# Skills Required for Business: The 8 Worth Building First Canonical URL: https://headwayskills.com/knowledge/soft-skills-at-work/skills-required-for-business/ Markdown URL: https://headwayskills.com/knowledge/soft-skills-at-work/skills-required-for-business.md Entity type: Article Last updated: 2026-07-07 Language: en Primary audience: professionals improving communication at work Owner: Headway Skills Contact: https://headwayskills.com/contact/ ## Short answer The skills required for business: communication, influence, negotiation, relationships, decisions and more, what each looks like at work, and where to start. ## Key facts - Title: Skills Required for Business: The 8 Worth Building First - Category: Soft Skills at Work - Primary skill: Communication - Related skills: Influence, Networking - Primary keyword: skills required for business - Source page: https://headwayskills.com/knowledge/soft-skills-at-work/skills-required-for-business/ ## What this page covers - The skills required for business: communication, influence, negotiation, relationships, decisions and more, what each looks like at work, and where to start. - Practical guidance for skills required for business - How this topic connects to Communication ## Detailed explanation The skills required for business fall into two groups. Hard skills like finance, data analysis and marketing depend on your field and role. The skills that decide most business outcomes are interpersonal: communicating, influencing, negotiating, building relationships, making sound decisions, working across teams and [managing competing demands](/knowledge/time-management/managing-competing-priorities/). Employers hiring business graduates weigh communication above AI and data skills. If you are heading into a business career, or are a year or two into one, that can look like a lot to master at once. It gets shorter when you see what ties it together: almost every result in business depends on someone else understanding you, trusting you and saying yes. That is also why employers rank these skills the way they do. ## How hard skills and people skills fit together Hard skills are the part of business that changes with the job. An analyst needs data analysis. Someone in finance needs to read a [profit-and-loss statement](/knowledge/influence/read-financial-statements/) and project cash flow. A marketer needs to understand channels and customers. These skills often get you hired into a specific role. The interpersonal skills work differently: they come with you when you change role, company or industry, because every one of those jobs still runs through people. Employers already hire with this split in mind. In the Graduate Management Admission Council's (GMAC) Corporate Recruiters Survey, companies hiring business-school graduates name communication, problem-solving and adaptability as the skills they weigh most, ahead of AI and data skills. They also expect skills in using AI tools, along with strategic thinking, to grow in value over the next five years. The logic is straightforward. Tools change quickly and can be taught on the job, while the ability to get work done through other people carries across every tool change. GMAC's 2023 survey points the same way. There, communication, data analysis and strategy were the three skills employers valued most. Communication shows up in both rounds, while the analytical skills next to it shift as technology moves. The practical consequence for you: treat communication and the other people skills as the constant, and pick one analytical skill that fits your field as the variable. ## 8 skills required for business, and what each looks like at work The first seven travel with you into any business role. The eighth depends on where you land. ### 1. Communication, starting with listening In a study of MBA recruiters published in the Journal of Research in Business Education, oral communication ranked as the most important communication skill and listening came second, ahead of written communication and presentations. That order surprises anyone who equates business communication with slides and polished emails. It makes sense once you look at the work itself: selling, negotiating and coordinating all depend on understanding the other side before you try to move them. In practice, that means asking what the other person needs before you explain what you have, and checking that you understood it correctly. When it is your turn to talk, state the main point first and keep it brief. A client, a manager or a colleague in another team can act on a clear point. They cannot act on a thorough one they had to dig for. ### 2. Influence: getting a yes you cannot order Most business outcomes need someone to agree: a customer to buy, a colleague to prioritize your request, a decision-maker to fund an idea. Almost none of those people take orders from you. Harvard treats this as a discipline in its own right; its professional-learning catalog includes a course on influence and persuasion for leadership, and another on developing your own power to gain influence and make an impact. For someone without a title, influence rests on two things you control: a reputation for delivering what you promised, and preparation. Before you pitch anything, work out what the other person gains from saying yes. Then keep the pitch simple, show the drawbacks honestly, and follow up until the idea actually happens. If you have ever watched a good idea slow down on its way to a decision, this will sound familiar. One of the young people we interviewed about starting work told us: > In my student job, I often think: why don't we just do this, and this — it could be so great. And they say, yes, but we also have to think about the budget, and we have to bring the others in and agree on what should happen. And I'm like, can't we just do something revolutionary? > > That's something I need to teach myself: you might have to be here for two or three years before you get to do the exciting things. Her impatience is easy to understand, and her checklist is accurate. A budget to fit, people to bring in, an agreement to reach: those are the steps any business decision passes through. Influence is the skill of [carrying an idea through them](/knowledge/influence/stakeholder-buy-in/), and small ideas are the best place to practice it. ### 3. Negotiation on everyday terms Negotiation sounds like a boardroom activity, but in business most of it is small and frequent: a deadline, the scope of a project, a budget line, your own salary. Harvard Business School Online teaches it as a standalone discipline. Its Negotiation Mastery course runs eight weeks and is built around closing deals and resolving differences before they become costly conflicts. The point for you is that negotiation is a method you practice, not a talent you either have or lack. A workable starting method: before any negotiation, write down what you need, what the other side needs, and where each of you has room to move. Listen to the full objection before you answer it. When a complete yes is out of reach, settle for a smaller agreement you can build on. ### 4. Building business relationships Customers, suppliers, partners and colleagues tend to work with people they know and trust. That is why the relationships you build before you need anything matter most. They are the ones that answer when you later need an introduction, a quick favor from another team, or a lead on an opportunity. Building them is less about events than about being useful. Pass on an article or a contact that fits someone's work, help a colleague with a tool you know well, and follow up within a day after meeting someone new, with a note that shows you listened. Former classmates and colleagues count too, since some of them will soon be working inside companies you want to do business with. ### 5. Decisions made with incomplete information Business decisions are rarely made by one person holding all the facts. They are made within a defined authority, with input from colleagues, and usually before every number is in. Early in your career, your role is often to contribute to a decision rather than make the final call. Contributing well is a skill in itself. Know which decisions are yours to make and which belong to your manager. Bring the facts you have, say what you would recommend and why, and name what you don't know yet. When waiting for certainty would cost more than a good-enough answer, say that too. ### 6. Working across functions Most business results come from teams that span functions such as sales, finance, operations and marketing, each with its own goals and priorities. Being good at your own part is necessary but not enough. The work lands when you coordinate early, share what you know instead of guarding it, and commit to a joint decision even when you argued for a different one. ### 7. Managing competing demands Business work arrives from clients, managers and colleagues at the same time, and each request carries its own deadline. Before you take something on, clarify exactly what is being asked and when it is really due, then estimate the time honestly. People who work this way come across as reliable, and reliability is what everyone else's trust in you is built on. ### 8. One analytical skill that fits your field This is the entry that depends on where you land. In finance-facing roles it means reading a profit-and-loss statement and projecting cash flow. In many other roles it means data analysis, which made GMAC's 2023 list of the three skills employers valued most, and employers expect skills in using AI tools to matter more within five years. You do not need all of these. Pick the one your target role uses every day and learn it properly. If you plan to run a venture of your own one day, make it financial literacy, because reading cash flow stops being optional when the money is yours. ## Where to start when the list feels long Eight skills is a lot to work on at once, and you do not need to. It helps to split the list by how each part is learned. The analytical skill is the most teachable part. A course, a certificate or the right modules in your degree will get you most of the way. The people skills are learned by doing, which makes the work you already have your practice ground. Volunteer to present your group's findings instead of building the slides for someone else. Ask to sit in when your manager negotiates with a supplier or a client. Offer to draft the short recommendation before a team decision. Each of those is a low-stakes repetition of a skill on this list. Work on one people skill at a time, for a few weeks, and keep a two-line note each time you use it: what happened and what came of it. The notes show you whether you are improving, and they turn into the concrete [examples interviewers ask for](/knowledge/soft-skills-at-work/interpersonal-skills-interview/). The open question is which skill to start with. Rather than guess, you can [find your best starting point](https://assessment.headwayskills.com/) in a few minutes. Every skill on the list can be learned, so whichever one comes out weakest is simply where your practice goes first. ## Where most business results are actually won Look back over the eight entries and the same few moments keep returning: being understood, bringing someone around to a decision, and having the right people willing to help when it counts. **Communication** is the skill the rest of the list runs on. In business it is less about stage presence than about a genuine wish to understand the other side, adapting to how they take in information, and then being clear, brief and direct, with the main point first. It also covers choosing between a conversation and an email, and handling the tricky moments, such as disagreeing with a colleague or calming an angry customer. Every one of those habits can be practiced in your next meeting. **Influence** is what selling, negotiating and winning buy-in have in common: changing someone's decision without the power to order it. It is built rather than granted. A reputation for delivering results gives you standing. Preparing around what the other person gains gives you a case. A simple pitch, honesty about drawbacks and patient handling of objections earn you a hearing, and follow-up turns a yes into something that happens. None of it needs manipulation or a title; it starts with taking the initiative. **Networking** is the relationship side of business, done as genuine connection rather than contact collecting. The working principle is to build relationships before you need them and to add value without keeping score: pass on information, connect people who should meet, share what you know. Keep an inner circle you actively look after, reach both up and down the hierarchy, and follow up within a day of a first meeting. Done that way, it feels less like a chore and more like being a good colleague. Of the three, influence is the hardest to judge from the inside, because you rarely see the decisions you failed to move. The free Job Skills Test gives you [a structured look at all three](https://assessment.headwayskills.com/), along with the **nine other work skills** it measures, and because each of them grows with practice, what it shows you is a snapshot of today rather than a verdict. ## Some of this may already be yours A few of these moves may already be in your repertoire, unlabeled. If you have ever won a project group over to your plan by showing each member what they would get out of it, you were practicing influence. If a manager from an old internship still answers your messages because you kept in touch, that is the relationship side of business doing its job. None of these skills is fixed, and building them does not ask you to become someone else. You choose the one that matters most for you right now and practice it in the work you already have. As more of your results come to depend on clients and colleagues saying yes, these skills carry more of the weight. That is a reason to start now, in small and forgiving situations, and every one of these skills responds to exactly that kind of practice. What you need next is a clear view of your own starting line. ## Know which business skills to build first All that is left is to find out where your own skills stand. The Job Skills Test is a **free** self-assessment of your work skills. In 7 minutes it shows where you stand on all twelve work skills, and which ones will give you the biggest edge in a business role. Take it, then start with the skill it points to. ## Who this is for - Professionals building practical workplace skills - Readers looking for specific, usable work advice - Managers, educators, and coaches supporting career readiness ## Common questions ### What is this guide about? The skills required for business: communication, influence, negotiation, relationships, decisions and more, what each looks like at work, and where to start. ### Which Headway skill does this connect to? This guide connects primarily to Communication. It also relates to Influence, Networking. ### What is the recommended next step? Use the free Work Skills Test to reflect on which work skill to improve next. ## Related pages - https://headwayskills.com/knowledge.md - https://headwayskills.com/knowledge/soft-skills-at-work.md - https://headwayskills.com/knowledge/communication.md - https://headwayskills.com/knowledge/influence.md - https://headwayskills.com/knowledge/networking.md - https://headwayskills.com/work-skills-test.md ## Citation guidance Use the canonical page when citing this content: https://headwayskills.com/knowledge/soft-skills-at-work/skills-required-for-business/ Preferred summary: "The skills required for business: communication, influence, negotiation, relationships, decisions and more, what each looks like at work, and where to start." ## Change log - 2026-07-07: Content collection version published.