Executive Soft Skills Guide

Why soft skills now define executive leadership

Leadership expectations are evolving rapidly across Australia and New Zealand. For executive leaders and hiring decision-makers, the question is no longer whether expectations have changed, but how those changes are influencing leadership effectiveness, organisational performance, and executive hiring decisions.

At Robert Walters, we work closely with organisations navigating growth, transformation and change. Through our Executive Search work and ongoing workforce research, we are seeing a clear shift emerge: leadership success is increasingly defined by human capability beyond technical expertise or experience.

In this guide, we explore how executive leadership expectations are changing, which soft skills now define performance at the top, and what organisations should assess when appointing executive leaders in 2026.

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What are executive soft skills?

Executive soft skills are the interpersonal and leadership capabilities that enable leaders to build trust, influence stakeholders, communicate effectively and lead organisations through complexity and change.

While technical expertise and commercial capability remain important, they are no longer the sole measures of executive success. Increasingly, organisations are assessing leaders on how they engage people, navigate uncertainty and create alignment across teams, functions and stakeholder groups.

At executive level, these capabilities are the primary mechanism through which strategy is executed. As leadership environments become more complex, they are playing a growing role in executive hiring, succession planning and long-term organisational performance.

What's inside the guide?

This e-guide explores the leadership capabilities that increasingly define executive performance and provides practical guidance on how to assess them effectively.

You'll discover:

• How leadership expectations have shifted across Australia and New Zealand, and what the data says employees are paying attention to now
• The six soft skills shaping executive performance, and how each one operates differently at the top of an organisation
• Why emotional intelligence and empathy are increasingly non-negotiable in executive hiring, and what they actually look like in practice
• The role of communication, transparency and adaptability in building trust and maintaining alignment through change
• How resilience and clarity under pressure determine leadership quality when it matters most
• A structured set of interview questions mapped to each soft skill, with guidance on what strong candidate responses look like
• A weighted executive hiring scorecard across five dimensions to support consistent, objective decision-making

 
Whether you are appointing a new executive leader or planning for future succession, these insights will help strengthen your leadership assessment approach.

 
Why leadership expectations are changing

The standards against which executives are judged have changed substantially. Employees are paying closer attention to leadership behaviour than at any point in the recent past, and their focus has moved away from seniority, strategy or tenure, towards the day-to-day behaviours that shape their experience at work.

80% of professionals say they are putting greater focus on leadership decisions than they were two years ago, and 53% identify people management as the most important leadership behaviour, outweighing pay decisions and AI adoption. A further 66% say they are paying much closer attention than before, and 39% of executives report that increased scrutiny has made their role more stressful.

Communication, transparency, and how leaders navigate uncertainty now sit at the centre of how leadership is evaluated. Capabilities such as emotional intelligence, adaptability and resilience are becoming increasingly important at the executive level as a result.

 

Neil Munro, Executive Search Associate Director, New Zealand

In interviews, I always listen for how candidates talk about the people side of their decisions. The strongest executives do not just describe what they decided and what the outcome was. They talk about how it landed, what resistance they anticipated, and how they brought people with them. That level of awareness is what separates good leaders from great ones.

 

Why this matters for hiring in 2026

Executive hiring decisions have long been influenced by experience, technical expertise and commercial track record. While these factors remain important, they no longer provide a complete picture of leadership capability.

Organisations are increasingly looking for leaders who can:

• Build trust across teams and stakeholder groups 
• Communicate clearly during periods of uncertainty
• Lead transformation and organisational change
• Create alignment around strategic priorities
• Foster high-performing and engaged cultures 
• Maintain clarity and resilience under pressure

Hiring on experience alone carries growing risk. Leaders who cannot build trust, communicate through uncertainty, or maintain alignment under pressure tend to fall short regardless of their credentials, with consequences that most commonly surface within the first 12 to 18 months of an executive appointment.

For organisations investing in executive hiring and succession planning, assessing these capabilities has become essential. Leaders who can successfully combine technical expertise with strong people leadership are better positioned to drive sustainable performance and long-term organisational success.

 
Access exclusive insights with the e-guide

Executive leadership is evolving, and so are the capabilities required to succeed.

Download the Executive Soft Skills Guide to explore the leadership qualities shaping executive performance and gain practical frameworks for assessing executive talent in today's market.