Soft skills, also known as interpersonal competencies or social skills, determine how a person collaborates with others, completes tasks, responds to change, demonstrates empathy, communicates, maintains a positive attitude, manages emotions, handles stress, and approaches building relationships with others. Soft skills reflect how we function in our environment, how we form relationships, the influence we exert on others, and our style of cooperation. They complement what someone does (hard skills).
Soft skills are measurable and predictable. They can be developed just like hard skills. And just as hard skills are considered in recruitment, project management, and employee development, soft skills should be seen as an integral part of the resources we have, need, or want to grow. To achieve organizational goals, we need people not only for what they do and what they work on, but also for how they do it and how they influence their environment. Managing what happens in interactions between team members—behavioral dynamics and attitudes—determines the quality of collaboration and the effectiveness of working toward a common goal.
Soft skills can now be diagnosed and measured. EFFECTIVENESS offers competency-diagnosis tools based on the DISC D3 behavioral model. The DISC D3 assessment supports the verification of the areas of greatest effectiveness, natural predispositions for a given role, strengths as well as limitations. Each profile defined in the assessment is analyzed in context—through the lens of how a particular range of behaviors and attitudes may impact others, how well they align with the needs and expectations of a current or planned role, and in which direction an individual should best develop. It also considers the environment and organizational culture in which a person will achieve the highest level of engagement, in harmony with their natural potential.
The DISC D3 assessment also identifies collaboration challenges (very often the result of the interaction between behaviors and attitudes underlying soft skills) and helps address difficulties constructively. It provides precise insights into both teams and individual employees—information that should be considered when the team is preparing for change, developing new products or services, or verifying who will perform best in particular tasks, and what kinds of behaviors and attitudes will be especially needed to achieve shared goals.
Working with EFFECTIVENESS provides the opportunity to create an Employee TOP Profile, also known as a benchmark – identifying the key competencies, behaviors, and attitudes required for a specific position, considering the role profile, the expectations of the leader and the organization, including its values.
We build the benchmark by defining required competencies in a survey, and, whenever possible, also by analyzing the soft skills profiles of employees who deliver strong results in the company. These data are then compared with the industry benchmark.
Such a prepared benchmark also serves as a measure of soft skills for a given position, to be used in verifying competencies (job evaluation), as required by EU Directive 2023/970 on strengthening the principle of equal pay for women and men.
Tailored to the specific company and its culture, not ‘one-size-fits-all’.
Specific behaviors rather than broad categories – soft skills are described and analyzed through the lens of characteristic behaviors that reflect the expected level of a given competency, or behaviors that in a particular role should be developed (activated) or moderated (avoided overuse).
Takes into account personality differences in how competencies are understood – for example, communication, strategic thinking, creativity – different personalities perceive competencies in different ways.
Co-created with the Client – not a ready-made template, but a precise map of expectations in a given context.
Organizations differ:they have different values and approaches to doing business. The nature of services, as well as their clients, also varies. On top of that, leaders are different, too—and usually, in line with their personality profile, values, and experience, they define what they particularly appreciate in cooperation, what behaviors and attitudes they associate with, for example, personal effectiveness, conflict resolution, or loyalty to the team and shared goals.
Colleagues are also diverse—they have different needs and motivations in the context of day-to-day collaboration and the direction of their competency development.
When hiring the right person today, a thorough analysis of a CV and professional experience is no longer enough. Including an analysis of the candidate’s soft skills profile supports making the right recruitment decisions in the long-term, within the specific organizational context (taking into account the organization’s needs, culture, and values). In addition to the candidate’s experience—such as the type of projects completed, achievements, and knowledge (the “what they do”)—it is worth considering how the person works: with the team, with their manager, on projects, and in interactions with clients and colleagues. It also matters what they need in order to feel job satisfaction, sustain engagement, and take personal responsibility for the quality of collaboration and the level of goals achieved.
with consideration of soft skills – EU Directive 2023/970 on strengthening the principle of equal pay for women and men requires verification not only of hard skills but also of social (soft) skills. In line with the Directive’s requirements, and based on the DISC D3 model, we create a benchmark (competency profile) – a tool for a reliable and gender-neutral way of assessing soft skills.
Our competency assessments (DISC D3 and 360 Indicator) support leaders in gaining awareness of their natural management style and how it may be perceived by others. They help in understanding one’s strengths, as well as recognizing which competencies should and need to be developed in order to reach a higher level of skills and leadership attitude.
DISC D3 precisely diagnoses an employee’s areas of effectiveness and role preferences. Combined with a benchmark (Employee TOP Profile), it provides insights into which strengths are worth developing and in which areas the individual should be supported—so they can become increasingly effective at the operational level while, through their attitude, exerting a positive influence on others.
Verifying soft skills and understanding employees’ DISC D3 profiles provides managers and team leaders with a set of insights about what style of collaboration and communication each person needs in order to maintain a high level of engagement. This knowledge also enables them to constructively manage misunderstandings, as well as anticipate potential conflicts and collaboration challenges.
The DISC D3 assessment supports mapping the competencies and resources already present within the team. This enables the project manager to allocate tasks in a way that best aligns with the strengths of the project team members.
Soft skills – Power skills are also described as the skills of the future. They are becoming increasingly important in the job market because their development prepares us for what is unknown, changing, and unpredictable. Doesn’t that sound like the very reality we all experience when pursuing a shared goal?
Soft skills are a direct response to the realities and needs of business. In today’s job market—amid rapid technological development and automation, different work models (on-site, hybrid, remote), and diverse collaboration contexts (international environments, generational differences)—employers need to identify the soft skills (behaviors and attitudes) their employees will require in order to achieve business objectives in alignment with company values, build engaged teams, and operate effectively in a dynamic, complex work environment.
