Soft Skills, Hard Impact: B-School Leaders On What Really Matters In Biz Ed
Soft skills, encompassing such traits as communication, emotional intelligence, teamwork and adaptability, enable future leaders to build strong relationships, inspire teams and drive innovation. By integrating soft skills training into the curriculum, management education can empower graduates not only to understand business principles, but also to apply them with integrity and ethical insight.
Looking ahead, the demand for leaders with robust soft skills will only intensify. Business schools must proactively evolve, embedding experiential learning and real-world simulations. This ensures graduates possess not just theoretical knowledge, but also the ability to lead with empathy, navigate ambiguity and develop inclusive cultures – all of which will be essential for thriving in tomorrow’s challenging global economy.
What role should organisations play in partnering with business schools to ensure that graduates possess the soft skills they need to succeed in the workplace?
Tom Lindholm, Managing Director, Aalto University Executive Education: “I think the important thing here is to establish a long-term relationship with the organisations that we partner with in order to create a continuous dialogue and foster strong collaboration. This will enable us to better understand how we can help those individuals who are joining our programmes in terms of the specific soft skills that they require.”
Hannah Holmes, Dean, Manchester Metropolitan University Business School: “I think it has to be contextualised around whether that’s at a programme level, which would be a very specific partnership, or something that sits across the school and is perhaps more of a strategic type of partnership. “Areas where I’ve seen partnerships working really well at programme level are when companies provide case studies for students to work on real-life business challenges, as well as collaborating with the teaching team. This ensures that those units are properly industry-aligned. “In terms of soft skills, I’ve found that working with recruiters who design the recruitment pathways into industry – accessing their knowledge and expertise to design that curriculum for your students – is extremely effective.”
Munish Thakur, Dean, Delhi-NCR Campus, XLRI-Xavier School of Management: “We operate two pathways. One involves real‑life projects, where industry leaders will tend to embed soft skills; the other way is when we do curricula mapping and we speak to an industry advisory board. Every department at our school has its own advisory board, where company CEOs will come in to discuss which soft skills can be incorporated into the curriculum and to what extent they’re relevant. We also try to assess these soft skills, along with our executive partners, during the break after students have completed their first-year internships.”
Tessa Melkonian, Head of the Leadership Academy for New Futures, Emlyon Business School: “We are trying to jointly create new approaches with organisations in the sense of developing a research-oriented type of project around the kind of challenges they face – and which soft skills would help most in this context. To my mind, what really matters is to elaborate partnerships where professors try to anticipate what could be potential solutions to business problems in terms of the lack of associated soft skills.”
Federica Pazzaglia, Associate Dean, University College Dublin Smurfit Graduate Business School: “There’s a group of corporate partners who repeatedly engage with us – and that is through our alumni who are now placed within these organisations. “We hear a lot in academia about the importance of soft skills, but I think in the minds of our students there is still that notion of how essential hard and technical skills are too. We need to remind them that technical skills are important, but you will be called on more often than not to act as a mediator between differing points of view, or communicate difficult issues, or drive change. “So that part is something you need to start practising while you’re in the MBA programme – and I think that is very much where a partnership with industry can help.”
Bruno van Pottelsberghe, Rector, Corvinus University of Budapest: “We have drastically accelerated the number of partnerships with industry and corporate partners – I think we’ve signed a deal with 16 over the past two years – so it’s fairly intensive. There is a variety of applications, such as being involved in course delivery, having access to students for internship and recruitment, as well as participating in our summer schools. “We have a strong demand from our students for [practical, hands-on] experience. We also have about 40 student clubs – they are extremely dynamic and entrepreneurial – and several of their initiatives involve corporate partners. I remember one business leader saying that he had learned as much outside the classroom as he had inside; this is what we must strive to attain – having a learning experience outside the classroom that is also extremely valuable and enriching.”
How do cultural differences affect the importance and application of certain soft skills and how can business schools best address this in their curricula?
Munish Thakur: “I’d like to start by commenting on why soft skills are so hard to acquire. First off, they take time to develop, whereas students are only with us for a maximum of two years and they’re also non-linear. Such skills are holistic, or tacit in nature too, so it’s very difficult to quantify and figure out how they are developing. [Then you have to factor in] that the MBA is cognitive, whereas soft skills are behavioural. Plus, business schools are extremely competitive, they are focused on grades. There is a certain amount of conflict, therefore, between the MBA programme and soft skill development. “Soft skills are cultural and contextual; for example, in India, which is more of a collectivistic society, deference for authority is very important and there is a perceived difference between wisdom and knowledge. People who have gone to university might be more Western in their approach, but there’s a whole lot of India which is still very Eastern in this regard. When you’re born in a community you acquire certain values – and they become part of you. These cultural nuances are very difficult to change, but a manager must know how to handle them.”
Tom Lindholm: “We have been integrating soft skills, including communication, people management, personal leadership and development, very heavily into both our MBA and executive MBA programmes, not as separate modules, but as [an integral] part of the work that we are doing. “As well as our activity in Finland, we have a big partner programme going on with South Korea, with more than 5,000 alumni. What is interesting to note when talking about the cultural differences between countries is that a lot of the same things are on the agenda both in Europe and East Asia.”
Federica Pazzaglia: “We’re based in Dublin, but we are very much a global business school, with around 60 different nationalities. Culture is a filter in the way you perceive and practise soft skills. We have placed considerable emphasis in our programmes on communication, interaction, networking and group work. We have invested in intercultural training sessions and underpinning that work is the concept of bringing together various perspectives. It’s important to ensure that people can talk across different cultural dimensions without, potentially, being biased in the way they interpret what they hear.”
Bruno van Pottelsberghe: “Corvinus is going through a very significant change with respect to multiculturalism; that’s partly why I’ve been recruited, to internationalise the school, because they recognise that it’s of key importance to offer multicultural and global exposure, as Hungary is a fairly small country. We operate a substantial study abroad programme whereby universities send cohorts to learn in Budapest for a term and they have access to the same elective courses; we also have around 300 student exchanges per year. “I’m well-versed in integrating cultural differences in terms of leadership skills – it’s my personal experience as I come from Belgium, but in Hungary the way of working is different. You have to be able to adapt to different environments and ways of communication. This can be covered on an MBA course, but you really need to secure practical experience – that’s why we’re planning to offer our students internships abroad to learn about different ways of working.”
Hannah Holmes: “The approach that we take is to harness a passion for intercultural differences. We are trying to instil in our students the importance of being aware of cultural differences and learning to appreciate them – that’s why we integrate international case studies into the curriculum. COIL (Collaborative Online International Learning) projects are a great way for students who can’t travel outside the UK, due to financial or family reasons, to gain international experience and [forge] collaborations across borders. “I think it’s really important that the people leading these sessions are undergoing training as well, so that they can consciously bring that to light in their conversations with students. Business school students tend to have an appreciation of that already because [their course] opens up all these global opportunities. We encourage them to practise self-reflection and become the best version of themselves in this context.”
Tessa Melkonian: “Our faculty is more than 50 per cent non‑French, so we are already operating in a totally international context. Plus, our students participate in multiple exchange programmes and spend on average more than 12 months of the curriculum abroad. I think it’s important to highlight that it’s not all about the cultural differences between us, but what similarities we share as members of a universal system, in terms of global co‑operation and facing the challenges of operating globally. “Many studies have made it clear that organisational culture can be far more influential on behaviour than national culture – great leaders transcend national cultures, meaning that they use a universal dimension to engage with people.”
How can we accurately assess and measure the development of soft skills? What tools and techniques can be used to provide meaningful feedback to students and track their progress?
Federica Pazzaglia: “We use psychometric assessments in our modules. These are debriefed with the students, so there is an element of reflecting with them on what has emerged. Even with all the inherent limitations of psychometrics, this gives us something to use as a conversation starter. Also, it’s about observing certain reactions and encouraging good behaviour; letting a student know that you were impressed with what they did in a specific situation. “There is certainly a role for a more kind of objective, evidence‑based system of assessment, but there is also an element of keeping your eyes open and generally listening, so there is behavioural reinforcement of sorts. I think both have a place, although in different ways.”
Tom Lindholm: “One key thing for us is our personal development process that goes through the whole programme; at the outset, students’ personal learning goals are set and there are soft skills-related targets defined in there. Those are then discussed and followed up on during the process. We also have individual coaching sessions, where the coaches help participants to identify which soft skills they need to develop. “This can be done through self-reflection, or with the help of 360-degree assessments, or by using a lot of other different tools, providing feedback to participants both from their peers and faculty. I’m not convinced that the most important thing for an executive MBA student to know is that a particular soft skill has increased from 5.1 to 5.3, however. I think the point is to see how that skill has grown and how they have developed as an individual.”
Tessa Melkonian: “This is the reason that we created an academy of leadership because management is as much a science as it is an art, in the sense that having pure cognitive knowledge is not enough to make you good in practice. We also use 360-degree feedback tools to help students learn how to talk about leadership skills, as well as experiential learning and personal development courses. “In France, one of the cultural differences compared with other countries is that the concept of leadership is essentially viewed as being innate. People generally think that a leader is charismatic by nature, so they have a tendency not to bother so much about training. We try to counteract this kind of entrenched behaviour through research, as well as using the testimonies of high-ranking managers, who come to the academy and elaborate on their daily challenges as human beings in the workplace.”
Bruno van Pottelsberghe: “I had lunch with the head of KPMG here in Budapest recently and he passed on a very interesting fact when I asked him about his recruitment strategy. Apparently, apart from Corvinus, there is another university from which they like to recruit graduates because they have a high share of students who are the first members of their family to go to university. Generally, they have observed a higher degree of resilience [in these first-generation students] and they appear better able to cope with stress. I’m currently pondering on how to translate that into our pedagogical strategy. “I think our own individual experience is also an important factor. If you have a young athlete who knows what it means to work, to strive to improve their performance, you will [be dealing with] a completely different behaviour than someone who doesn’t. Soft skills are difficult to measure and I’m not sure we absolutely want to measure everything because, at the end of the day, we might spend our time measuring instead of doing.”
Hannah Holmes: “It’s very difficult to measure these things – you have to get the balance right when it comes to spending time on assessing skills accurately, versus the importance of instilling them in students. My preference around soft skills is a non-defici approach. Essentially, I think there are lots of skills that employers tell us they would like our graduates to have and there can be, at some institutions, a tendency to build that into their curriculum. “We have introduced at all levels a strengths-based model approach to skills. We start by students identifying for themselves their own strengths through a series of questionnaires. We take a very holistic approach around embedding that into the curriculum and working with them in innovative ways, things that have been observed by faculty and that you might not necessarily be able to assess. We also use a VR tool to place MBA students in an immersive space and to simulate some of the experiences they might have in the real world, thereby testing their skills.”
Munish Thakur: “I think a lot of soft skills probably can be measured, but we should refrain from doing so. There should be no need to measure soft skills because, as I mentioned earlier, soft skill development is very non-linear and we face considerable competition in the business school sector. “We are always saying [things like] “We are better than X” and have this need to compete and justify everything – that’s what kills the development of soft skills. The emphasis here should not be on measurement, but on development. It should be more a self-assessment kind of situation, given that a person’s performance might be very average for five years and then, all of a sudden, a certain transformation happens and they improve their soft skills. These skills are ‘touchy-feely’ in nature, so it’s difficult to pinpoint them, meaning we should try to overcome the urge to measure them.”
What innovative teaching methods – eg simulations, role-playing, case studies, group projects, experiential learning, coaching, mentoring – have proven most effective in developing specific soft skills?
Tom Lindholm: “I don’t believe there’s a single ‘one-size-fits‑all’ method for developing soft skills. Firstly, defining what we include in soft skills is crucial and would warrant its own discussion. Currently, there’s significant focus on fostering creativity. However, I can’t definitively say that one method consistently outperforms others. “The most effective approach is a combination of methods, integrated into the MBA programme, rather than isolated activities. The best methods depend on the specific situation and context, making it difficult to give a simple, clear answer.”
Tessa Melkonian: “What I believe is an interesting avenue to explore is experiential learning for leadership because it combines knowledge and practical application within a single encapsulated design; this helps students to reflect in the present moment on their behaviour as leaders. “I’ve been working for a long time with the army, the French special forces. Their members are very well aware that leadership is something that must be learned. They attend our academy and they receive regular feedback on the way they work to improve their leadership over time. “I think that leadership is so challenging right now, it really requires that we move in the direction of offering participants feedback on the collective challenges [that we currently face]. It’s what must be done if we want to prepare our cohorts for the volatility, uncertainty and risk that the new status quo entails.”
Federica Pazzaglia: “In terms of soft skills used in an intercultural scenario, we place a particular emphasis on student mobility. Our students get up to three substantive mobility experiences a year, all in different contexts and modalities. Some of them involve getting acquainted with the different ways that business is done, while others focus on doing business in different geographical regions. Then there are applied projects, working with organisations on a one-to-one assignment in a foreign location. “Having that idea of novelty is really one of the key elements that ties all these experiences together – that and getting students talking to people, whether that’s communicating within a group, or with a client, or with our lecturers, or even with alumni through our mentoring scheme.”
Hannah Holmes: “Our method revolves around personalisation. The strengths-based approach that I talked about before is a way of making students feel that their own individual personality and uniqueness is embedded throughout the programme; then it’s a case of reinforcing that through their coach. “For me, it’s not about having one particular ‘sparkly’ thing in a programme – it’s about a variety of things. I think VR is great, but some students struggle to connect with it; some students thrive in a teamwork setting, others prefer individual assignments. It’s about taking a really varied approach across the curriculum, where you personalise the support offered through a coach. “I think students benefit when they’re pushed out of their comfort zone; when they are [propelled] into a space where they feel the most uncomfortable, that’s where they learn the most. That breadth of opportunities not only means people can thrive in [different scenarios], but they can also learn from things that they don’t particularly find enjoyable and grow in those spaces.”
Munish Thakur: “We offer two interesting experiments when it comes to getting our students out of their comfort zone. One is where students go and stay in villages, some of which don’t even have basic amenities; our cohorts come from relatively well-off backgrounds, so for them to get exposed to those villages is a real learning experience. “The second thing is a market research project supplied by external organisations, which provides a platform for students to learn in a realistic setting – once they’ve completed it, they then feed back the results to our industry contacts. “I’ve found that the approach depends on what you’re aiming to achieve. If you’re trying to develop a cognitively complex skill, such as analysing business with a multi-dimensional approach, then a simulation works well, but if you’re trying to develop a skill around empathy, then the ethnographic approach works better. If you’re talking about ‘embodied’ skills, then you’ll probably consider real-life projects, immersive experiences or case studies. It’s all personal and comes down to the learning style of each individual student.”
In a world in thrall to the seemingly boundary‑defying development of artificial intelligence (AI), what part will soft skills play in managing the effective use of this technology?
Bruno van Pottelsberghe: “We are a university with a strong background in analytical skills, digital and information systems, so it’s an absolute necessity for us to do a deep dive on this. We have appointed a dean for AI – they have an interdisciplinary role across programme research and operations. They can challenge our operational and academic heads, come up with new ideas and look into what is being done at other universities. At the moment, we are working on a summer school fully oriented around AI and we are looking at the interdisciplinary skills that we want to integrate into all our master’s degrees. “We have colleagues with the technical capability to work on AI projects, so it will definitely be part of the curriculum, we just need to finalise the details. We are already using Copilot [Microsoft’s AI assistant] and ChatGPT; it’s still a little bit unstructured, but we’re rapidly gearing up to make a formal assessment of how AI works and what we can do to prepare our students for the way it will affect the workplace.”
Federica Pazzaglia: “We are making an effort to harness the latest developments in AI and try to put a structure around them as much as possible – [although it seems] they are proceeding as fast as we can keep track of them. We’ve implemented a number of initiatives: our faculty convened to discuss what can be done in terms of gaining a greater understanding of how to use AI in the curriculum, how to use the [tools at our disposal] to assess assignments and inspire our students. “What I’m getting from talking to people in academia is that AI will make soft skills all the more central, as it’s going to simplify and accelerate a lot of tasks that at the moment are very much at the forefront, like gathering information or analysing particular scenarios. The difference will be made by people who ask the right questions, or who have the experience to make a [judgement] call. There are lots of AI tools that can be used, but at the same time, it is going to be about adaptability, decision‑making, courage and the ability to work with people. In the end, the implementation of what AI provides is going to be down to what humans can do with it.”
Munish Thakur: “Prompt engineering and critical thinking are very important [aspects of AI implementation]. One of our faculty started teaching with GPT and a student engaged with it, deepening the conversation; they came to a very interesting insight after about 15 prompts, demonstrating that this is a brand new way of studying. For students who are introverts and find it difficult to learn in groups, AI is a great way of learning. “Another thing that is very critical is the ability to connect communication skills with data analysis and technology. That ability [to move between language-based and mathematical thinking] is going to become essential and schools have a vital role to play in this regard. We are entering a world where the difference between communication and technology is going to become less pronounced. “We also need to be able to manage mental stress – this is going to increase exponentially once more technology enters our lives. Are students ready to disengage and take a healthy approach to mental health? There’s a fear of missing out when it comes to AI – we worry that if we don’t know, then we’re going to be irrelevant; we need [to get past] this fear.”
Hannah Holmes: “I totally get the FOMO thing – that drives the number of requests I receive for licences for the latest software. I wonder whether a strategic approach will ever be possible, given that the pace of change is so rapid it seems like we’ll always be in this state of evaluating, adopting, dismissing and changing. “Soft skills are going to be so important for those leaders who come out of business schools, who will need to have the ability to cope in an increasingly fast-paced environment. Now that we can analyse data in real time, absorbing that information is going to be critical, as well as managing your wellbeing, meaning we will need leaders who are resilient and also able to manage in those environments and find strategy within chaos. “The one thing I would like to flag up is around ethics and the importance of instilling in leaders the ability to behave ethically when it comes to the use of AI. Human interaction will revolve around the authentic leader; when much of what we do will become driven by technology, then the role of a leader will be to purposefully develop those human relationships in the spaces where we still have the opportunity to do so. Good communication, relationship development and a strong ethical compass will be what leaders in the future are going to have to be really mindful of to succeed.”
Tessa Melkonian: “I would reinforce the point raised by Munish about mental health. For me, the real question is how can our students assure themselves that they will have the sufficient cognitive resources to address the challenges ahead [posed by AI]? Many business leaders are depleted in terms of their cognitive resources; I think our role is to assist them with navigating this challenge, trying to figure out a way to help them use the technology to their best advantage. Again, ethical decision-making is linked to the availability of cognitive resources. That means it’s our job to help them get through this, so that the use of this technology doesn’t have such a detrimental effect on their mental health, something that is a huge challenge.” How effectively are business schools teaching essential soft skills? Where are the gaps and what are the biggest challenges to improvement?
Hannah Holmes: “I think gaps probably remain in some of the more difficult soft skill areas because they’re hard to assess – it’s not necessarily that they’re not there, but it’s difficult to pinpoint them. For instance, how adaptable people are and their emotional intelligence. We also need to consciously think about managing in a world where people work more remotely – that’s possibly a particular soft skill that hasn’t been fully developed yet. How you effectively build a team who may only rarely meet physically and how to make those occasions especially purposeful and intentional.”
Munish Thakur: “One of the challenges we’re facing is how we’ve made our grading system increasingly quantitative in order to justify our evaluation to students, but that means we probably end up leaving less room for soft skills. “In India at least, competition seems to be a real driving force to improve quality among business schools. Sometimes educators are hesitant about explaining their evaluation to the students, they’re scared of emphasising the softer skill areas. Of course, we are trying our best, but there are a lot of challenges – you still have to find room for all the other subjects [in the MBA curriculum].”
Bruno van Pottelsberghe: “I think the challenge is similar everywhere, especially when you are a research-based university, meaning that sometimes it can be difficult to recognise [the importance of] soft skills, as you have different metrics and monitoring. There is also a little bit of resistance to change. “Then there’s the fact that we have international accreditations, requiring a certain number of contact hours, as well as course credits. Plus, [the whole process] is standardised – that works well as an indicator of the quality of the institution, but at the same time it does not make it easy to innovate in terms of soft skills. “Times change and we’ve seen more openness around teaching soft skills, but it’s still not an easy road – we can’t just forget about the cognitive skills that also matter.”
Tessa Melkonian: “At Emlyon, we come from a practical application background, but when we talk about leadership, we need this rare combination of research-savvy professors and a practical approach. We work across disciplinary silos; I collaborate with colleagues from strategy, leadership and management, so we can offer something that helps future leaders to deal with the type of challenges they’re facing both practically and scientifically. “I’m also focused on the cost involved, as that is something that constrains us all. We know, for instance, that assessment centres are the best way of predicting future behaviour, but they cost a lot, so big organisations don’t always use them, even for top-level hires. I think we are at this kind of crossroads – do we invest enough money and organic change [in teaching soft skills]? It’s hard for us to direct our students to become innovative leaders when we ourselves find it difficult to pursue innovative business goals.”
Federica Pazzaglia: “There is an appetite among our lecturers to experiment and very often that’s what it takes – you need to experiment with students in the context of soft skills, using new techniques and new approaches. [Reverting to the earlier topic of AI], as such tools become more prevalent, we have to consider the extent to which you can be really proficient in using technology and the extent to which you can still be creative. “Might it be the case that we’re all starting to converge towards some kind of general consensus on business problems, potential initiatives, or even big societal issues? This could be due to the fact that our outlook is increasingly becoming shaped by AI, which is composed of the opinions and input of those who have already been part of it, so we are confident that it has been ‘vetted’ by others. This could potentially get in the way of soft skill development, especially around critical thinking, decision-making and creativity if we feel we don’t need to be so reliant on ourselves [as human beings].”
Looking ahead, over the next three to five years, which soft skills do you believe will be most critical in order to enable managers to navigate an increasingly complex and uncertain business environment?
Munish Thakur: “My top skill would be to get beyond the fear of missing out, or the ability to ‘stay in uncertainty’. One more skill which I would highlight is this: don’t be so desperate to change other people to make them more like you; just let them be what they are and acknowledge the differences between you. Finally, I would like to see more love in the world – if you ask me, that’s more important than all the other soft skills put together.”
Tessa Melkonian: “I would say that role modelling will be crucial in periods of uncertainty, when people have a tendency to scrutinise the behaviour of their leaders even more keenly. This will require courage, the ability to try and fail and to accept comments that are not always positive. Also, I believe there will be no individual type of leadership; the future will be collective. And lastly, the final skill I’d choose is how crucial it is for a leader to be able to preserve personal wellbeing because if you’re burnt out, you won’t be able to achieve as much.”
Tessa Melkonian
Hannah Holmes: “There are a few things that we’ve broadly covered around what the future of work might look like, driven by technology [that are worth recapping]. The importance of ethics in leadership is one, then there’s the issue of managing diverse global teams – neurodiverse, generationally diverse and situated in diverse locations – where emotional intelligence will be critical. “Having a flexible leadership style that works effectively – virtually as well as physically – is crucial too. Lastly, all the uncertainty around the future [in a geopolitical and economic context] means that skills such as adaptability and resilience, plus the need to take personal accountability and be authentic, are essential.”
Federica Pazzaglia: “[I agree with the importance of] authenticity – it’s hard to relate to people without keeping yourself accountable and being authentic when you have to operate in a complex environment. Then there’s the ability to be adaptable, flexible, resilient – and to fail and bounce back, like Tessa mentioned. That’s very much something that just naturally happens when you try new things – you shouldn’t let yourself be discouraged [by the thought of failure]. “And if I were to round off my comments with one additional soft skill, I would have to say empathy, given that [in these troubled times] there’s always a good chance someone is not going to have a great day – and that someone might well be you. We need to encourage students, as well as future leaders, to have that awareness and understanding of how they’re operating in a fragile ecosystem.”
Bruno van Pottelsberghe: “I listened to a presentation recently about how the ultimate common denominator of leadership for authenticity, trust and accountability is, at the end of the day, connected to love. I must confess, I like that – especially considering that nowadays, in some places it has become politically incorrect to talk about sustainability or inclusiveness; it’s really worrying to lose the freedom to talk about a particular concept and some of the challenges that the world is facing. “I would also highlight the importance of critical thinking. I have teenagers and it’s amazing how they tend to so easily trust what they see on their social networks, so the ability to look for knowledge, analyse it and make your own assessment [is vital]. “Specialisation is another thing because many functions are being replaced by machines – here in Budapest for instance one company just fired 800 accounting staff. As well as being transparent and accountable to your team, what is needed for the future is specialisation – that aspect is absolutely key. “[I’d like to make one final point] we have just signed a partnership agreement with Allianz and when we concluded the deal, their CEO said: ‘Technology is nothing without the human touch’ – I think that is a good conclusion.”