Soft Skills as a Driver of Organisational Resilience

Leaders around the world must adapt rapidly, relying on soft skills in an environment where uncertainty is becoming the norm. Yet, according to the Organisational Resilience Barometer, 50% of French companies still do not view soft skills as a priority.

A survey report by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) highlights a stark contrast with the UK. Here, 88% of managers and directors acknowledge the importance of organisational resilience. For 80% of them, it is considered essential for long-term growth.

Klara unpacks this cause-and-effect relationship in a comprehensive new guide!

Organisational resilience refers to a company’s ability to plan for, anticipate, and respond effectively to challenges as they arise. It is characterised by an organisation that is both agile and equipped to adapt to structural changes.

A resilient organisation recovers and shields itself from short-term impacts through effective risk management. However, a swift restructuring of your business can lead to internal strain. Without the application of soft skills, such situations often escalate into unnecessary conflict and low team morale.

Yet, your employees should not fear change — they must be equipped to manage it.

Interpersonal and human factors play a vital role in this transformation. Employees benefit from developing their:

• Communication skills

• Decision-making abilities

• Capacity to manage stress and embrace self-reflection

By strengthening their individual resilience, your employees help preserve the organisation’s shared mindset — triggering a ripple effect that, in turn, supports broader organisational resilience.

Implementing soft skills across the business does come with its challenges. Consider using a skills tracking tool to support the development of these essential capabilities.

Soft skills remain largely underused in the workplace, often overshadowed by technical competencies, which continue to dominate recruitment and talent development strategies.

A report from Deloitte reveals that while 72% of executives recognise the importance of soft skills, only 30% actively develop them. These figures are concerning, especially given the complex and fast-changing environment in which they operate.

Budgets tend to focus primarily on certifications and job-specific tools, pushing soft skills to the background. This gap in operational resilience results in higher stress levels and reduced productivity. Organisational resilience and wellbeing are, therefore, closely intertwined.

To ensure business continuity, you must prioritise organisational resilience and skills development. However, many companies perceive soft skills as intangible and difficult to measure.

This lack of understanding breeds reluctance around their development. Leadership teams often fail to include human skills in their training plans, instead favouring a top-down management style that sidelines empathy and active listening.

Yet it is crucial to embed soft skills into the wider functioning of the business — turning them into a true driver of organisational resilience.

To strengthen organisational culture, leaders must rely on effective leadership. A resilient company is, above all, built on committed managers who are able to understand and support their teams.

As a manager or HR director, it is your role to foster clear and effective communication in the workplace. Feedback is a constructive practice that supports this aim. As a soft skill, it helps embed best practices and forms a cornerstone of a continuous improvement culture.

Your organisation must promote transparency within teams. It is vital to create a safer, more connected workplace for your employees — especially in times of crisis.

Stress management is one of the essential soft skills for leading a team. As a leader, you must learn to regulate your emotions to better support talent and enhance their wellbeing.

Use a platform like Klara to develop soft skills across your teams. This solution supports continuous development through interactive tools and a dedicated user interface.

Informed decision-making is a strategic capability that underpins organisational agility, effective resource allocation, and resilience in the face of the unexpected.

Whether in a consultancy, a construction firm, or a large industrial group, strengthening this capability enables teams to align their actions more precisely with real-world challenges.

To achieve this, it’s essential to develop both soft skills — such as critical thinking, stress management, and the ability to prioritise — and decision-making tools that support actions aligned with business objectives.

Many companies today operate across multiple time zones and regions. Working within this level of organisational complexity requires strong skills, increased collaboration, and effective information sharing between teams.

Resilient cultures rely on conflict management to maintain motivation within the business. As a leader, you must learn to minimise divides that can arise between different cultural perspectives.

Showing organisational resilience helps businesses to successfully adapt to the threats facing their long-term sustainability. To achieve this, companies must integrate soft skills into their strategic approach — for stronger, more sustainable results.