Human Skills Are Still the Biggest Differentiators

Last month, I shared 10 Challenges Facing Today's Learning Professionals. Throughout 2026, I'll dive into each challenge and provide practical solutions like those below.

Open Communication, Emotional Intelligence, and Leadership Drive High Performance Even Among Remote Teams

As AI accelerates, work structures shift, and roles continue to blur, many organizations assume performance depends on better tools, smarter systems, or tighter processes. Those are all certainly important (especially to someone like me with a Conscientious/Dominance DiSC style), yet I am constantly reminded of the importance of the more relationship-oriented, Influence/Steadiness side of the DiSC circle.

I've been working with an executive team that dropped the ball on role clarity and expectation setting. That led to misunderstandings and the misperception that expectations were not being met. Couple that with passionate team members and the end result was catastrophic. In some situations, team members stopped communicating. In other situations, emotions flared and communication became disrespectful and unprofessional. Eventually, the lines between accountability and hostility became blurred and formal complaints were lodged - a mess that could have been avoided with more intentional communication and higher levels of emotional intelligence.

Research explains that. Recent Wiley Workplace Intelligence research reinforces what Learning & Development professionals already know from experience: teams perform best when people feel safe, understood, and clear, regardless of whether they work in an office, remotely, or somewhere in between.

Across industries, emotional intelligence, communication, and leadership remain the strongest predictors of high performance, not just engagement or culture, but real business outcomes. Despite how dramatically work has changed, the human side of work still matters most.

Psychological Safety Is a Performance Multiplier

Psychological safety continues to stand out as one of the most powerful drivers of team effectiveness. Wiley's research shows that employees who feel safe speaking up, asking questions, and challenging ideas are 31% more likely to be part of high-performing teams.

This isn’t about comfort or consensus. It’s about creating conditions where people:

• Share ideas earlier

• Surface risks before they escalate

• Engage in productive disagreement

• Take ownership instead of withdrawing

When psychological safety is missing, performance suffers quietly. People comply instead of contribute. Talent stays, but energy leaves.

Performance problems are often relational problems in disguise.

Emotional Intelligence and Leadership Still Drive Results

The research is consistent: effective leadership is a top predictor of high team performance with 90% of survey respondents citing this as key. Not far behind, is emotional intelligence with 83% citing this as important.

Leadership and emotional intelligence are deeply connected. Emotional intelligence enables leaders to:

• Understand their impact

• Regulate reactions under pressure

• Listen without defensiveness

• Navigate conflict without eroding trust

When leaders lack these skills, communication breaks down quickly, even with the best intentions. Feedback gets avoided. Meetings feel tense or unproductive. Decisions stall. Over time, trust erodes.

The good news? These are not fixed traits. They are learnable, coachable, measurable skills.

The Remote Work Insight Leaders Often Miss

I'm seeing more and more organizations demanding 3, 4, and 5 days of in-office work. I get it - I grew up in the 100% in office days when a jeans day was the only way to let loose. I appreciate the natural camaraderie that builds, the informal learning that takes place, and the visibility for those looking to be promoted that happens when everyone is sitting near each other. But, it's a new day.

One of the findings from the research challenges a long-held belief: while 26% of survey respondents feel remote work hurts performance, 85% of remote workers report being part of high-performing teams.

This doesn’t mean remote work is inherently superior. It means performance depends more on how people communicate and collaborate regardless of where they sit.

Remote teams often succeed because they are forced to:

• Be clear, focused, and structured in communication

• Document decisions

• Focus on outcomes rather than visibility

• Build trust more intentionally

In other words, remote work exposes weak human skills and rewards strong ones.

What Happens When Emotional Intelligence and Communication Are Weak

When organizations underinvest in human skills, familiar issues appear:

• Meetings drain energy instead of creating alignment

• Misunderstandings turn into conflict

• Feedback feels risky or personal

• Decisions are challenged or revisited repeatedly

• High performers disengage quietly

L&D is often asked to solve these problems with more team building, but the real need is psychological safety, clear ground rules, shared expectations, disciplined practice, and ongoing reinforcement.

6 Practical Ways to Strengthen Psychological Safety, Emotional Intelligence, and Communication

The goal isn’t to add more programs. It’s to embed human skills into everyday work so they become habits, not events.

1. Anchor Human Skills to Existing Rhythms

Instead of standalone workshops, integrate communication and emotional intelligence discussions into:

• Team meetings

• One-on-ones coaching conversations

• Project kickoffs and debriefs

Simple, repeatable questions can change behavior over time:
What helped us work well together this week? What got in the way?

Get my Team Retrospectives Grab-n-Go Learning Kit with 16 posters for evaluating teamwork, problem solving, and initiative planning.

Consistency matters more than complexity.

2. Build a Shared Language for Behavior

Assessments like Everything DiSC Workplace give teams a neutral, practical language to discuss communication styles, stress responses, and adaptability.

Use it to build shared language that reduces defensiveness and helps teams talk about behavior without making it personal. If you're a Catalyst user, check out Your Groups -> Conversation Starters for free 15-minute teambuilding activities you can integrate into your next team meeting.

3. Normalize Short, Frequent Feedback

Psychological safety grows through regular, low-stakes conversations, not annual reviews.

Encourage managers to use brief check-ins focused on:

• What’s working

• What’s unclear

• What support is needed

Frequent clarity touchpoints prevent unnecessary stress and misalignment.

4. Teach Leaders to Adapt, Not Default

Emotionally intelligent leaders don’t rely on one approach. They adapt based on context, people, and pressure.

Agile EQ™ helps leaders explore eight mindsets they need for success and teaches them to expand their range so they can respond intentionally rather than reactively, especially during change, conflict, and stressful situations.

5. Establish Ground Rules

We set goals for the work that needs to be done. That's how we get results in the short-term. But, what about the long-term? For that, we need ground rules for how the team works together regardless of the task at hand.

Use current projects, decisions, or tensions as learning moments rather than hypothetical examples to create behavioral expectations: What went well that we need to repeat? What went poorly that we need to fix? In the future, how will we communicate, solve problems, and make decisions as a team?

Relevance and action planning drives the right behaviors.

6. Run an “Assumptions vs. Reality” Reset (Remote-Friendly)

Remote and hybrid teams are especially vulnerable to miscommunication because context is limited and assumptions fill the gaps.

This simple activity helps teams surface hidden assumptions and strengthen clarity.

How it works:

Step 1: Individual Reflection (5 minutes)
Ask each team member to privately answer these prompts about a current project or recurring workflow:

• One assumption I think others are making about my role or availability is…

• One assumption I’ve made about someone else’s role, priorities, or constraints is…

• One thing I wish others understood about how I do my work is…

Step 2: Small Group Sharing (10–15 minutes)
In breakout rooms of 3–4, participants share:

• One assumption they had that turned out to be wrong

• One clarification that would make collaboration easier

Step 3: Team Debrief (10 minutes)
Bring the full group back and ask:

• What assumptions showed up most often?

• Where are we relying on “mind-reading” instead of clarity?

• What’s one communication norm we should adopt to reduce assumptions going forward?(Individuals reflect on assumptions they’ve made or believe others are making)

• Small groups share one assumption and one needed clarification

• The team agrees on one communication norm to reduce assumptions going forward

Common outcomes include norms like:

• “If it’s urgent, we say so explicitly.”

• “Decisions live in writing, not just meetings.”

• “We ask before we assume.”

This builds psychological safety, emotional intelligence, and communication by encouraging brief perspective-sharing without judgment. It builds awareness of impact, not intent. It reinforces psychological safety by normalizing clarification. And, it strengths trust without forcing vulnerability.

You can even keep it simple by running a 10-minute version each month by using just one question: What's one assumption we should clear up before it becomes a problem?

That's where the real power is...small, consistent resets.

Why This Matters for Learning & Development

Human skills are not a “nice to have.” They are the infrastructure of performance.

As work continues to evolve, L&D professionals are uniquely positioned to influence how leaders lead, how teams communicate, and how safe people feel contributing their best thinking.

This isn’t about doing more. It’s about focusing on what actually moves the needle.

Human skills are timeless and right now, they are more critical than ever.

The tools will change.
The technology will evolve.
Human skills will continue to separate good teams from great ones.