Soft Skills in a Storm: What Tech Teams Need Now

Tim King at Solutions Review ran recent LinkedIn poll asking tech leaders: What’s the #1 disruption you’re bracing for?  More than half, 53% to be precise, answered organizational restructuring or layoffs. Not AI. Not burnout. Not global complexity. While they all could be interrelated, restructuring and downsizing topped the list by a wide margin.

Whether restructuring and downsizing are due to budget cuts, AI systems changing workflow, or strategic pivots, this poll serves as a warning about the emotional and interpersonal strain that will be hitting teams in the future. When people brace for disruption, the new org chart won’t derail performance as much as the human response to it. 

This is exactly where soft skills matter most.

When Structures Shake, People Need Stability

Layoffs and reorganizations rattle trust, identity, motivation, and focus. Those who remain often carry uncertainty, guilt, and unclear expectations. People don’t need platitudes. They need skills, the kind that keep teams working when the rules of the game change mid-play.

Some of the soft skills needed today are related to self-management and emotional regulation during times of complexity, challenge and uncertainty.    Here are some examples:

1. Resilience

This is about navigating unwelcome or difficult change without shutting down. It’s the capacity to acknowledge challenges, stay grounded, and keep momentum during instability.

2. Perspective-Taking

Restructuring introduces new leaders, new teammates, and new norms. The ability to understand others’ perspectives, especially when they’re coming from very different realities, is the foundation of rebuilding trust.

3. Tolerance of Ambiguity

Plans change. Roles evolve. Metrics shift. In the gap between what was and what will be, teams need people who can still show up, collaborate, and contribute, even when things aren’t clear yet.

Why Tech Leaders Should Pay Attention

Leaders who invest in soft skills development are proactive and strategic.  They are doing damage prevention, taking some performance insurance, and creating a talent retention strategy.

At Skiilify, we help companies build the skills that matter most when the ground shifts: resilience, curiosity, humility, relationship-building, perspective-taking, and tolerance of ambiguity. These are trainable at scale, and they’re what keep teams together during tough transitions.

Let’s build it before the next wave hits.