Why Soft Skills Are Now Power Skills – Why this Matters Most in 2025

June 20, 2025
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In a world racing toward automation and AI, what sets us apart isn’t how many AI subscriptions we can afford, or how well we prompt and command the new tools at our disposal —it’s our ability to think critically, communicate clearly, collaborate under pressure, inspire teams, and stay grounded when everything else is moving fast. Yes, the soft skills.

Whilst the term “soft skills” has been used for a while now, many corporate training programs in companies have been just a checklist item to tick off. Often companies are happy with a sprinkle of emotional intelligence here, a dash of teamwork there and a pinch of leadership communication.

But in 2025, these soft skills have become MISSION-CRITICAL.

According to the Hays 2025 Skills Report, the top three most in-demand skills for the future aren’t technical. The top 3 skills that hirers are looking for are:

  • Communication & Collaboration (84%)
  • Critical Thinking & Problem Solving (81%)
  • Adaptability & Flexibility (71%)

These aren’t just soft skills, they are power skills—the very abilities that fuel innovation, efficiency, resilience, adaptability and high-performing teams in a time of AI revolution where our future has never been more uncertain.

Why This Matters Now

85% of businesses in Australia and New Zealand are currently experiencing skills gaps according to the Hays 2025 Skills Report which had input from over 5600 hiring managers—and most are missing not just technical skills, but the deeply human ones: leadership management, communication, critical thinking and problem solving.

Image Source: The Hays 2025 Skills Report

And this line of thinking isn’t just a local trend.

Globally, organizations are grappling with similar challenges. The Coursera Global Skills Report 2024 highlights that, alongside technical skills, many spotlight countries are now prioritizing soft skills such as culture, resilience, and communication as critical for workforce readiness.
A study in the Global Business & Finance Review (GBFR) shows a positive and significant effect of workability, discipline, and communication on both leadership resilience and organisational performance. This means that soft skills, including communication (and by extension, teamwork, which is often associated with workability and communication), have a direct impact on organisational performance.

Another study in the International Journal of Research Publication and Reviews confirmed that emotional intelligence boosts productivity. The study found that there is a statistically significant correlation between emotional intelligence and workplace productivity. Employees with higher EI tend to be more productive.

What Are Power Skills, Really?

Power skills are the ones that:

  • Help teams navigate conflict with empathy, not ego
  • Enable leaders to inspire rather than instruct, creating buy-in instead of burnout
  • Equip employees to adapt fast in dynamic, ambiguous environments
  • Drive innovation by encouraging open dialogue, psychological safety, and diverse thinking.
  • Build trust quickly, especially in hybrid or remote teams where relational cues are limited.
  • Strengthen resilience, allowing teams to recover from setbacks without losing momentum.
  • Improve decision-making, not just with logic, but with ethical and emotional intelligence.
  • Foster accountability and ownership, where individuals don’t just do tasks—they take initiative.

In short, power skills make people better at being people—especially in high-performance teams where collaboration, leadership, and adaptability are non-negotiable.

We see this every day: teams struggling with miscommunication, leaders burning out from micro-managing, and businesses trying to implement training without emotional buy-in. It’s not a technical issue. It’s a human one.

In fact, research published on Academia.edu emphasised that as workplaces and roles continue to evolve, interpersonal and emotional intelligence skills have become essential drivers of professional growth and career advancement. The study highlights that these competencies-such as effective communication, teamwork, and the ability to understand and manage emotions-are now recognized by employers as critical for success, not just in leadership, but across all levels of an organization. As technical skills become easier to automate or outsource, it’s these human-centric abilities that increasingly determine who thrives, adapts, and advances in the modern workforce Academia.edu, 2023.

Let’s face it! Human Skills = Business ROI.

Yet, in my experience as a corporate trainer, I continue to see organisations elevate individuals into management roles based solely on their technical expertise, overlooking the critical need for leadership and managerial skills. Too often, these new leaders are left without guidance, training, or mentorship – until challenges inevitably surface. Much conflict, turnover and unproductivity could have been avoided.

Companies that invest in power skills benefit from:

  • Improved team productivity
  • Stronger leadership pipelines
  • Reduced turnover
  • More resilient workplace cultures

So, What Can You Do?

  1. Assess Your Team’s Power Skills
    Don’t just measure qualifications and skills- look at how your team communicates, leads, and adapts. Use behavioral interviews, group exercises, and peer feedback to get a real sense of your team’s strengths and development areas. Understand who the real influencers are in the organisation, on the ground. Access what kind of leader each team needs. Use this knowledge to create better processes and systems that match team strengths and enhance communication processes.
  2. Invest in Personality-Based Development
    Most disharmony in a workplace can be classified into “personality clashes”. Yet most companies invest in non-personality based psychometrics. Leverage tools like Identi3, to decode team dynamics, improve communication, and accelerate leadership growth. Personality-based psychometric assessments provide deep insights that help tailor development to each individual and team. Contact us to know more about identi3.
  3. Make Learning Ongoing and Relational
    Go beyond one-off workshops. Create a coaching culture where power skills are nurtured consistently. Empower your leaders with coaching and mentoring skills, and encourage peer learning and knowledge sharing to make growth a daily habit.
  4. Embed Learning and Development Into Culture
    Integrate learning into the everyday fabric of work life. Recognise and reward ongoing development, align learning with business goals, and ensure that leadership models these behaviors. When learning is woven into your culture, power skills become part of your organization’s DNA-not just a checkbox.

As automation accelerates and AI reshapes work, our power lies not in what we know—but in how we grow together. In the race between humans and machines, the winners will be those who know how to lead with both technology AND power skills.

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Reach out today

Ready to build on your skills, or the skills of your team? Book a consultation with Usha Raman.