11 Top Soft Skills for 2025 (With Examples)
Out with the old, and in with the new. 2025 is upon us and now is the time to assess your situation, take stock, and upskill.
That’s right – upskill.
But not just any skills. As we reflect on 2024, one thing is clear: the skills traditionally labelled as “soft” have proved they are anything but. Businesses stopped viewing soft skills as add-ons and began to see the value of human skills as vital to performance, motivation, success and adaptability in a time of rapid change. A recent LinkedIn survey found that 9 out of 10 global executives agree that soft skills are more important than ever.
At the same time, employees are recognising that soft skills are a must-have for career and personal success.
So what soft skills development should you focus on in the coming year?
The top soft skills for 2025
1. Self-awareness
If you want to get ahead in 2025, start with self-awareness. Knowing your strengths, your weaknesses, why you react a certain way, and what drives you is the most important soft skill of all.
Think about it – it’s only with self-awareness that you can identify which other soft skills you need to work on! Use it to guide your soft skills program for 2025.
2. Communication
The LinkedIn survey revealed that communication ranks No. 1 on the 2024 list of overall most in-demand skills. And it’s no surprise when you consider the rise of AI, the widespread adoption of remote and hybrid work, and five generations, each with different communication styles and workplace jargon, now working together.
Since in-person collaboration is no longer the default, effective communication across channels is essential to connect, motivate, and inspire your teams. What’s more, as a growing number of employers experiment with AI, its limitations are becoming clear, underscoring the need for human communication skills to compensate for the shortcomings of emerging technologies.
3. Adaptability
Adaptability is an indispensable skill that allows individuals and teams to navigate uncertainty with confidence and composure. In fact, LinkedIn highlighted it as the top “skill of the moment” with the most notable surge in year-over-year demand.
Adaptability as a soft skill means you have the ability to learn and unlearn, to remain open and flexible, and accept that you may succeed or fail at any moment. It means you are comfortable with not knowing what’s around the corner and can move forward with confidence, even in the face of ambiguity.
4. Resilience
How do you bounce back from setbacks? The way you bounce back and recover from setbacks is important in every part of your work and life – this is resilience.
We all face hurdles, setbacks and pressure in the workplace, and resilience is the soft skill that helps you manage them. Building resilience means you need to learn how to overcome obstacles in the future, cope with unexpected outcomes and negative feedback, and use your experiences to bounce forward.
5. Emotional Intelligence
In 2025, expect to see more corporate soft skills training that integrates and incorporates emotional intelligence and stress management.
Emotional intelligence (also known as 'emotional quotient', or 'EQ') is the ability to identify and manage emotions. EQ influences how well you interact with other people, how you build relationships and trust, and how you manage stress and conflict. It’s also one of the most important leadership skills, giving you the ability to engage your team members and build trust.
6. Leadership
Leadership skills are really a combination of all the other soft skills, but it’s the way you put them together to lead and inspire people that elevates you even further and makes you a great leader.
If you look at professional development programs for leadership, like the human skill programs Maxme offers, they might include soft skills training around self-awareness, influencing, and how to develop your unique style of leadership with empathy and connection, how to recover from setbacks (resilience), and how to manage a team through change (adaptability).
7. Teamwork and collaboration
Teamwork is essential to a company’s success. Each individual has unique strengths, talents and skills. When we bring them together and share them for a common purpose, it can give businesses a real competitive advantage.
Recent studies also show that individuals benefit from this soft skill just as much as the businesses they work for. According to American Psychologist’s “The Science of Teamwork”, working in a team can make you smarter, more creative, and more successful. By sharing skills and knowledge, each member of the team can flourish. It helps reduce burnout. It allows for smarter risk-taking. And best of all, it can unleash your potential to grow as a person and be happier.
8. Creativity
As we move into an AI-optimised era, creativity remains one of the most sought after human skills by global workplaces.
Katie Reid, managing director at Scyne Advisory, summed it up when she told us, “In the same way digital is becoming something every professional needs to understand and apply to their work — not a separate team or isolated concept — creativity is a critical discipline everyone should be learning to foster in their teams and professions. I think we’ll see this understood and amplified in businesses and government much more in the coming decade.”
9. Empathy
Empathy might not be the first skill that comes to mind in the workplace, but it is one of the most important. According to research from SHRM, roughly nine out of 10 workers feel empathy is “essential” for creating a healthy culture at work.
Empathy is simply the ability to understand the feelings of other people. It helps a person read people and situations, adapt, build trust and connect more effectively. It is particularly important for leaders, as it helps you understand and inspire your team and create a more engaged workforce.
10. Curiosity
Research indicates that increased curiosity is associated with 34% greater creativity and better job performance. A hunger to learn, understand and know more can make us more creative and emotionally intelligent. After all, innovation and problem-solving always starts with the question “Why?”
Cultivating curiosity helps us understand what’s going on in the business and around us. We think more deeply and critically about decisions and come up with more creative solutions – something that is imperative as we are propelled into 2025.
11. Critical thinking
Critical thinking tops the list of soft skills sought by employers, and it’s easy to see why. It means analysing the information available to you to come up with a big-picture perspective that helps with decision making and problem solving.
Critical thinking is a form of emotional intelligence; it requires open mindedness, a touch of scepticism, and the ability to consider different perspectives and points of view, and being open to feedback.
What are the 5 essential soft skills in the workplace?
If we had to pick just five, the essential soft skills in the workplace are self-awareness, communication, adaptability, resilience and emotional intelligence.
But let’s be honest, five soft skills is never enough – there’s a whole range of soft skills that leaders and employees need in the workplace, including critical thinking, curiosity, empathy, creativity, and teamwork. Think of it as an ecosystem of soft skills – the more of them you have, the better they each work.
Soft skills development: How do you develop soft skills?
Once you’ve identified what soft skills you want to work on in 2025, develop your upskilling plan.
There is a wealth of soft skills development programs available, such as online courses, a human skill development app like Hodie, video tutorials, podcasts and interviews.
Maxme offers highly immersive soft skill programs to help students, graduates, career changers and advancers build their soft skills, starting always with self-awareness.
As well as programs for employers and schools, we offer Australia’s first group coaching academy dedicated to human skills development for individuals or small groups of colleagues, friends, or any community collective. The Human Skills Academy is 100% virtual and offers a selection of our most popular courses, such as communicating with impact, owning it, and working together.
Want to get started straight away? Learn more about each of these 11 soft skills in our Maxme Insights Library.
Once you’ve started learning and building on your soft skills, practise!
There’s no such thing as ‘perfecting’ soft skills – think of it as a continuous learning journey. So look for opportunities to practise your soft skills in the workplace. Go outside of your comfort zone to challenge yourself and use your skills in different situations.
Here’s to 2025, where human skills lead the way!
Ready to start your soft skills development training for 2025?
Download the Hodie app to start today, or explore our broader menu of Maxme Products & Programs for organisations and individuals.
Prefer to talk through your options? Contact us at any time.
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