Top 5 soft skills every procurement professional needs

What are soft skills?

Soft skills are personality traits and qualities, that allow someone to interact harmoniously with others. They’re key to maintaining good relationships within and outside the workplace. Soft skills are becoming increasingly important to our profession and are critical for success.

What soft skills are needed for procurement?

Soft skills are personal attributes, traits, and interpersonal abilities that enable individuals to work effectively with others and build strong relationships. Unlike technical procurement skills, which are specific and measurable, soft skills are more about how you interact, communicate, and adapt in different environments. These skills are essential for maintaining good relationships both within and outside the workplace, making them invaluable skills in the procurement and supply profession. 

Soft skills are critical for navigating complex stakeholder relationships, leading cross-functional teams, and driving strategic initiatives. From building trust with suppliers to influencing key decisions within an organisation, soft skills are the foundation for negotiation, collaboration, problem-solving, and long-term success. Mastering soft skills gives procurement and supply professionals a distinct edge. By developing abilities like emotional intelligence, effective communication, adaptability, and teamwork, you position yourself to thrive in a rapidly changing, relationship-driven profession. 

Top 5 soft skills for procurement professionals

With soft skills becoming increasingly desirable by employers, discover below the top five sought after soft skills for procurement professionals today.

• Supplier relationship management:
  Relationship management is fundamental to creating value with suppliers and contract management. Through a more collaborative relationship, procurement can be more innovative and achieve competitive advantage.
• Communication:
  Procurement professionals need to be able to communicate effectively on all levels. Whether that’s to develop the correct specifications, maintain accurate expediting, and looking after stock control, good relationships across all levels needs to be strong.
• Internal stakeholder management:
  Building a relationship and managing internal stakeholders through effective identification, communication and engagement strategies is critical for success.
• Influencing skills:
  Procurement professionals need to be able to influence colleagues and suppliers. At senior levels it is important to influence upwards to gain buy-in and raise the profile of procurement in the organisation.
• Leadership:
  Strong leadership skills for procurement will not only help to create a successful team but elevate the profile of procurement at senior levels.

Developing soft skills for the future

Soft skills are something you should continue to enhance in pace with, and beyond, technical training and qualifications. Technical skills are still valued but soft skills should be underpinned by credible technical skills. For example, traditionally, dealing with change was tasked to a tactical function. However, organisations appreciate the limitations of this approach which may stem from lack of skill and experience, lack of time to implement change or not enough information available for the programme. Business leaders therefore see change management as a distinct and strategic skill, which requires departmental and senior level buy-in, the right support and the right systems in place. As well as requiring technical knowledge, effective change managers must also possess all the necessary soft skills and so this cannot be seen as a standalone expertise.

We are starting to see a shift to automation of procurement processes, which will continue to evolve. Automation helps to reduce or even remove human error and means that soft skills and the move towards behavioural procurement skills will become even more critical. Procurement professionals will be freed from repetitive, time-intensive tasks and be able to focus on more business-critical activities, such as strategic decision making.

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