What are some examples of soft skills? Communication, teamwork, emotional intelligence, adaptability and critical thinking are the most common. Each shows up as an observable work behavior, such as listening actively, coordinating tasks or adjusting priorities when plans change.
The sections below explain how these skills work, give short work-ready examples, and show how to phrase them for a resume or interview. If you are still deciding which roles suit your strengths, how to choose a career gives the wider context.
How soft skills work
Soft skills are non-technical skills that relate to how you interact with people, according to BetterUp. Ramsey Solutions puts it as the abilities that help you connect with others and manage yourself as you do your job. In practice, that means they show in how you communicate, work in teams and solve problems, as EAE Business School describes.
The mechanism matters for how you present them. Indeed notes that soft skills depend on traits such as emotional intelligence, values and work ethic. Novoresume adds that they can be personality traits or traits gained through life experience. Because they come from habits and character rather than certificates, an employer can only judge them through behavior. A claim like “good communicator” is weak. A described action is strong.
That leads to a simple rule for everything below: pair every skill name with something you did, so the reader can picture the behavior.
Communication examples
Communication is about how you share ideas with others. Novoresume lists the most common forms as verbal, written, presentation, constructive feedback and active listening. Indeed adds that communication includes listening actively, asking meaningful questions and controlling your tone of voice.
- Verbal: a team lead explains project priorities at a standup so each person leaves knowing their next task.
- Written: a coordinator sends a short summary that lists decisions, owners and deadlines, so nobody has to ask what was agreed.
- Presentation: an analyst walks a client through findings, leading with the recommendation and then the supporting evidence.
- Constructive feedback: a designer names what works in a draft and suggests a specific improvement, rather than a general complaint.
- Active listening: a support agent repeats the customer’s issue back, asks a meaningful question and then acts on the answer.
Active listening is the easiest of these to overlook on a resume, yet it is often what makes the others work. Restating a point and asking whether you missed anything is a visible habit you can describe in an interview.
Teamwork and interpersonal examples
Teamwork is about how you contribute to the positivity and success of a group, in Ramsey Solutions’ wording. Novoresume lists conflict management, collaboration, coordination, idea exchange and mediation as related skills. Ramsey’s examples include taking on different roles to achieve team goals.
Collaboration and coordination
A marketer who plans a launch with sales and product colleagues, agrees who owns which task and shares deadlines is showing coordination. A resume line for this can be as plain as BetterUp’s own example: collaborated with the finance department to run reports. It names the partner and the task, which is enough.
Conflict management and mediation
When two colleagues disagree on an approach, a useful move is to ask each to state the facts and then propose a small trial that tests both ideas. This works well in interviews because it shows you can settle a disagreement without taking sides. Choose this example if the role involves cross-team work.
Emotional intelligence, adaptability and self-management
These skills describe how you handle yourself and others under pressure. Ramsey Solutions gives emotional intelligence examples as showing empathy, inspiring motivation and giving encouragement. Indeed defines adaptability as the ability to adjust to new circumstances and react to changes positively.
- Empathy: noticing that a colleague is under strain and offering to take over part of a task.
- Encouragement: acknowledging a teammate’s strong work in a review so the feedback that follows is easier to hear.
- Switching priorities quickly: reordering your task list when a client request or test result changes what matters most.
- Learning new skills: picking up an unfamiliar tool because the project needs it, rather than waiting for training to be assigned.
- Managing yourself: blocking time for focused work and meeting commitments without reminders.
Adaptability suits fast-moving or uncertain roles best. If the job description mentions changing priorities, lead with it. If it stresses routine accuracy, put reliability and self-management first instead.
Problem-solving and critical thinking examples
Indeed explains that problem-solving skills help employees analyze obstacles and determine the best way to resolve them. EAE Business School adds that critical thinking lets employees evaluate information and make informed decisions. The two overlap, but they read differently on a resume: problem-solving describes a fix, while critical thinking describes the judgement behind it.
- Root-cause analysis: tracing a recurring error to a configuration mismatch and updating the setup guide so it does not return.
- Weighing evidence: comparing several possible explanations for a drop in results and checking each against the data before recommending action.
- Framing a decision: listing options with their advantages, drawbacks and effect on the schedule so stakeholders can choose with shared understanding.
Soft skills phrased for a resume
The table turns the examples above into short phrasing you can adapt. Treat the wording as a pattern to replace with your own tasks, not as text to copy.
| Skill | What it looks like at work | Resume or interview phrasing |
|---|---|---|
| Verbal communication | Explaining priorities so everyone knows their task | Briefed the team on project priorities and next steps |
| Written communication | Summaries of decisions, owners and deadlines | Wrote summaries that recorded decisions, owners and deadlines |
| Active listening | Restating the issue and asking a meaningful question | Listened to customer concerns, asked clarifying questions and resolved issues |
| Collaboration | Working with another department on a shared task | Collaborated with the finance department to run reports |
| Mediation | Helping colleagues test two approaches | Mediated a disagreement by agreeing a trial of both ideas |
| Emotional intelligence | Noticing strain and offering support | Supported colleagues under deadline pressure by sharing workload |
| Adaptability | Changing priorities and learning new tools | Reprioritized work quickly as needs changed and learned new tools |
| Critical thinking | Evaluating information before deciding | Traced a recurring error to its cause and updated the setup guide |
The skill groupings follow lists from Novoresume and Ramsey Solutions, while the collaboration phrasing comes from BetterUp’s resume example.
Choosing and presenting the right skills
No single ranking settles which soft skills employers value most, because BetterUp points out that not all employers value the same soft skills. Ramsey Solutions gives the practical answer: match your skills to the job posting. Read the posting for repeated words such as collaboration, ownership or client communication, and lead with the examples that correspond.
On the resume
BetterUp suggests a clearly labeled skills section that lists your soft and hard skills. Embedding a skill in an action statement, like the collaboration line above, is usually stronger than a bare keyword. Ramsey Solutions notes that hiring managers like to see evidence of strong soft skills, so list strengths on both the resume and the cover letter.
In the cover letter
Use the cover letter to describe the results you achieved with a skill instead of repeating the list. It has more room for context than a resume bullet, so tell the short story: the situation, what you did and what changed.
In the interview
Prepare a brief story for each skill you have claimed. Interview answers about your own strengths follow the same logic, and Strengths And Weaknesses For Interviews: What To Say, How To Say It, And Examples For 2026 – Peopleil covers how to phrase them. Written communication also continues after the interview, and a thank you email after interview is a natural place to show it.
Frequently asked questions
What are examples of soft skills?
Common examples include communication (verbal, written, presentation, feedback and active listening), teamwork (collaboration, coordination, conflict management and mediation), emotional intelligence, adaptability, critical thinking and problem-solving.
How do I show soft skills on a resume?
Add a clearly labeled skills section, then support it with action statements in your experience bullets, such as collaborating with another department to run reports. Use the cover letter to describe the results you achieved.
Which soft skills do employers value most?
It depends on the employer. Not all employers value the same soft skills, so read each job posting and match your skills to the ones it emphasizes.
Are soft skills personality traits or can they be learned?
Both. Soft skills can be personality traits, or they can be traits obtained through life experience, so you can build them through practice.
Do soft skills replace technical skills?
No. Soft skills are non-technical skills about how you interact with people, and BetterUp suggests listing them alongside hard skills in the same labeled resume section.
