I’ve previously written about what soft skills matter most in the workplace. Now I want to talk about the benefits that employees and employers can get when a company invests in soft skills training.
It turns out that that’s a hard thing to actually write about because the benefits aren’t one-size-fits all. What a company gets out of soft skills training depends entirely on what that company actually needed going in. While I have some standard training workshops, I often custom design programs for each team’s needs. A team full of brand-new employees is going to see different results than a team of seasoned pros who’ve just gotten a little too comfortable with each other.
That said, there are some benefits that show up again and again, so I’ll focus on them.
Confidence That Actually Shows Up in the Work
One of the most consistent benefits is confidence. When employees improve their communication and public speaking skills, they learn how to say what they actually mean in a way that people hear it. There’s less confusion and meetings can get shorter. For some it’s about learning to handle difficult conversation without all the dread. Sometimes it’s improved conversation skills that build relationships. That confidence doesn’t stay abstract either. It tends to show up directly in job performance, because someone who can communicate clearly gets more done with less friction.
Networking Skills That Turn Into Income
I’ve also done workshops focused specifically on networking. For some employees, the results are very concrete: increased sales and increased income. Knowing how to work a room, start a conversation, and follow up in a way that actually builds a relationship isn’t a soft, fuzzy skill. It’s a business skill with a dollar figure attached to it for the people who use it well.
A Lack of Soft Skills Early in My Career
I’ll be honest, I learned some of this the hard way myself, back when I was a new engineer. I spent a lot of time heads-down in the lab, assuming my work would speak for itself. It didn’t occur to me that I actually had to be the one speaking for it. (And when it did, I still had to gain the confidence to actually do the speaking.)
I wasn’t apying enough attention to the culture around me or what was actually expected of me beyond the technical work. In the process, I missed out on building relationships with coworkers. I eventually figured it out, but it took a while, and it would have made a real difference to have someone spell it out more explicitly along the way. That’s a big part of why I do what I do now.
From Poorly Run Meetings to Getting Recognized
I worked with a client, a woman in a technical leadership role, who was having trouble keeping meetings under control. They were going long and not enough was getting done. She wasn’t even sure what skills she needed to build. She just knew that something had to change. We started working on building her speaking skills and confidence. I gave her some tools that she could use. One she implemented immediately was to make sure that she had a clear purpose defined for every single meeting. She also knew what she wanted to get out of each meeting, whether she was the leader or a contributor.
From there, we worked on communicating clearly and concisely: opening meetings with a quick reminder of the purpose, and being able to summarize what someone else had just said well enough to extract the important part and keep things moving. She also learned how to speak more assertively and confidently, which let her actually keep control of the meeting instead of watching it drift.
The result wasn’t just better meetings. Management started noticing. It’s been a real boost to her career.
Why Soft Skills Training Matters Most for New Employees
Business etiquette training in general offers something particularly valuable for newer employees: it tells them plainly what’s expected of them and what is and isn’t acceptable at work. Starting a first professional job is anxiety-inducing enough without also having to guess your way through unwritten rules.
The way I teach it makes a difference here too, which is why my etiquette training tends to be a lot more useful and applicaable than most people expect. I focus on a handful of core principles rather than a long list of specific rules to memorize. A lot of participants are surprised to find that learning this is actually freeing. They expected to learn a bunch of little rules and have to constantly worry about which of those you are breaking. Instead, they just apply a few solid principles and then trust themselves to handle whatever else comes up.
What the Company Gets Out of It
Some benefits land more on the employer side than the employee side. Brand ambassador training is a good example. Those workshps focus on teaching employees how to represent the company well in front of clients and customers in a way that reinforces the company’s brand image. While the employee does learn what is and isn’t acceptable, and can gain confidence from the training, the employer also gets a strong benefit.
Brand ambassador training and the like tends to strengthen client and team relationships, building a real sense of mutual respect. It also means the company’s brand and positioning get communicated more consistently across the board, which reinforces those client relationships even further. And there’s a bonus most people don’t expect going in: the training itself often turns into a bit of a team-bonding experience along the way.
Figuring Out What Your Team Actually Needs
If you’ve read all of this and you know that you or your team could benefit from some soft skills training, let’s chat. I can work with you to clarify what you or your team will benefit most from, clarify some learning objectives and work up a plan that will get you there, rather than hand you a generic program and hope that something sticks.
Want to keep building these skills on your own in the meantime? Subscribe to my free Substack newsletter for a public speaking challenge delivered to your inbox every week.