Top Soft Skills Every Manager Needs in 2026
- Thinkdom
- Jun 26
- 5 min read
They were great at their job, so they got promoted. But doing the job and leading the team are two different games. Welcome to the world of the “accidental manager”: high-performing individual contributors who find themselves suddenly managing people, with little to no preparation.
This story plays out across industries. According to DDI’s Global Leadership Forecast, nearly 60% of new managers receive no formal training before stepping into their role.
The result? A steep learning curve, emotional overwhelm, and the ever-present fear of “getting it wrong.”
These managers aren’t failing because they lack drive. They’re struggling because they lack the skills that actually define good leadership: coaching, communication, conflict resolution, giving feedback. In other words: soft skills.
But here's the catch: soft skills aren’t soft. They’re business-critical. And when new managers don’t have them, it’s not just their stress levels that spike. Their teams feel it too: through disengagement, confusion, and turnover.
If L&D doesn’t step in with timely, relevant support, these managers are left to wing it, improvising leadership in real time, often without the tools they need.
That’s not just a risk to individual wellbeing, but to team culture, productivity, and long-term retention.
The solution? A structured, strategic approach to soft skills for managers , one that equips them not just to survive, but to lead with confidence.
The Soft Skills Your Managers Need (Now and Later)
As AI transforms workflows and hybrid becomes the default, managers need a stronger human skillset to lead effectively. The next five years will demand precision, clarity, and adaptability in real-world contexts.
Here’s a sharper look at the soft skills that matter most now—and will matter even more tomorrow:
Emotional Intelligence for Empathetic Leadership
The foundational skill that powers all others. Managers must read the room - virtual or not, understand unspoken cues, and respond with empathy. This is especially vital as stress and change become constants.
Adaptability to manage Change
Tools, teams, and targets change overnight. Managers must navigate ambiguity, reset expectations, and stay effective, even when the playbook changes mid-game.
Building Trust in Uncertain Times
As AI adoption reshapes roles, psychological safety becomes a strategic advantage. Managers must create a space where teams can voice doubt, share feedback, and collaborate without fear of being replaced or overlooked.
Decision-Making for Hiring and Team Moves
Hiring, onboarding, and role transitions are now deeply tied to business outcomes. Soft skills like judgment, discernment, and structured decision-making help managers choose right—not fast.
Communicating Across Distance
With remote and hybrid setups becoming the norm, clear, consistent, and nuanced communication is a non-negotiable. Managers must know how to lead one-on-one Zoom check-ins, cascade team goals asynchronously, and keep context intact when the medium limits tone.
Delegating with Context
AI can do the grunt work, but human teams still need clarity. Delegation now means pairing tasks with purpose, so employees know not just what to do, but why it matters.
Delivering Feedback That Lands
In a high-output world, feedback has to be both timely and actionable. Managers must balance candor with care, and ensure feedback isn’t just given—but absorbed and acted on.
Managing with Realism
Not every goal is stretchable. Managers who acknowledge constraints, pace their teams, and know when to push or pause will keep burnout in check while still driving performance.
Creativity for Human-led Innovation
AI excels at replication. Humans still lead at innovation. Whether it's solving team friction or rethinking workflows, creative problem-solving is a serious edge in complex environments.
By building programs that reflect these priorities, not generic leadership modules, you’ll equip managers to lead with confidence, creativity, and care.
How L&D Can Support
1. Start with What Matters Most
Don’t guess, diagnose. Generic surveys won’t cut it. Zoom into the moments managers struggle. When are they hesitating? Where are decisions going sideways?
Look at where managers struggle most (e.g. tough feedback, team tension)
Use exit interviews and pulse surveys to trace soft skill gaps
Shadow managers or simulate tough conversations to observe missing capabilities in action
Map specific skills to critical moments in the manager’s week instead of using generic categories
Prioritize high-impact soft skills based on business context and manager maturity.
2. Build Stress Buffers, Not Just Skills
Even the most capable managers struggle when they feel unsupported. Emotional regulation, empathy, and feedback don’t thrive under chronic stress.
That’s why capability building must be paired with care or stress management. Create structures that make support systemic not optional.
Peer learning groups or manager circles
Reflection tools like journaling prompts or burnout self-checks
Time-blocked decompression moments post-review cycles
Co-create with HR to bake well-being into leadership programs from day one.
3. Create Pipelines, Not Pit Stops
Soft skills aren’t a checkbox, they’re muscle memory. And that requires repetition, variation, and reinforcement.
Go beyond one-size-fits-all interventions. Layer your learning:
Persona-based learning journeys (new vs. experienced managers)
Multi-format content (e.g. simulations, podcasts, nudges, async learning)
In-the-moment support (e.g. AI bots offering feedback prompts before reviews)
Treat employee development as an ongoing habit, not a one-off module.
4. Make the Progress Visible
To prove your program works, track what actually changes, not just what gets completed.
Look at metrics like:
Pre/post self-assessment on soft skill confidence
Peer or team feedback trends
Retention of direct reports
Participation in group coaching or manager forums
Link soft skill development directly to business and culture metrics for better stakeholder buy-in.
The ROI of Doing It Right
When soft skills training is designed well and delivered consistently, the returns aren’t vague, they’re measurable.
Reduced Burnout: Managers trained to handle stress, set realistic expectations, and delegate well can lower burnout risk, for themselves and their teams.
Retention rises: LinkedIn’s Workplace Learning Report found that 94% of employees would stay longer at a company that invests in their development. And soft skills, like communication and coaching are key to making that investment feel personal.
Managers perform better, faster: Companies that train first-time managers early see up to 29% improvement in employee engagement scores within six months, according to Gallup.
Teams grow stronger: A McKinsey study found that teams led by high-EQ managers were 2.6x more likely to hit performance targets. Why? Because those managers could navigate conflict, keep morale up, and adapt under pressure.
Competitive Edge in the AI Era: As AI takes over tasks, human leadership becomes the differentiator. Skills like adaptability, trust-building, and creative thinking are now high-value assets AI can't mimic, making trained managers a future-proof investment.
It’s Not Optional Anymore
Soft skills are no longer “nice-to-haves”, they’re mission-critical.
In a hybrid, high-change, AI-enabled world, your managers are making real-time calls that impact everything from team morale to business outcomes. If they don’t have the emotional intelligence, communication skills, or coaching mindset to lead well, the cost shows up fast—in disengaged teams, poor decisions, and lost talent.
The fix? Not a one-time workshop. It’s a continuous, intentional learning pipeline—built into your L&D strategy, not bolted on.
For L&D leaders, the ask is clear: Embed soft skills into every stage of the manager journey. Build feedback loops. Track behavior change. Measure impact.
Because resilient organizations don’t happen by accident. They’re designed through capable, self-aware, human-first leadership.
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