13 Good People Skills to Highlight on Your Resume

People skills refer to a variety of different soft skills that make you a good colleague and effective team member, and are some of the best skills to put on your resume.

We’ve compiled a list of people skills and examples to show you how applicants in various fields included these skills on their resumes:

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1. Communication skills

Communication skills are a vital part of having good people skills. Being a great communicator, written and verbally, allows you to accurately convey information, pick up the relevant facts, and give effective presentations to large groups.

Employees with effective verbal and non-verbal communication skills can explain complex ideas in a simple way and use their body language to get their point across, making them more effective in the workplace.

Here’s an example of how a sales manager highlights communication skills in a bullet point on their resume:

Acted as a liaison between the sales and marketing departments, facilitating seamless communication and collaboration

2. Conflict resolution

Conflict resolution involves acting as a neutral party when two or more people have a dispute. Being able to successfully resolve issues between people is important for many different jobs, especially those in customer service, HR, and management.

Additionally, conflict resolution is closely linked to calmness and level-headedness. Both are essential to understanding multiple sides of an argument and helping parties reach a mutually-beneficial compromise.

Here’s how a retail manager might showcase conflict resolution skills on a resume:

Effectively managed and resolved conflicts with displeased customers, turning challenging situations into opportunities to strengthen customer relationships and increase repeat business

3. Negotiation skills

Being able to negotiate is an essential people skill — whether you’re asking for a raise or negotiating a contract with a new client.

Every client and situation is different, so you need to be able to understand the other person’s needs while keeping your company’s interests in mind too.

This account executive resume emphasizes strong negotiation skills:

Negotiated and closed complex contracts with key vendors, resulting in a 15% reduction in procurement costs and significant cost savings for the company

4. Patience

Working on a team or handling customers on a daily basis? Patience is a skill that’ll help make workplace interactions run more smoothly.

By taking a step back, evaluating the situation, and empathizing with the other person, you’ll be better equipped to avoid workplace misunderstandings.

Here’s one example of how a special education teacher effectively demonstrates patience on their resume:

Maintained a patient and empathetic approach when working with students facing learning difficulties, resulting in noticeable improvements in their academic performance

5. Trustworthiness

Consistently acting with integrity and sincerity will help you become a trustworthy person in the eyes of your colleagues, someone they feel comfortable coming to for advice.

If you’re a manager, trust is especially important. If you’re not able to gain the trust of the people you manage, it’ll affect the performance of the entire team.

This bullet point shows how a data entry resume shows trustworthiness:

Handled sensitive client information with the utmost confidentiality, earning the trust of clients and maintaining a spotless record of data security

6. Empathy

Empathy is the ability to understand a situation from another person’s perspective. Although it’s a skill that comes more naturally to some people than others, it can be practiced.

Try to recognize your own biases – such as affinity bias, conformity bias, and confirmation bias – as these can effect the way you relate to people. Don’t just listen to what another person has to say, but try to understand why they say it.

At work, empathy will help you relate to your coworkers and clients. It’s a skill that will make you better equipped to handle or even avoid situations that could arise due to miscommunication.

In this example, the candidate’s empathy shines through:

Adapted communication styles to connect with diverse audiences, demonstrating empathy toward individuals with varying backgrounds and perspectives achieve more effective and inclusive interactions

7. Active listening

Being a good listener involves more than just letting others speak without interrupting. Unlike a passive listener, someone with active listening skills gives the speaker their full attention. They pay attention to the points the speaker is making, and respond thoughtfully.

Active listening is an essential skill for the workplace. In a work setting you need to engage with other people’s ideas, whether that’s your boss giving you feedback or a colleague making suggestions for a project.

Here’s a good example of a bullet point from an HR manager’s resume that focuses on listening skills:

Actively listened to employee feedback and concerns, facilitating open and constructive discussions that contributed to a 15% increase in employee engagement

8. Responsive body language

Even if your job doesn’t involve any client-facing work, you can still use responsive body language to convey messages and build trust with colleagues.

Studies have shown that body language makes up more than 50% of communication. If you’re aware of how your body language is interpreted by others and learn to use it to your advantage, you’ll become a more effective communicator.

This bullet point from a car sales resume was written to convey knowledge of body language:

Interpreted client body language cues during sales meetings, allowing for more personalized and effective sales pitches

9. Collaboration

Collaboration skills enable you to work effectively with others to achieve common goals. Strong collaborators can integrate different perspectives, share responsibilities, and contribute to group projects while maintaining positive working relationships.

In today’s interconnected workplace, the ability to collaborate across departments and with diverse teams is increasingly valuable, especially in project-based environments.

Here’s how a product owner’s resume demonstrates collaboration skills:

Led cross-functional team initiatives that increased department efficiency by 25% through implementing collaborative workflow solutions

10. Customer service skills

Customer service skills are vital for any position that’s client-facing or involves stakeholder interaction, whether internal or external.

Customer service skills encompass the ability to understand, assist, and satisfy customer needs while representing your organization professionally. This includes handling inquiries, resolving issues, and creating positive experiences that build customer loyalty.

Here’s an example of how a patient access representative working in healthcare highlighted customer service skills in their resume:

Maintained a 98% customer satisfaction rating while handling 50+ daily inquiries and implementing service improvement strategies

11. Teamwork skills

Teamwork skills go beyond simply working with others – they involve contributing to team morale, supporting colleagues’ goals, and adapting your working style to complement team dynamics. Effective team players can both lead and follow as needed while maintaining positive relationships.

Strong teamwork skills demonstrate your ability to function as part of a larger organizational structure and contribute to collective success.

Take a look at how a video editor showcases teamwork skills on their resume:

Coordinated with 6-person marketing team to complete 6x 3-minute project deliverables 15% ahead of schedule while maintaining quality standards

12. Networking

Networking involves building and maintaining professional relationships that benefit both parties.

Strong networkers can initiate meaningful connections, maintain professional relationships over time, and leverage these connections appropriately for mutual benefit. This skill is particularly valuable in business development, sales, and leadership roles where relationship-building directly impacts organizational success.

Here’s how an executive director highlighted networking skills on their resume:

Developed and maintained a network of 200+ industry professionals, resulting in 15 new business partnerships and $500K in additional revenue

13. Problem solving

Problem-solving skills demonstrate your ability to identify challenges, analyze situations, and implement effective solutions. This includes critical thinking, creativity, and the ability to make decisions under pressure.

Strong problem solvers can approach challenges systematically while considering both immediate fixes and long-term solutions that prevent similar issues from recurring.

This is a good example of how a construction project manager presented problem-solving skills on their resume:

Identified and resolved recurring supply chain bottlenecks, reducing delivery delays by 40% and saving the company $50,000 annually

How to develop good people skills

While some people may seem naturally gifted with people skills, these abilities can be developed and strengthened over time through deliberate practice and the right approach. Here are a few ways to enhance your people skills:

Practice active observation in social settings

Consciously observe how others communicate effectively during meetings or social interactions. Pay attention to their body language, tone of voice, and how they handle different situations.

For example, watch how successful managers deliver feedback or how experienced colleagues handle challenging client conversations. Take mental notes of specific phrases and approaches that work well.

Ask for regular advice and feedback and act on it

Ask trusted colleagues, managers, or mentors for specific advice and feedback about interpersonal interactions. Create a simple system where you request input before and after important meetings or presentations.

For instance, you might ask: “How do you recommend I handle this team conflict?” or “How clear was my communication during the client presentation?” Use this feedback to create actionable improvement goals.

Take on roles that stretch your comfort zone

Volunteer for positions that require intensive interaction, even if they feel challenging at first. This might mean leading team meetings, mentoring new employees, or representing your department in cross-functional projects.

Each new responsibility provides real-world practice in different aspects of interpersonal communication and you can always ask for advice from colleagues and managers.

Enroll in structured learning opportunities

Invest in formal training through workshops, online courses, or professional development programs specifically focused on people skills. Look for programs that include role-playing exercises and practical scenarios.

For example, join a local Toastmasters group to improve public speaking, or take a conflict resolution workshop that includes hands-on practice with different scenarios.

Use online resources

There are many resources available online that can help you hone your people skills:

• BusinessBalls.com provides many training programs for soft skills, including people skills
• DaleCarnegie.com provides tips much like the author’s influential book How to Win Friends and Influence People

If your people skills are affected by health conditions, like social anxiety, here are two resources to help you address these challenges:

• ScienceOfPeople — this page’ll help you understand what social anxiety is, as well as how to recognize and treat it
• Ableto.com provides web-based treatment for social anxiety. Web-based treatment has been proven effective and may be cheaper than seeing a therapist in person

How to highlight people skills in every section of your resume

To make sure your people skills get noticed by hiring managers, you should highlight them throughout your resume. This is especially important if the job ad contains people skills-related resume keywords.

These are words that describe the qualities the employer wants candidates to have, and you can usually find them in the job description of the job posting.

Some people skills synonyms you might come across are:

• Interpersonal skills
• Relational skills
• Social intelligence
• Emotional intelligence
• Social competence
• Social acumen

If you find any of these in the job ad, try to include them naturally throughout your resume (just be careful not to stuff your resume with keywords to avoid making it too repetitive).

Here’s how to draw attention to your people skills in different parts of your resume:

1. Mention your people skills in your resume objective

The information you put in your resume objective is the first thing a hiring manager will learn about you. If you’re applying for a job where customer interaction and teamwork will be a significant part of your day-to-day life, mention at least one of your people skills at the beginning of your resume.

Here’s a good example of how to write a resume that features people skills from the start. People skills are in bold:

2. Include people skills in the professional experience section

The work experience section of a resume is an ideal place to write in detail about the various skills and qualities that make you a good candidate for the position. It’s also an opportunity to prove to employers that you know how important people skills are in the workplace, and that you’re able to use them to benefit the company.

To incorporate people skills-related keywords into your work experience section effectively, provide evidence of those skills by including hard numbers. Here’s an example of how to quantify resume accomplishments achieved because of excellent people skills:

3. List people skills in the skills section of your resume

It’s most impactful to showcase your people skills in the resume objective or work experience section because you can highlight examples of these skills in action. However, if you run out of space or have additional people skills you’d like to highlight, you can include them in the skills section of your resume.

Additional skills-related resources

Here are some more skills-related resources for you to reference when writing your resume:

• Best soft skills for your resume
• Hard skills
• Technical skills
• Skills-based resumes
• In-demand job skills
• Multitasking skills
• Transferable skills
• HR skills
• Medical assistant skills
• CNA skills
• Sales associate skills
• Teacher skills
• Cashier skills
• Server skills
• Nursing skills
• Project manager skills
• Marketing skills
• Receptionist skills
• Child care skills
• Is a skills section necessary on a resume
• How many skills should you list on a resume