The best examples of evaluating soft skills: 3 practical examples that actually work

Why soft skills are hard to measure (and why you should anyway)

Hard skills are easy: you can test whether someone can code in Python, run a financial model, or operate a machine. Soft skills are messier. You’re trying to judge things like:

• How someone handles conflict
• Whether they listen or just wait to talk
• How they react when a project falls apart

Yet employers consistently rank soft skills among the top hiring and promotion factors. In a 2023 survey by LinkedIn, 89% of recruiters said that when a hire doesn’t work out, it usually comes down to soft skills, not technical ability.

So if you’re building a career development plan or running performance reviews, you can’t skip this. You need clear, behavior-based examples of evaluating soft skills so your assessments feel fair, consistent, and tied to real work.

Let’s start with three core areas: communication, collaboration, and adaptability. We’ll walk through 3 practical examples in depth, then expand into more real-world scenarios.

Example 1: Evaluating communication skills in real meetings

Communication is often the first example of a soft skill people think of—and also the one they misjudge most. Talking a lot isn’t the same as communicating well.

One of the best examples of evaluating soft skills: 3 practical examples in action is to use live or simulated meetings as your assessment setting.

How to set it up

You bring together a small group (3–5 people). This could be:

• Candidates in a group interview
• Team members in a cross-functional project kickoff
• Direct reports in a brainstorming session

You give them a problem that requires discussion. For instance:

“Your team’s customer satisfaction scores have dropped 15% over the last quarter. In 30 minutes, agree on three actions you’ll take in the next month to improve them.”

Then you watch for specific, observable behaviors instead of vague impressions.

What good communication looks like

Here are real examples of behaviors you can score:

• Active listening: Do they paraphrase others’ points? Ask clarifying questions? Or do they interrupt and dominate?
• Clarity: When they speak, are their ideas easy to follow, or do others look confused?
• Conciseness: Do they get to the point, or ramble and derail the group?
• Tone and respect: Do they disagree respectfully, or get defensive and dismissive?
• Inclusion: Do they invite quieter people to speak, or ignore them?

You can turn these into a simple 1–5 rating scale with short descriptions. For example, under “active listening,” a 5 might say: “Consistently paraphrases, checks understanding, and builds on others’ ideas.” A 1 might say: “Interrupts often, rarely acknowledges others’ input.”

Concrete scoring example

Imagine two team members in the same meeting:

• Jordan frequently summarizes what others say: “So it sounds like the main issue is response time, not product quality. Is that right?” They ask quiet teammates for input: “Priya, you’ve been close to these customers—what are you seeing?”
• Alex talks over others, repeats their own ideas, and never asks questions. When challenged, they say, “We’re overcomplicating this. Let’s just do what I suggested.”

Using your rating scale, Jordan might score 4–5 on active listening and inclusion, while Alex scores 1–2. You now have a grounded example of evaluating soft skills rather than “Jordan seems nicer.”

Why this works in 2024–2025

Hybrid and remote work have made communication even more multidimensional. You’re not just judging in-person presence—you’re looking at:

• Video calls (do they invite others in, or talk over people?)
• Chat tools like Slack or Teams (are messages clear, respectful, and timely?)
• Email (do they write in a way that reduces confusion or creates more of it?)

You can run the same style of exercise in a virtual meeting and include written follow-ups as part of your examples of evaluating soft skills: 3 practical examples approach.

For more on communication and workplace skills, the U.S. Department of Labor has a helpful overview of “soft skills” for workers and youth: https://www.dol.gov/agencies/odep/program-areas/individuals/youth/soft-skills

Example 2: Evaluating teamwork through a short project, not a personality quiz

Personality tests can be interesting, but they’re not the best examples of evaluating soft skills when it comes to teamwork. What matters is how someone behaves when they actually have to work with others.

A better example of evaluating teamwork is to give people a small, time-boxed project with shared ownership.

The mini-project setup

You assign a 1–2 week project, such as:

“Create a simple onboarding guide for new hires in your department.”

You put 3–4 people on the task, and you make it clear that:

• They need to divide responsibilities themselves
• They must consult at least two stakeholders
• They’ll present the final product to a manager or panel

Then you observe and ask for artifacts, like:

• Their shared document or project board
• Their meeting notes or chat transcripts
• A short reflection from each person on how the team worked

Behaviors to evaluate

You’re not just looking at the final product. You’re looking at how they got there. Strong teamwork examples include:

• Coordinating work: Did they assign tasks based on strengths, or did one person do everything?
• Reliability: Did they hit agreed deadlines, or leave teammates hanging?
• Conflict handling: When they disagreed, did they work through it or avoid it?
• Support: Did they offer help when someone was stuck, or say “not my problem”?

Again, you can create a simple rubric. Under “reliability,” a 5 might say: “Consistently meets commitments, proactively renegotiates deadlines when needed.” A 2 might say: “Frequently late, often needs reminders, rarely updates the team.”

Real example: Two teams, same project

You run this onboarding guide project with two different groups:

• Team A holds a quick kickoff meeting, assigns tasks, and sets check-ins. When one member gets sick, another steps in and adjusts the timeline. They deliver on time, and their reflection mentions what they’d improve next time.
• Team B never clarifies ownership. Two people assume the other is handling the main document. They scramble the night before the deadline, and their presentation is sloppy. In reflections, they blame miscommunication but don’t suggest improvements.

Here, the best examples of teamwork are obvious—and you can describe them in behavior-based language. Team A shows reliable collaboration; Team B shows avoidant, reactive behavior.

This kind of project-based assessment is one of the strongest examples of evaluating soft skills: 3 practical examples you can build into your performance reviews or promotion processes.

Example 3: Evaluating adaptability in changing conditions

If the last few years taught workplaces anything, it’s that adaptability is non‑negotiable. Markets shift, tools change, teams restructure. You need people who can adjust without falling apart.

A powerful example of evaluating soft skills around adaptability is to intentionally change the conditions of a task and see how people respond.

The scenario

You assign a task, such as:

“Develop a simple customer feedback survey and rollout plan.”

Halfway through, you change a major parameter:

• The deadline moves up by three days, or
• The target audience changes (from existing customers to new leads), or
• The channel changes (from email to in‑app survey)

You’re not doing this to trap people. You’re doing it to see:

• Do they complain and freeze, or re‑prioritize and move?
• Do they communicate the change clearly to stakeholders?
• Do they ask smart questions about the new constraints?

What adaptability looks like in practice

Strong adaptability examples include:

• Reframing quickly: “Okay, if the deadline moved up, what can we simplify without losing quality?”
• Reprioritizing: Dropping low‑impact tasks to focus on the core deliverable.
• Learning mindset: Asking, “What do we need to learn fast to make this work?”
• Emotional regulation: Staying calm enough to think, not spiraling into panic or blame.

Weak adaptability might sound like:

• “This is impossible; we’ll just have to miss the deadline.”
• “That’s not what we agreed to; I’m not changing it.”

You can combine manager observation with self‑assessment: ask team members to write a short reflection on how they handled the change. This gives you both outside and inside perspectives as part of your examples of evaluating soft skills: 3 practical examples toolkit.

Psychology and management research backs this up: adaptability and emotional regulation are closely tied to performance and well‑being during change. For a more academic angle, the American Psychological Association discusses resilience and adaptation in the workplace here: https://www.apa.org/topics/resilience

More real examples of evaluating soft skills in everyday work

Those three scenarios—communication in meetings, teamwork in mini‑projects, and adaptability under changing conditions—are your core 3 practical examples. But you can build out more real examples using the same logic: define behaviors, create a situation, observe, and reflect.

Here are additional ways to bring soft skills out into the open.

Example of evaluating problem‑solving and initiative

Ask an employee to review a messy process, like expense approvals or ticket routing, and propose improvements.

You’re watching for:

• How they gather information (do they talk to people who use the process?)
• Whether they identify root causes instead of just symptoms
• How they present their ideas (clear, structured, and realistic, or vague and idealistic?)

A strong example of soft skills here is someone who interviews stakeholders, maps the process, proposes two or three options with pros and cons, and asks for feedback. A weaker example is someone who complains about the process but offers no concrete alternatives.

Example of evaluating empathy and customer focus

Use real or simulated customer emails or chat transcripts with some emotional charge—frustration, confusion, or disappointment.

Ask the person to:

• Draft a response
• Explain their reasoning

You’re evaluating whether they:

• Acknowledge the customer’s feelings
• Take responsibility where appropriate
• Offer clear next steps

The best examples of empathy here don’t just say, “We apologize for the inconvenience.” They show understanding: “I can see how frustrating it must be to wait three days for a response when you’re on a tight deadline. Here’s what I can do for you today…”

Customer‑facing roles especially benefit from this kind of structured assessment. For more on communication and patient/customer interaction, health organizations like Mayo Clinic emphasize empathy and clarity in their communication guidance: https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/adult-health/in-depth/communication/art-20044289

Example of evaluating leadership potential (even without a manager title)

Leadership is one of the most misunderstood soft skills. It’s not just about having a title; it’s about how you influence and support others.

A practical example of evaluating leadership is to ask someone to lead a small initiative without formal authority. For instance:

“Coordinate a lunch‑and‑learn series on a topic your team needs to understand better.”

You’re looking for whether they:

• Set clear goals and expectations
• Communicate timelines and responsibilities
• Listen to input and adjust plans
• Recognize others’ contributions

Strong leadership examples include people who bring others along, not just push tasks at them.

Turning soft skill evaluations into part of your career development plan

Examples are great, but they only matter if they tie into growth. Here’s how to plug these examples of evaluating soft skills: 3 practical examples into real career development.

Step 1: Define the 3–5 soft skills that matter most for the role

Don’t try to rate every soft skill under the sun. For each role, choose a small set—maybe communication, collaboration, adaptability, and problem‑solving for a project manager.

Step 2: Pick 1–2 real examples per skill

For each soft skill, choose at least one example of how you’ll evaluate it. For instance:

• Communication: observed behavior in team meetings + written follow‑ups
• Collaboration: performance in a cross‑functional mini‑project
• Adaptability: reaction to changed deadlines or scope

This keeps your assessments grounded in reality, not guesswork.

Step 3: Use behavior‑based language

When you document your evaluation, avoid labels like “bad attitude” or “natural leader.” Instead, describe what you saw:

• “Frequently interrupted others and dismissed ideas without explanation.”
• “Invited quieter teammates to speak and summarized group decisions clearly.”

Behavior‑based feedback is easier to act on and less biased.

Harvard’s career services resources emphasize this behavior‑based approach in interviewing and evaluation: https://ocs.fas.harvard.edu/interviewing

Step 4: Turn gaps into development actions

If someone scores low on a soft skill, that’s not the end of the story. It’s the starting point.

For example, if adaptability scores are low, development actions might include:

• Shadowing a colleague who handles change well
• Taking a short course on change management
• Being assigned to a project with known shifting requirements, with extra support

This is where examples of evaluating soft skills: 3 practical examples become a living part of a career development plan, not just a one‑time judgment.

FAQ: Common questions about evaluating soft skills

How do you fairly rate soft skills when they feel so subjective?
Use behavior‑based criteria and specific examples. Instead of “good communicator,” define what that means: listens without interrupting, summarizes key points, writes clear follow‑ups. Then use real situations—like meetings, projects, or customer interactions—as your examples of evaluating soft skills.

What are some examples of soft skills that matter for most jobs?
Common soft skills examples include communication, teamwork, adaptability, problem‑solving, time management, empathy, and conflict resolution. The right mix depends on the role, but nearly every job benefits from at least communication, collaboration, and reliability.

Can you give an example of evaluating soft skills in a job interview?
Yes. Instead of asking, “Are you a team player?” you might say: “Tell me about a time when your team disagreed on a decision. What happened?” You then listen for behaviors: Did they listen, negotiate, compromise, escalate? Their story becomes a concrete example of how they use soft skills under pressure.

How often should managers evaluate soft skills?
At least during annual or semiannual reviews, but the best approach is ongoing. Use regular 1:1s, project retrospectives, and feedback cycles to gather real examples over time. That way, your formal review isn’t based on one recent incident.

Are soft skills really as important as technical skills?
In many roles, yes—and sometimes more so. Technical skills can get you hired; soft skills often determine whether you get promoted or trusted with bigger responsibilities. Employers and universities alike highlight soft skills as key to long‑term career success.

If you build your process around these examples of evaluating soft skills: 3 practical examples, you’ll move from vague impressions to grounded, fair, and actionable insight. And that’s good news for both managers and employees: everyone can see what “good” looks like, and everyone has a clearer path to grow.