Behavioural Skills: The Matters Insight from Experts and UK Business Leaders
Looking to improve teamwork, communication, and problem-solving at work? Discover how behavioural skills training can turn your team into a more confident, cohesive, and high-performing unit.
Why Behavioural Skills Are Crucial for Today’s Business Leaders
In today’s fast-evolving workplace, soft skills have become increasingly valued, sometimes even more than technical expertise, when hiring employees in 2025. Research by startup.co.uk shows that 64% of UK employers across industries prioritise soft skills, for example:
Technology and Software: 74%
Finance and Fintech: 66%
Hospitality and Tourism: 62%
Manufacturing and Engineering: 61%
Consulting and Services: 61%
E-commerce and Retail: 61%
Healthcare and Life Sciences: 60%
Pie chart showing that 64% of UK employers prioritise soft skills in hiring, with Technology and Software leading at 74%.
These numbers reveal a clear trend: behavioural skills are no longer optional; they are essential. But what makes them so important? Even as AI takes over certain job functions, human involvement remains irreplaceable. Effective teamwork, communication, and decision-making all depend on employees’ behavioural skills.
Developing strong behaviour skills helps teams overcome behavioural challenges, collaborate efficiently, and complete high-stakes projects. Companies that invest in behavioural skills training not only enhance individual performance but also strengthen overall team dynamics, fostering a culture of adaptability and resilience.
But recognising their importance is just the beginning; the real challenge lies in developing them effectively.
The Issue – Behavioural Challenges at the Workplace
After understanding the concerns of business leaders, it is important to recognise the challenges in the workplace related to behavioural skills. These particular soft skills cannot be taken lightly, because if even one employee’s behaviour creates obstacles, a project can be delayed or fail, potentially resulting in lost revenue or profit for the company.
However, this does not mean that employees who lack certain behavioural skills should be cut, especially if they are valuable in terms of hard skills. Before we discuss how to address gaps in behaviour skills, it is useful to understand the issues most frequently highlighted by experts, business owners, and project leads regarding behavioural challenges in the workplace:
Bias: Employees hesitate to share ideas or provide constructive feedback, which can hinder innovation.
Poor Communication: Misunderstandings and miscommunication can significantly impact team performance and the quality of work.
Conflict Management: Inability to manage conflicts leads to internal friction and disrupted collaboration.
Lack of Adaptability: Limited flexibility hinders the ability to respond effectively to rapid changes in the modern work environment.
A modern office scene showing employees in a tense discussion, symbolising behavioural challenges like conflict and miscommunication at work.
Leaders consistently view these behavioural gaps as major obstacles to productivity, often more critical than technical hard skills. In many workplaces, projects don’t fail because of poor strategy or lack of funding, but because of unspoken conflicts, unclear communication, and resistance to change.
The Expert Views – Why Behavioural Skills Shape Successful Teams
A healthy team is not made up solely of people with exceptional technical skills. It thrives because of individuals who are willing to collaborate, communicate, and grow together; all of which stem from strong behavioural skills. Experts across psychology and business agree that behavioural skills are a key factor in determining the success of any team or organisation. From classic psychological theories to modern business perspectives, behavioural skills have consistently proven to be at the heart of how humans work and interact.
Bandura’s perspective reminds us that humans learn through observation and social interaction. This means behavioural skills, such as communication, empathy, and collaboration, can be cultivated through real experiences and learning environments that encourage interpersonal growth.
“Learning would be exceedingly laborious, not to mention hazardous, if people had to rely solely on the effects of their own actions to inform them what to do.”
Watson emphasised that behaviour can be shaped through proper training and environment. His statement reinforces the idea that behaviour skills are not innate traits, but competencies that can be systematically developed through structured, experiential learning.
Behavioural Skills from Expert Views: John B Watson
Gratton highlights that the growing economic value of human capabilities such as empathy, collaboration, and creativity could define behavioural skills and distinguish humans from technology in today’s digital-driven workplace.
“At the same time, we know that human ‘soft skills’ are becoming increasingly valuable — skills such as empathy, collaboration, and creativity – those that machines are generally poor at.”
Cheese emphasised that behavioural skills are the primary foundation of productivity and innovation. Organisations that develop them will be more adaptive to change and more resilient in facing future challenges.
“Most of these essential skills are profoundly human. They are behavioural and attitudinal, and hard to replace with technology.”
From Watson’s early recognition that behaviour can be trained to Gratton and Cheese’s emphasis on its economic and organisational impact, the common thread is clear: behavioural skills matter. They make teams stronger, leaders wiser, and organisations more resilient for the future.
This Is the Time to Move and Make Your Team Stronger Again
Understanding the problem is one thing; transforming it into progress is another. Now that we have seen what experts say, the question remains: can behavioural skills still be developed within teams? And if so, is standard or mainstream training enough to make a real difference?
In the UK, there is a growing shift toward more targeted and experiential learning designed to meet each team’s specific behavioural needs. One of the most effective methods emerging today is immersive experiential learning, a practical approach that focuses on learning through doing, reflecting, and improving.
Why is mainstream training no longer sufficient? Because traditional programs often fail to drive real behavioural change. They provide knowledge but rarely transform how people act and collaborate in their day-to-day work.
Immersive experiential learning, on the other hand, develops behavioural skills through real issues and immersive scenarios that mirror everyday challenges, such as:
Help your team become stronger through behavioural skills training.
Bias Training: Encouraging awareness and open discussion to reduce hidden prejudices that limit innovation.
Role Play Communication: Helping employees practise active listening, empathy, and assertive dialogue in realistic settings.
Immersive Teamwork Scenarios: Simulating high-pressure environments where collaboration, adaptability, and trust are tested and strengthened.
Through this kind of hands-on, reflective learning, behaviour truly changes, not just in theory, but in daily action.
Let Sidestream Help Your Team Grow Stronger Together
At Sidestream, we believe behavioural skills are the foundation of every strong and adaptable team. The evidence is clear from both research and UK business leaders: success now depends not only on what people know, but on how they behave, connect, and grow together.
To build stronger and more resilient teams, organisations need more than conventional training. They need real learning experiences that transform behaviour, foster empathy, and strengthen collaboration.
Book a free call with Sidestream today to discover how immersive experiential learning can help your team strengthen its behavioural skills, overcome everyday challenges, and unlock its full potential.
