The future of leadership: Why improving soft skills can make the hard work easier

We get it! It is hard work being a leader in the current climate:

• Hard to recruit new talent
• Hard to retain the talent you’ve already got
• Hard to ignore quiet quitting, let alone quiet cracking and the great detachment
• Hard to work virtually, often in multiple time zones
• Hard to lead a multi-generational workforce
• Hard when your direct reports turn to AI for advice when they used to turn to you.

We get it, it is hard. But there is hope.

We spend our working lives listening carefully to leaders and what keeps them awake on a Sunday night. Solving the ‘technical’ challenges of delivering the work is rarely mentioned.

In this blog, Axiom founder and Managing Director, Chris Carey, explores how a focus on improving soft skills through targeted training for employees and leaders is now an essential element of leadership strategy, and can make the truly ‘hard’ work easier.

Five workplace trends that are keeping leaders awake at night

Clearly, doing more of what we’ve always done isn’t working. The evidence is there for all to see:

1. Burnt-out bosses

• The very people colleagues turn to for inspiration, their managers, are reporting a decline in engagement, especially in 2026, with young managers showing the sharpest drop
• These same managers report feeling ‘squeezed’, trying to lead colleagues through the choppy waters of change, whilst still delivering results
• And it is not just the bosses who are reporting burnout. 83% of employees feel that way too, with a lack of recognition cited as a big factor.

2. Increasing AI anxiety

• Only 12% of entry-level employees believe their organisation has clearly communicated how AI will change their roles
• The speed at which AI is advancing is perceived as faster than employees can adapt, driving frustration and fear. Ultimately, employees question ‘will I even have a role?’
• 77% of employees think that, rather than reducing their workload, AI has actually increased it.

3. Going to the office – are you in or out?

• Nearly 4 in 10 colleagues report being impacted by ‘Return to Office’ mandates, with many, especially in the United States, opposing them
• It is not so much a resistance to being in the office per se that is the problem. It is more that many commute to the office, only to find themselves on virtual calls
• However, those who consider themselves ‘remote workers’ report feelings of loneliness and are 20% more likely to report burnout.

4. The ‘North Star’ is growing dimmer

• Colleagues, especially those with 10 – 15 years of experience at work, report not being able to align what they do, day in and day out, with their organisation’s wider purpose
• 60% of employees are so disenchanted, that they are looking for other roles or are open to offers
• Simply thanking employees for a job well done each week has dropped to 19%. That’s a ‘soft skill’ that requires little or no budget to brighten a colleague’s day.

5. The culture is not curated

• Whilst 93% of colleagues say workplace culture shapes their experience, only 36% say it is well-defined
• The perception of ‘the way we do things around here’ is clearly going the wrong way. Only 56% of employees feel their leaders act with benevolence, a key factor in employee retention and engagement
• Over half of UK businesses report signs of ‘Culture rot’, the erosion of values, shared beliefs, and positive behaviours. 19% of UK employees say they dread going to work.

The way forward – a human-centred approach to powering performance

I was once asked by a leader, as we were waiting for a Teams call to get properly underway, ‘What drives the success of all of your high-performing clients?’. My response was, ‘The same thing that lies at the heart of all of the under-performing ones… they all employ people!’

If you get the people part right, you are well on your way to outstanding organisational performance.

That means co-creating common goals, enhancing emotional intelligence, strengthening psychological safety, maximising morale and motivation, and earning trust.

Surely these things should not be referred to as ‘soft skills’. As the stats tell us, the only thing that will be ‘soft’ is your business performance if you do not power up your people to power performance.

These interpersonal abilities would be better titled ‘core’ skills, as they need to be at the heart of your approach to leadership – a human-centred approach.

Technical skills might be what gets people hired in the first place, or signed up as part of a project team. Core skills enhance how people interact with one another, collaborate more effectively, respond to challenges, and drive success.

Your job as a leader is to meet these ‘core’ needs and do that quickly. After all, research tells us that 74% of Millennial and Gen Z employees would leave their jobs if not given opportunities for skills development.

Employees today are craving connection, bereft of belonging and passionate about purpose.

It may not be mentioned in your job description, but you can give them all that. It is not something that you can outsource to AI.

• Skills like communication and empathy help build stronger, more harmonious relationships, reduce conflict, and enhance team connection
• Enhancing psychological safety and resilience enables teams to handle stress and embrace ongoing change, even in the face of ambiguity
• Employees with leaders who have high emotional intelligence report higher job satisfaction, greater levels of trust, and improved creativity
• Technical expertise can soon become outdated. Interpersonal skills, however, are transferable, crucial for long-term success and key to people staying with, and indeed staying engaged with, a business
• Research shows that investing in core skills leads to higher employee morale and engagement, and a 250% ROI through increased productivity and retention.

How Axiom’s soft skills workshops and leadership development services add up to success and multiply your return on investment

Developing the so-called ‘soft skills’ of leaders and line managers has been a core part of the Axiom offering for three decades.

Over that period, we have developed over 60 interventions arranged under four headings:

More often than not, we mix and match content drawn from these four prospectuses to create bespoke programmes to meet our clients’ unique needs.

And we can be equally flexible in terms of how our programmes are delivered; in-person, fully virtual, as hybrid solutions, or through eLearning. We will work creatively to take full account of your operational, environmental, and cost constraints.

All of our workshops are facilitated by subject matter experts, steeped in experience and passionate about the difference they can make to personal and organisational results.

We are not shy about helping you develop case studies to demonstrate the impact of your approach. Measuring outcomes at every stage is a key component of success.

And of course, as part of our wider range of services, these workshops do not have to sit in splendid isolation. We can help you communicate the context in which they fit. That could involve helping you co-create the North Star (Collective Ambition) for your business, share your Big Picture, and dive deeper into your Employee Experience.

Here are just six of our top-rated workshops that could form part of your solution.

Let’s talk about making the hard work easier?

It is hard being a leader in this day and age. That has to be acknowledged. But there is a clear way forward.

In days gone by, we’ve slipped into the habit of calling interpersonal capabilities ‘soft skills’. At Axiom, we believe these skills aren’t soft at all, but ‘core’ to your future success – and that of the teams you lead and the business you run.

Developing these core skills, allied to clearly articulating the context in which they sit, will put the light back on at the end of the tunnel and help you speed along, taking your people with you on the journey. You might even sleep better.

It’s time we talked about how to make the hard work easier.