategic decisions, to adjust their management methods in order to maximize synergies between employees, and to manage the stress and emotions of their team.

These soft skills contribute to a positive, innovative and productive work environment, while strengthening the employer brand to attract talent in line with the needs of the organization.

The 8 essential soft skills for an effective manager today

Clear and empathetic communication

Clear and empathetic communication is essential to be a successful manager. This is based on active listening, where the manager focuses on the needs and concerns of his team, while expressing his ideas in a way that is adapted to the context and his audience. Constructive feedback also plays a key role in reinforcing positive behaviors and correcting mistakes constructively.

This competence promotes transparency, trust and harmonious collaboration within the team.

Emotional intelligence

Emotional intelligence (EQ) is an essential ability to manage emotions, both your own and those of your team. A manager with a high EQ can recognize and understand the emotions of others, which contributes to a peaceful climate and an ability to manage tensions. This skill makes it possible to build strong relationships, ensure psychological safety, and promote a positive work environment.

Ability to motivate and engage a team

The ability to motivate and engage a team is essential to the success of a manager. This involves inspiring leadership that values the achievements of the team while cultivating a collective spirit.

By setting clear goals, offering development opportunities, and encouraging autonomous decision-making, a manager can create a motivated and committed team that can improve overall performance and reduce turnover.

Time and priority management

Effective management of time and priorities is fundamental for a manager. This requires rigorous organization, the ability to make decisions independently and the ability to anticipate the unexpected.

By adopting methods like Agile, with daily sprints and standups, a manager can ensure that projects are completed on time and with optimal quality.

Critical thinking and decision making

Critical thinking and the ability to make decisions are essential skills for any manager. They involve a thorough analysis of situations, effective problem solving and a strategic vision that allows informed choices to be made. By mastering these skills, a manager can overcome leadership challenges and guide their team to success, even in a constantly changing environment.

Collaboration and collective intelligence

In today's professional world, collaboration and collective intelligence are essential. A manager must know how to work transversalally, create synergies between different departments and co-build solutions with his team.

This method promotes innovation, stimulates creativity and makes it possible to solve complex problems more effectively.

Flexibility and adaptability

Flexibility and adaptability are fundamental qualities to evolve in a constantly changing work environment. A manager must adjust their approach, be resilient, know how to manage transformations, and adopt an agile plan to respond to new technologies, market trends, and the changing needs of their team.

Self-awareness and learning posture

Self-awareness and a continuous learning posture are essential to become a successful manager. This requires regular self-assessment, the ability to admit limitations with humility, and a constant desire to improve.

By adopting this attitude, a manager can learn from mistakes, adapt to new situations, and grow professionally. This approach also inspires his team and encourages them to follow their example.

How to assess the soft skills of a manager (or a candidate)?

Soft skills and recruitment: a strategic challenge

The assessment of soft skills as part of the recruitment represents an essential strategic challenge for human resources. Successful sustainable recruitment is largely based on the ability to identify candidates with the soft skills needed to integrate and excel within the team. Relying solely on technical skills can lead to casting errors, underlining the importance ofavoid recruitment mistakes by integrating the assessment of soft skills from the very first stages.

Concrete methods for evaluating soft skills

There are several effective ways to assess soft skills. Behavioral interviews, for example, make it possible to gather valuable information about the past experiences of a nominee and how he handled specific situations.

Situational judgment tests (SJT) offer realistic professional scenarios and ask the candidate to choose from several answers. These tests assess his ability to make decisions under pressure and manage stress. Peer-to-peer feedback systems are also very useful, as they offer an assessment from colleagues and superiors, providing a comprehensive view of the candidate's interpersonal skills and emotional intelligence. Finally, direct observation in real or simulated contexts can reveal subtle aspects of soft skills, such as active listening and behavioral adaptability.

The role of intuition vs objective tools

In assessing soft skills, it is essential to find a balance between intuition and objective tools. The intuition of recruiters or managers can provide interesting insights, but it is still vulnerable to cognitive biases and personal biases. In contrast, objective tools, such as situational judgment tests and peer-to-peer feedback systems, offer a more systematic and reliable approach.

These tools help reduce biases and provide a more accurate assessment of soft skills. By combining these tools, organizations can get a global view of a candidate's skills, allowing them to make informed decisions about recruiting, training, and talent development.

The concrete impact of soft skills on managerial performance

Soft skills and management quality

Soft skills have an essential role in the quality of management, in particular by strengthening the commitment of teams. Managers with strong communication, empathy, and leadership skills are able to motivate their teams more effectively. Understanding and evaluating these competencies is not only useful in an individual setting, but also to better recruiting a manager capable of having a positive impact on the organization.

This dynamic promotes increased job satisfaction, better employee retention, and a positive social climate within the organization. Numerous studies have shown that skills such as communication and teamwork positively influence employee performance and productivity.

Conflict reduction and better cohesion

Soft skills are also essential for reducing conflicts and improving cohesion within teams. Nonviolent communication and mediation skills enable managers to resolve disputes constructively, without increasing tensions.

A strong team spirit and the ability to collaborate effectively create a harmonious work environment where each member feels valued and respected. These skills prevent misunderstandings and promote a productive and balanced team dynamic.

Improving productivity and innovation

Soft skills have a direct impact on the productivity and innovation of organizations. When teams work together harmoniously, they share ideas and skills to achieve common goals. This collaboration reinforces collective efficiency.

Creativity and collective intelligence are stimulated in an open and collaborative work environment, where employees feel encouraged to share ideas and take calculated risks. This leads to innovative solutions and a better ability to adapt to market developments and changes in working conditions.

The challenges ahead: soft skills and management in the age of AI

Irreplaceable human skills in the age of automation

With advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and automation, certain human skills are becoming even more essential to differentiate managers and teams from machines. These skills include empathy, ethical judgment, and creativity, which are unique and irreplaceable qualities.

Empathy allows managers to understand and respond to the emotional needs of their team, an ability that algorithms cannot replicate. Ethical judgment plays a key role in making decisions that are aligned with the values of the organization while taking into account the moral implications of actions. Finally, creativity makes it possible to develop innovative solutions and to think beyond established frameworks, an ability that machines do not yet have.

The manager as a human regulator in a digitalized world

In a world increasingly dominated by digital technology, the role of the manager is evolving to become that of a human regulator between technology and teams. Managers must act as an interface between technological tools and human needs, ensuring that technology improves the meaning of work and the quality of life at work.

This requires knowing how to integrate AI in a way that strengthens human capabilities without replacing them, while maintaining a balance between technological efficiency and employee well-being.

The new soft skills of tomorrow

In the age of AI, new soft skills are emerging as indispensable for managers and their teams. Among these, systems thinking stands out because it allows us to understand the complex interactions between the various elements of a system, an essential skill in increasingly interconnected work environments.

Intellectual curiosity is also essential. It encourages individuals to learn continuously and to adapt to new technologies and emerging trends. Finally, complexity management, which includes the ability to analyze and manage complex situations, has become a key skill in meeting the growing challenges of modern management.

Conclusion

Soft skills play a key role in the success of managers and organizations, especially in today's world of work. These skills include communication, empathy, conflict resolution, and flexibility. They are essential for building a positive, innovative and productive work environment.

Investing in soft skills training makes it possible to develop the performance of employees, strengthen their commitment and motivation, while promoting greater collaboration and innovation. In a context where automation and artificial intelligence are redefining the professional landscape, it is essential to adjust management strategies to enhance these skills. By integrating them into recruitment plans and by displaying a Recruiting hook attractive, organizations can stand out and gain a sustainable competitive advantage.

Adopt these soft skills in your managerial practices now and focus on the training of your teams. It is the path to more effective management, harmonious collaboration and lasting success in a constantly changing world.

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