Balancing hard and soft skills: the key to high-performing IT teams
Tuesday, 20 May 2025 ()
Because technology changes so quickly, IT teams must constantly learn new things, from cloud platforms and coding languages to AI tools, data science methods, and security measures. But relying on technical skills alone isn’t enough to guarantee success.
Many organizations now see that balancing strong technical abilities, a.k.a. hard skills, with soft skills such as communication, problem-solving, and teamwork is necessary for IT teams to be effective in business.
Balancing hard and soft skills isn’t optional; it’s essential for building high-performing IT teams, said Ximena Gates, CEO and co-founder of BuildWithin, a company that provides software to help employers create and manage apprenticeships and workplace training programs.
“High performance is like a relay race: every team member must be a well-rounded athlete, excelling individually while ensuring smooth collaboration,” she said. “With AI automating more aspects of coding, quality assurance, and design, engineers must continuously learn, experiment boldly, and communicate effectively with their teams.”
In the past, having strong technical skills was often enough to land an IT role, Gates said.
“We hired engineers based almost purely on their coding ability and even overlooked poor communication, assuming they didn’t need to be public-facing,” she said. “Not today.”
Now, Gates said she assesses soft skills as well as hard skills from the very first interaction. “When I interview, I evaluate active listening, curiosity, and the candidate’s response to demands and challenges to gauge resilience and persistence.”
In today’s AI-driven world, success comes from combining technical skills with good communication, initiative, flexibility, teamwork, and clear documentation to keep teams organized and productive, Gates added. “Today, everyone — from employees to senior leaders — needs ongoing training in both technical and soft skills,” she said.
*Speaking the language of business*
Ramesh Kollepara, global CTO at Kellanova, formerly Kellogg Co., said his leadership philosophy focuses on building a culture of learning. And to make that learning culture effective, it’s essential to balance both soft and hard skills.
Kollepara said hard skills are like the car’s engine and brakes — the technical capabilities that allow the car to function. Soft skills are like the GPS and steering wheel — the tools that guide the car to its destination.
Kollepara’s analogy implies that just having strong technical skills isn’t enough. IT professionals also need the soft skills to effectively apply those technical capabilities and steer their teams in the right direction.
“Durable” skills such as curiosity, adaptability, and agile learning enable IT pros to apply technology in a way that supports and aligns with business outcomes, said Chris Campbell, chief information officer at DeVry University.
“For us, it’s super important that technologists speak the language of the business and communicate in terms that nontechnical stakeholders can understand,” he explained. “This bridges the gap in understanding between the technical and business sides.”
Balancing hard and soft skills helps IT teams not only handle the technical work but also communicate well, adapt to changes, and align with business goals to ensure successful technology projects, he added. This balance is
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