The Importance of Soft Skills for High School Students

Posted on January 31 2025

The Importance of Soft Skills for High School Students

 

If you haven’t heard the terms “hard skills” and “soft skills,” you will before you graduate from high school. Hard skills are tangible things you can learn and report on. For example, you have a Microsoft Office Specialist credential that proves your knowledge of the programs. However, soft skills aren’t as hard and fast. 

“Soft skills are interpersonal and behavioral skills that help you work well with other people.” These skills are particularly important for high school students because secondary school is the training ground for—and often the last stop before—adulthood. Mastering these skills while still a student will help you not only while in school but also in life post graduation. 

Soft skills help contribute to your academic and personal success because they make it easier for you to work and play well with others, which is an unavoidable part of life. Whether you’re working on a group project in a classroom or navigating the ups and downs of friendships, soft skills will help you be successful. 

Here are some key soft skills for high school students to develop. We will go into more detail on how you can work on building these skills below.

  • Communication
  • Leadership
  • Creativity
  • Self-Motivation
  • Teamwork and Collaboration
  • Problem-Solving
  • Emotional Intelligence
  • Interpersonal Skills


Communication Skills for High School Students

Communication skills are crucial for everyone, not just high school students. But high schoolers should work on building these skills because they’ll find themselves corresponding with lots of different people, including peers, teammates, teachers, and coaches—both verbally and nonverbally.

While it’s easy to assume that communication skills involve just being a good public speaker, they extend far beyond class presentations. Every time you share a piece of information with someone—whether it’s an email to one of your teachers or a meme with one of your friends—you are communicating, and today’s students have the unique challenge of doing this across a multitude of platforms: in person, over the phone, through text message, via email, and on social media. In an article for Indeed, Genevieve Northup wrote that “communication skills involve listening, speaking, observing, and empathizing.” In order to improve your communication skills, you can work on developing these other skills, which will all contribute to the overarching goal of becoming an effective communicator. 

Here are a few ways you can improve your communication skills. The Harvard Division of Continuing Education recommends:

  • Being clear and concise
  • Preparing ahead of time
  • Being mindful of nonverbal communication (e.g., body language)
  • Watching your tone of voice
  • Practicing active listening
  • Building your emotional intelligence

Similarly, Nicolas Gatting provided a few additional tips in an article for BetterUp that students can consider:

  • Keeping your audience in mind (i.e., think about who you are communicating with)
  • Don’t use 10 words when one will do (i.e., use as few words as possible)
  • Considering the best method to deliver your message (i.e., should this be an email or a face-to-face conversation?)
  • Talking face-to-face when possible
  • Making eye contact
  • Asking for feedback
  • Reading non-verbal cues
  • Minimizing distractions

This is a long list of tips, but you don’t have to do all of them. You may already be good at some of these things, so choose a couple of things you’d like to improve and focus on those. Remember, becoming a good communicator isn’t a set destination. It’s a journey, and you’ll always be able to improve, so take it one step at a time.

A note to parents: You are the first people to teach your children communication skills. Teachers are likely the second. You can model good communication skills for your children and help them develop their skills by encouraging them to speak and listen and providing gentle correction. Teachers also model communication skills for their students and have the opportunity to teach these skills in a classroom setting. Ask your child what they are learning in class!

 

Teamwork and Collaboration

High schoolers need to employ teamwork and collaboration skills in a variety of ways—group projects, class discussions, athletic competitions, and extracurricular activities are just a few examples of when these skills will come in handy. Being a good team player and collaborator helps you function effectively in group settings.

The University of Waterloo provides a helpful framework for building this specific set of soft skills. Here’s what you can do when working on a team or in a group:

  • Agree on what needs to be done and by whom
  • Give and receive feedback about group ideas
  • Help the group develop and use central strategies toward your group goals
  • Know how to plan and manage a task, to manage your time, and how to run a meeting
  • Know which roles can be filled within a group

As a student, you’ll inevitably have to work with others. And the good news is that working on being a team player can actually strengthen other soft skills like communication, listening, and problem solving. 

 

Developing Emotional Intelligence

Emotional intelligence (EQ) is your ability to manage your emotions and relationships. This is important especially for students because high school is such an emotional, stressful, and relationship-filled time in life. Your school years will be full of ups and downs, and you’ll have the opportunity to make some of the best friends you could ever have, so working on developing your EQ will help you deal with emotions, relationships, and stress so you can be your best. 

You can work on your EQ by:

  • Being more self-aware
  • Recognizing how others feel
  • Practicing active listening
  • Communicating clearly
  • Staying positive
  • Empathizing with others
  • Being open-minded
  • Listening to feedback
  • Staying calm under pressure


Problem-Solving Skills

Problem-solving skills are essential for high school students because, frankly, there are a lot of problems to solve when you’re in high school. From literal math problems to assignments that require critical thinking skills to social challenges that demand the same, problem-solving skills will come in handy every day.

Problem-solving skills can be built by following a process. MasterClass shared an outline of the steps required for effective problem solving. They are as follows: 

  1. Identify the problem
  2. Do your research
  3. Look for possible solutions
  4. Make a decision
  5. Put that decision into action
  6. Await results

Once you get used to following these steps, they’ll become second nature, and you’ll run through them automatically. Being able to solve problems effectively will help you in your personal and academic life because there will always be problems to solve! 


Leadership Skills for Personal Growth

When you think of leadership, who is the first person who comes to mind? Your school principal? Your basketball coach? Your marching band director? 

Oftentimes, students think of adults as being leaders, but leadership is something that we can all aspire to, no matter our age. And even if you don’t lead others, you are always leading at least one person—yourself. 

McKinsey & Company defines leadership as “a set of mindsets and behaviors that aligns people in a collective direction, enables them to work together and accomplish shared goals, and helps them adjust to changing environments.”

The first step in becoming a great leader is knowing who you are, according to McKinsey & Company. The article also emphasized that most great leaders become great over time—they aren’t born that way.

So how can you develop leadership skills? Lots of other soft skills fall under the umbrella of leadership skills, and the Indeed Editorial Team provided a great list of essential leadership skills to help you on your own journey: 

  • Decisiveness
  • Integrity
  • Creativity
  • Flexibility
  • Positive attitude
  • Communication
  • Relationship-building
  • Problem-solving
  • Dependability
  • Ability to teach and mentor

You may not have leadership goals. You may not want to be the football team captain or the editor of your school newspaper, but you never know when you will be in a position of leadership, even if it’s as simple as leading a group project or leading yourself into better habits. 


Creativity and Innovation in Education

Creativity and innovation are closely related soft skills. Creativity is simply “the ability to discover new and original ideas, connections, and solutions to problems. It’s a part of our drive as humans—fostering resilience, sparking joy, and providing opportunities for self-actualization,” according to Psychology Today.

Innovation is applied creativity. It’s channeling your creative energy into a solution or process. It’s taking creativity and turning it into something tangible.

Some people are naturally creative. Others need a little more support. Here are a few ideas from Indeed to help you foster creativity, whether you are a student, parent, or teacher:

  • Sketch
  • Read
  • Write
  • Exercise
  • Take a new route on your commute
  • Try something new
  • Listen to music
  • Surround yourself with diversity
  • Change your process
  • Switch up your environment


Conclusion

You probably noticed while reading this article that many soft skills are interrelated. For example, a good leader must have strong communication skills. Both are soft skills, but some build on others. 

Soft skills are essential for high school students because they are the foundation for a happy, healthy, successful life. While you can learn hard skills in school (e.g., computer coding, nursing, welding, accounting), soft skills are something that you can develop every day through your interactions with others and yourself. Your parents and teachers should also support you as you strive to build these skills. 

Long term, having soft skills will help you become a well-rounded person who is successful in their personal and professional life. 

 

The American Academy

The American Academy (TAA) is an accredited online high school for students ages 13 and up. Students have the opportunity to build hard and soft skills while enrolled at TAA, whether they are earning their high school diploma online or taking individual courses

Sources

What Are Soft Skills? | Indeed.com

10 Communication Skills for Your Life and Career Success | Indeed.com

8 Ways You Can Improve Your Communication Skills - Professional & Executive Development | Harvard DCE

 Communication Skills: 18 Strategies to Communicate Better | BetterUp.com

Teamwork Skills: Being an Effective Group Member | UWaterloo.ca

 Emotional Intelligence (EQ) | SimplyPsychology.org

 How to Develop Problem Solving Skills: 4 Tips | MasterClass.com

What is leadership? | McKinsey.com

10 Essential Leadership Skills To Develop | Indeed.com

Creativity | PsychologyToday.com

Creativity Skills: Definition, Tips and Examples | Indeed.com