Hard skills vs soft skills: a manager’s guide to building high-performing teams

Hard skills are the technical abilities specific to a job. These include certifications, programming knowledge, financial expertise, or specialized training. They are measurable and can be verified through tests, certifications, and completed work.

Soft skills are the personal and interpersonal abilities that help people work together effectively. These include communication, problem-solving, teamwork, emotional intelligence, and adaptability. They are harder to measure but equally important.

Hard skills determine if your team can do the work. Soft skills determine whether your team will work well together.

A technically proficient team that can’t communicate will miss deadlines and create friction. A team with strong interpersonal skills but weak technical ability will struggle to deliver. The highest-performing teams are those that consistently exceed expectations, retain talent, and adapt to change in equal measure.

As a manager, your job is no longer just to manage tasks and timelines. It’s about recognizing, developing, and balancing both skill dimensions in yourself and your team. This requires a fundamentally different approach than most organizations take.

This guide is designed to help you understand these differences in depth and, more importantly, provide practical strategies for developing both skill types within your team. You’ll learn how to identify skill gaps, invest strategically in training and development, create cultures where continuous learning happens naturally, and help your people progress in ways that set them up for advancement.

What are hard skills?

At its core, hard skills are learned abilities to perform a specific task or set of tasks using particular tools, methodologies, or processes. For instance, a software developer’s ability to write code in Python, a civil engineer’s proficiency in structural analysis software, or a marketing specialist’s expertise in search engine optimization (SEO) are all examples of technical skills. They are the foundational competencies that allow professionals to contribute directly to the production of goods, services, or information within their respective fields

What are soft skills?

Soft skills encompass a wide array of non-technical competencies related to how one works and interacts with others. They are often described as character traits, personality attributes, or interpersonal skills. Examples include communication, teamwork, problem-solving, adaptability, emotional intelligence, leadership, critical thinking, time management, and conflict resolution. These skills are less about specific knowledge or tools and more about behaviors, attitudes, and approaches to work.

What is the difference between hard skills and soft skills

Hard skills and soft skills are both critical for career success, but they differ fundamentally in how they’re learned, measured, and applied. Hard skills are technical and job-specific, while soft skills are interpersonal and transferable across roles. As a manager, investing in both is essential to building high-performing teams.

Here’s a comprehensive comparison:

Acquisition and learning

Hard skills are acquired through formal education, training programs, courses, and certifications. One can learn them through structured pathways like bootcamps, degree programs, or specialized courses with a clear curriculum and objectives. 

As a manager, you can invest in these through budget allocation, tuition reimbursement, and enrollment in company-sponsored training.

Soft skills are developed through real-world experience and deliberate practice in professional situations. Your role as a manager is critical here: coaching, modeling behaviors, and creating safe spaces for people to develop interpersonal capabilities. These skills improve through mentorship, peer feedback, and navigating actual workplace challenges.

How to guide your team

Start by transparently communicating what excellent performance looks like in both dimensions. In team meetings, explain that strong performers need both technical competence and positive team impact; neither is optional. This sets expectations up front so people understand they can’t fulfil them on technical brilliance alone.

In one-on-ones, regularly ask: “What hard skills do you want to develop for your next role?” and “What soft skills would make you more effective right now?” This conversation helps people see both dimensions as part of their growth plan.

Measurability and verification

Hard skills are easily measurable through diplomas, certifications, test scores, portfolios, and completed projects. 

Soft skills are difficult to measure objectively. They’re assessed through behavioral interviews, peer feedback, performance reviews, and observations of how you handle workplace situations and interactions.

How to guide your team

Create clear criteria for evaluating both types of skills in your performance management process. For hard skills, reference the specific certifications, completed projects, or technical assessments that demonstrate competence. For soft skills, establish behavioral indicators, for example, define what “excellent communication” looks like in your team context: Does it mean actively listening in meetings? Giving constructive feedback? Asking clarifying questions? Share these observable behaviors with your team so they understand how you’ll assess their development. Use 360-degree feedback tools or peer reviews to gather multiple perspectives on soft-skill development, making the assessment less subjective and more collaborative.

Transferability across roles

Hard skills are often job-specific and tied to particular roles or industries. For example, a project manager in construction needs expertise in blueprint reading and building codes, while a project manager in software development requires knowledge of Agile methodologies and development tools. These technical skills don’t transfer when switching industries.

Soft skills are transferable across different roles, industries, and career stages. Communication, leadership, problem-solving, and emotional intelligence remain valuable whether you work in healthcare, technology, or finance.

How to guide your team

When discussing career development, highlight how the communication and problem-solving skills they’ve built in their current role will serve them in any role. Conversely, be realistic about transitions in hard skills. If someone wants to move into a new domain, acknowledge the technical training they’ll need and recognize that their soft skills give them a head start. Create internal mobility opportunities that leverage soft skills; for instance, someone strong in collaboration and emotional intelligence might excel in a cross-functional role even if they need to upskill technically. This helps your team see their growth as multidimensional.

Read more: Learn top leadership skills that will help achieve organizational goals and pave your way towards success. 

Focus and application

Hard skills involve the technical competencies your team needs to deliver results. They enable your team to meet technical deadlines, maintain code quality, analyze data accurately, and execute their core responsibilities with proficiency.

Soft skills involve how your people interact, communicate, solve problems together, and respond to setbacks. They determine whether your team is siloed or collaborative, whether people speak up with ideas, and whether conflicts strengthen or fracture the group.

How to guide your team

Make the business case for soft skills development by connecting it to team outcomes. In retrospectives or team debriefs, highlight specific examples: “Our communication improved this sprint, which is why we shipped without the usual coordination gaps.” Show how soft skills directly impact technical delivery. Similarly, celebrate technical wins while noting the teamwork that made them possible. During conflicts or setbacks, use them as coaching moments. Help people see how their soft skills either helped or affected the outcome.

Development timeline

Hard skills can be learned quickly with focused, intensive training. Someone can become proficient in a software tool within weeks or master a programming language within months.  This means you can address technical skill gaps relatively fast through structured training.

Soft skills take years to develop and require continuous refinement throughout a career. Building emotional intelligence, leadership capabilities, or conflict resolution is an ongoing journey that deepens with experience, feedback, and intentional personal growth. There’s no shortcut, and you accelerate this through coaching and feedback.

How to guide your team

Set different expectations and timelines for different skill types. For hard skills, create sprint-like learning plans with clear milestones and deadlines to ensure someone is functionally proficient with a new tool within a set timeframe. For soft skills, frame development as a multi-year commitment and normalize the idea of continuous growth. In one-on-ones, revisit soft-skill goals regularly and acknowledge progress in small increments. Share your own soft skill development journey, how you have worked on patience, listening, or delegation over the years. Provide ongoing support rather than one-time training, as soft skill growth compounds through repeated feedback and reflection, not through a single workshop.

Read more: Nobody is a born leader; they are made leaders. Explore this article to develop leadership skills and learn what challenges you can face while developing them.

Examples of hard skills in the workplace

Understanding where hard skills show up in your organization helps you assess team strengths, identify development gaps, assign people to the right roles, and create effective development plans. Here’s how hard skills manifest across common roles:

• Graphic design

Graphic designers need strong technical abilities to create visual content and interpersonal skills to understand client needs and collaborate effectively. 

Hard skills include proficiency in Adobe Creative Suite (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign), typography, color theory, layout design, branding, illustration, UI/UX design principles, and print production knowledge. Designers must master design software and understand visual communication techniques to produce professional work.

• Marketing

Marketing professionals combine analytical and creative technical skills with strong relationship-building abilities to promote products and engage audiences.

Hard skills include SEO and SEM expertise, content marketing, social media management, Google Analytics, email marketing platforms, marketing automation tools, copywriting, data analysis, PPC advertising, and CRM software proficiency. Marketers need technical knowledge to execute campaigns and measure results. 

In the B2B SaaS industry, Emelie Linkheden, VP of Marketing at Younium, emphasizes that beyond traditional marketing skills, key hard skills include understanding key metrics like ARR (Annual Recurring Revenue), churn, expansion, contract terms, and the influence of pricing structures on growth. These skills are crucial for driving business growth and making data-driven decisions in SaaS marketing.

• Project management

Project managers need organizational and planning expertise combined with leadership abilities to guide teams and deliver projects successfully.

Hard skills include project management methodologies (Agile, Scrum, Waterfall), proficiency in tools like ProofHub, Jira, Asana, or Microsoft Project, budgeting and financial planning, risk management, resource management, scheduling, workflow automations, data analysis for project metrics, and knowledge of relevant industry standards and compliance requirements.

Richard Govada Joshua, an IT Project Manager in TEK Systems, believes that the hard skill that matters most is systems thinking across technology and business. It’s not just knowing tools like Jira, cloud platforms, or data architectures; it’s understanding how technical decisions affect timelines, budgets, security, and end users. Projects fail when managers treat technology in isolation instead of as part of a larger operating system.

• Sales

Sales professionals combine product knowledge and CRM expertise with persuasion and relationship-building skills to drive revenue.

Hard skills include CRM software proficiency (Salesforce, HubSpot), product knowledge, sales analytics and reporting, pipeline management, contract negotiation techniques, market research, pricing strategies, and understanding of sales methodologies and forecasting.

• Customer service

Customer service representatives need technical product knowledge and system proficiency combined with patience and empathy to resolve customer issues.

Hard skills include knowledge of help desk software, CRM systems, typing speed and accuracy, product or service expertise, troubleshooting techniques, ticketing systems, basic technical support, and documentation skills.

• Finance and accounting

Finance professionals require strong analytical and technical accounting skills alongside attention to detail and ethical judgment.

Hard skills include proficiency in accounting software (QuickBooks, SAP), financial modeling, Excel advanced functions, knowledge of GAAP or IFRS standards, financial reporting, tax preparation, auditing, budgeting and forecasting, and data analysis.

Examples of soft skills in the workplace

While soft skills encompass many different abilities, certain ones consistently emerge as essential for success in modern organizations. As a manager, understanding these key soft skills and recognizing them in your team will help you identify development priorities and build a stronger, more capable team.

• Communication

The ability to share information clearly and listen actively to others. This includes speaking, writing, presenting ideas, negotiating, and truly understanding others’ perspectives. Strong communicators prevent misunderstandings, build trust, and make collaboration easier. Without good communication, even the best ideas and strongest teams struggle to work together effectively.

Jesse Singh, the founder of Maadho, a manufacturing company, shared his experience on this, by stating, “While running the bottle order, the Project Manager of the client contacted me in a state of panic because the initial quality samples showed variations in tint between the different batches. Instead of sending her specs via email, I chose to schedule a quick video meeting with her to allow her to express her frustrations about previous suppliers ruining her launch, and then I explained how we test for color consistency using an inline spectrophotometer and the pictures of the color samples of each batch. She felt supported and gave approval the very next day. To date, we have three additional orders for her this year. Technology can calculate the numbers but building relationships with your customers requires communication”. 

• Teamwork and collaboration

The capacity to work effectively with others toward shared goals. This means contributing your ideas, listening to others’ perspectives, supporting teammates when they need help, and addressing disagreements respectfully. Strong teams don’t just have talented individuals; they have people who actively choose to help each other succeed.

• Problem-solving

The ability to identify issues, understand what’s causing them, and develop effective solutions. This goes beyond technical fixes. It includes thinking critically about challenges, considering creative options, making logical decisions, and staying calm under pressure. Good problem-solvers don’t just react; they anticipate and plan.

• Adaptability and flexibility

The willingness and ability to adjust when situations change. This means accepting new processes, learning new tools, shifting priorities when needed, and staying calm when plans don’t work out.

• Emotional intelligence

The ability to understand your own emotions and manage them well, and to recognize and respond to the feelings of others. People with high emotional intelligence are self-aware, can control their reactions, show empathy, and build stronger relationships. This creates stronger team dynamics and more effective leadership at all levels.

Jan Hendrik von Ahlen, co-founder & managing director of JobLeads, Career Expert & Coach, “As for soft skills, I have to name emotional intelligence. It’s so important to be able to read the room (or the Zoom), regulate your own emotions well, and be able to not jump right into conclusions when something doesn’t go your way. I notice a special need for emotionally intelligent professionals when working with remote teams and across cultures, because having them on board means better feedback processes, more productive meetings, and the atmosphere of learning and curiosity, even when mistakes happen. This is crucial and something that AI will never be able to replicate. I notice a special need for emotionally intelligent professionals when working with remote teams and across cultures”.

• Leadership

The ability to inspire and guide people toward goals, regardless of your formal title. This includes helping others grow through mentorship, making decisions confidently, resolving conflicts fairly, and bringing people together around a shared vision. Leadership is not just for managers; it shows up when team members step up to drive initiatives or support colleagues.

• Critical thinking

The ability to look at information objectively and form sound judgments. This means asking questions rather than accepting things at face value, identifying potential biases, and making decisions based on evidence rather than assumptions. Critical thinkers spot problems early and help teams avoid costly mistakes.

• Time management and organization

The ability to prioritize tasks, meet deadlines, and use time wisely. This includes planning work effectively, staying organized, and maintaining discipline. People who manage time well don’t just work harder; they work smarter and get more done without burning out.

• Creativity and innovation

The ability to think in new ways, generate original ideas, and find fresh solutions to challenges. Creativity isn’t just for designers or marketing teams; it’s valuable everywhere. 

How to use hard and soft skills in a workplace? 

Both hard and soft skills are important for success at work. Hard skills help you complete your tasks, while soft skills help you work well with others. Using both together makes you more effective in your job.

Using hard skills at work

Use your technical knowledge to complete your daily tasks and responsibilities. Apply what you’ve learned through training and education to solve problems and finish projects. For example, if you are a programmer, use your coding skills to build software. If you’re an accountant, use your financial knowledge to prepare reports. 

Using soft skills at work

Use your people skills to communicate clearly with your team and build good relationships at work. Listen to your colleagues, share your ideas effectively, and stay flexible when things change. For example, when explaining a technical problem, use simple language so everyone understands. When disagreements happen, handle them calmly and respectfully. Help new team members learn and support your coworkers when they need assistance.

Using both skills together

The best results come from combining hard and soft skills. When working on a project, use your technical knowledge along with teamwork and communication skills. For instance, a project manager needs planning skills (hard skills) and leadership abilities (soft skills) to guide the team. When meeting clients, combine your professional expertise with good listening and relationship-building skills. Remember, hard skills help you accomplish tasks, but soft skills enable you to collaborate effectively with others and advance in your career.

How to develop hard skills and soft skills effectively? 

Developing both hard and soft skills requires different approaches and consistent effort. While hard skills need structured learning and practice, soft skills grow through real-world experiences and self-improvement. 

Here’s how you can develop both effectively. 

Developing hard skills

• Start by identifying the technical skills required for your desired role or industry. 
• Enroll in online courses, workshops, or certification programs that teach these skills step-by-step. 
• Practice regularly by working on real projects, building a portfolio, and applying what you learn in practical situations. 
• Seek feedback from mentors or instructors to improve your technique. 
• Stay updated with industry trends by reading blogs, attending webinars, and joining professional communities. 

The key is consistent practice and hands-on application.

Developing soft skills

• Begin by recognizing your strengths and weaknesses in areas such as communication, teamwork, and leadership. 
• Observe how successful colleagues handle workplace situations and learn from their approach.
• Put yourself in situations that challenge you, such as leading a team project, presenting to groups, or resolving conflicts. 
• Ask for honest feedback from coworkers and managers about your interpersonal skills. Read books on emotional intelligence, leadership, and communication to understand these concepts better. 
• Practice active listening, empathy, and patience in daily interactions. Reflect on your experiences regularly and think about how you can improve. 

Remember, soft skills develop gradually through continuous self-awareness and intentional practice.

Balancing both types of development

• Create a personal development plan that includes goals for both hard and soft skills. 
• Dedicate time each week to learning technical skills while also focusing on improving your people skills. 
• Look for opportunities at work that allow you to use and develop both, such as collaborative projects or cross-functional teams. 
• Join professional groups or networking events to learn new techniques and practice communication. 
• Track progress in both areas and adjust learning approach based on what works best for you. 

The most successful professionals commit to lifelong learning in both technical and interpersonal areas.

Which is more important in the workplace: hard skills or soft skills? 

Both hard and soft skills are equally important and work together to drive workplace success. Hard skills help you get hired and complete your job tasks effectively, while soft skills determine how well you collaborate, communicate, and advance in your career. You need technical expertise to perform your role, but without strong interpersonal skills, you’ll struggle to work in teams and lead others. The best approach is to continuously develop both skill sets. Hard skills open doors to opportunities, while soft skills help you thrive and grow once you’re inside.

A Reddit conversation states that both soft skills and hard skills are essential to do a job effectively. But soft skills generally outweigh hard skills in hiring decisions, provided candidates meet minimum technical requirements. Communication, adaptability, and coachability drive long-term success and team health, while technical skills can often be taught. The ideal choice depends on role demands, urgency, and existing team dynamics.

How do hard skills vs soft skills impact remote team performance? 

Hard skills get remote work done, but soft skills are what make remote teams perform well. They drive collaboration, trust, morale, and problem-solving in virtual environments where nonverbal cues are missing, making clear communication and self-management vital for success. Both are essential: hard skills provide technical capability, while soft skills bridge the interpersonal gaps inherent in remote setups, preventing silos and ensuring smooth workflow. 

How do hard and soft skills show up in project management? 

Hard skills are the technical, measurable aspects like project tracking, scheduling & budgeting, while soft skills are the interpersonal traits like communication & leadership; both are crucial in project management, with hard skills setting the plan and soft skills driving team execution, turning technical plans into successful delivery through collaboration, conflict resolution, and stakeholder engagement. A great PM uses hard skills to define what and when, and soft skills to guide how the team gets there. 

Read more: Explore the project manager’s roles and responsibilities in 2026 and what their day-to-day life looks like.

According to a Reddit thread, having the technical knowledge of the domain, such as using project management platforms, project budgeting, allocating resources, and communication skills, is essential to get hired as a project manager. 

Conclusion

Hard skills and soft skills are complementary strengths that work together to drive individual and team success. Hard skills enable execution. Soft skills enable collaboration, growth, and resilience.

As workplaces continue to evolve, especially with remote work and rapidly changing technologies, professionals who excel in both technical and interpersonal areas stand out. The key is continuous development: invest in learning new technical skills through courses and certifications, while also building your soft skills through real-world experience, feedback, and self-reflection.

Your team’s success depends not just on what they know (hard skills) but on how they apply that knowledge and work with others (soft skills). By intentionally developing both, you create teams that are technically excellent, deeply collaborative, and built to thrive through change.