“Soft skills” are only thought of as soft because they can be difficult to put your fingers on and measure in the physical world. In his latest post, Dean provides a 4-step system to do not only that, but to also ensure that they last.
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For years at SagePresence, we’ve wrestled with a big question: can soft skills be measurable and quantifiable? We work with this elusive, almost ethereal thing called presence—a quality that profoundly shapes how we lead, how we sell, how we build relationships, and how we create client experiences. Presence defines so much of professional services, yet it can be hard to follow when it isn’t consistent and hard to trust when it feels transactional. It’s elusive and tangible at the same time.
But I want to suggest that soft skills—this seemingly intangible realm—absolutely can be measured when you understand the connection between behavior and observability. Thanks to new thinking on our team, especially from our colleague Ellen Reiter, we’ve refined how we approach measuring impact. Ellen came to us with a deep commitment to measurability, and that focus has helped us strengthen our approach to leadership presence coaching, interview skills training, and business development coaching for AEC teams.
Soft skills often fade after training because the system around them doesn’t support sustainability. People learn something, apply it briefly, and then it disappears—not because it didn’t work, but because the organization didn’t reinforce it. This happens in AEC shortlist interview training, virtual presentation skills coaching, and even leadership communication programs.
To make soft skills stick, we need a simple but powerful equation:
Soft skills are behaviors. That means someone should be able to see them. If you’re building deeper connections, I should be able to observe it. If you’ve grown in confidence, it should show up in your presence—whether in a project interview preparation session, a sales pitch, or a leadership presentation. Defining soft skills through observable behaviors is essential.
Once a behavior is observable, it becomes measurable. Maybe you consistently come across confident in three straight sales pitches. Maybe someone sees you applying empathy in multiple client meetings. In business development training or AEC presentation skills work, measurement simply means someone can track the behavior when it shows up.
This is the piece that used to be missing. Even when soft skills were observable and measurable, they faded because nobody recognized them. Leadership would bring us in for presentation support or communication coaching, but no one internally was trained to notice or affirm the improvements. If someone works hard to improve their confident presence and no one acknowledges it, the behavior eventually fades. Recognition is what reinforces the change.
Reward doesn’t always mean money. Often, recognition itself is the reward. But rewards also come through increased responsibility, client-facing opportunities, or leadership roles. In executive presence coaching and senior leadership presentation coaching, we see over and over that when recognition is paired with meaningful reward, the soft skill becomes part of someone’s identity—it sticks.
When a soft skill is observable, measurable, recognized, and rewarded, it becomes sustainable. It becomes part of a person, part of a team, and part of a culture. What once felt ethereal becomes concrete—it shows up in communication outcomes, client relationships, and firm-wide confidence.
Run your soft skill development through this simple formula, and you can embed those skills into your organization in a way that lasts.
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