The Human Edge at Work | By Padmini Kashyap
Hyderabad, Oct 2026 : Abhishek was the best coder on the team. In due course he got promoted as team lead. As Abhishek was excited about the promotion, what he did not fathom was how to lead the team. The team’s performance had gone below scale. Abhishek started facing high stress levels, which was not helping given timelines and quality deliverables. What went wrong? Why was Abhishek’s confidence dwindling?
Abhishek transitioned from technical to managerial. His colleagues have now become his team members with a few new members added. He was unable to lead the team and the team was high strung as they could not envisage their colleague as their leader (boss), leaving even the new comers confused.
Abhishek was not given official orientation into his new role. Not surprising, as in most companies, people management for better performance is a given and is a skill that is ‘assumed’ to be present. Leadership training is the required intervention here. Leadership training is reserved for C-Suite, is a myth. It is an integral part to Organizational Development intervention.
This is a quiet crisis in many workplaces, the soft skills gap affecting productivity.
The word "soft" is the problem
We call them "soft skills," and that label does real damage. It suggests they are optional or pleasant extras, the thing we fit into a Friday afternoon workshop. In fact, these skills are among the hardest to master. They include:
- Leading without authority
- Telling a senior colleague, they are wrong without damaging the relationship
- Staying calm when a client is shouting
- Giving feedback that changes behaviour rather than just hurting feelings
- Leading people who are more experienced than you
Learning a new software tool takes a few weeks. Learning to listen without planning your reply can take years. Soft skills are not soft. They are simply harder to measure, so we undervalue them. I believe they are POWER skills.
Why this matters more now
Technical knowledge is losing value faster than ever. What you learned five years ago may already be outdated, and AI tools can now handle many of the routine technical tasks we once trained people for. AI/Machines cannot build trust, handle ambiguity, resolve a conflict between two stubborn team members, or inspire a tired team through a difficult quarter, period. As technology takes over more tasks, the human skills become the differentiator.
Three shifts: from "nice to have" to "must build"
In my work with organisations, I encourage leaders to make three shifts.
First, measure behaviour, not just output. If appraisals only reward targets met, people learn that how they get there does not matter. Ask how the results were achieved, and what it cost the team.
Second, stop treating training as an event. A one-day communication workshop is like one day at the gym. It feels good, but nothing changes unless there is practice, coaching, and reinforcement afterwards.
Third, prepare people before you promote them. The move from individual contributor to manager is one of the hardest transitions in any career, yet many people get little support to make it. Grooming them prior to promotion, is a good practice as that also translates to better cost efficiency.
Why organisations should care
When these skills are missing, the cost rarely shows up as a line item. It shows up as attrition, stalled projects, conflicts that drag on for months, and managers who spend their time firefighting instead of leading. Organisations that invest in these skills deliberately, rather than hoping people will pick them up along the way, build teams that are more resilient, more engaged, and easier to lead through change.
A question to sit with
Think of the best manager you ever had. Now list what made them great. I have asked this question in countless training rooms, and the answers are almost never about technical brilliance. People say things like "she listened," "he had my back," "they made me feel capable." That list is the curriculum. Those are the power skills of the modern workplace.
The question is not whether your organisation can afford to invest in them. It is whether it can afford not to.
Next week: "Stop Communicating, Start Connecting." Why the most articulate person in the room is often not the most influential one.
Padmini Kashyap is an internationally certified soft skills trainer and Organisation Development consultant who works with organisations on behavioural change, leadership development, communication, and culture change. She can be reached at padminikashyap@gmail.com.
