Dr. Silja Litvin: Why the "Soft Skills" Are the Real Bottom Line for Leaders

Dr. Silja Litvin brings a rare combination to executive coaching: a background as a clinical psychologist, over a decade as CEO of PsycApps, an evidence-based mental health company, and firsthand experience navigating the pressures of building and running a business.

In addition to leading her company, she also works with C-suite executives at medium to large organizations, including listed companies, across the UK and Europe, bringing a clinical lens into a field that is usually forward-looking, strength-based, and focused on personal development rather than deep psychological work.

In this interview, she unpacks why so-called "soft skills" are anything but soft, the biggest misconception leaders have about their own impact on their teams, and why the intersection of psychology and business is where real organizational change happens.

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Q: As a psychologist and founder of PsycApps, what inspired you to bring a clinical psychology lens into executive coaching?

While leading my evidence-based mental health company, PsycApps, I learned more about running a business, managing day-to-day operations, and working in and with teams than a psychologist typically would. I was often able to use my psychological background to help me connect with my employees and clients, as well as monitor my own mental wellbeing so that I knew when to take a break, set a boundary, or seek support. But despite that training, I was often blind to opportunities or risks and had to learn the hard way because, when you’re in the thick of it, you can’t always maintain the meta perspective you feel you ‘should’.

Gaining my coaching credentials opened up a new horizon that benefited me far more than I expected. I expected to help others push past limitations and acquire skills; I didn’t expect to discover new levels of self-reflection or new ways of using systems I had learned about but never implemented. Today, for example,  I would approach a struggling employee quite differently, helping them find their own solutions rather than bombarding them with ideas and suggestions about how to perform better.

Business is - despite what it sometimes looks like - a composition of human interactions: nothing can be done without connecting, exchanging, and managing relationships. The better you are at managing yourself and others, the better the business will be. This is supported by over a hundred peer-reviewed studies. Executive coaching, unlike most individual therapy, is largely forward-thinking, strength-based, and personal-development-oriented. It doesn’t take a deep dive into trauma or healing but builds on talent and skills. If you add clinical psychology into the mix, you can multiply the results by customising coaching skills in a deeper and more effective way, which is what makes it so attractive to me.

I have seen so many great leaders and innovative minds achieve extraordinary results through pure willpower and raw talent. It is truly impressive. Add coaching to the mix, allowing them to build missing emotional, interpersonal, self-regulation, and stress-management skills, and you can sit back and marvel at what more they can do.

Q: What's the biggest misconception leaders have about what's actually driving their performance or team dynamics that a psychological perspective reveals?

I think the biggest misconception that many leaders have is how much their missing skills or poor leadership negatively impact their employees and, therefore, their business numbers, whatever those are: Leaders judge themselves according to their intentions, but employees experience them through their repeated behaviour and impact.

That important insight leads to 75% of people saying the most stressful aspect of their job is their immediate boss, and that 70% of employees would forgo part of their compensation if it meant getting rid of their boss. - Let that sit with you…

Leadership psychology is a vast and messy field, with multiple great minds leading schools of thought that all have a foundation and an effect of some sort. Unfortunately, it’s impossible to point out the ONE leadership strategy that is effective or isn’t. 

What stands out to me, personally, in the literature is research introduced by Professor Hogan (you may have heard of the evidence-based personality assessment called ‘Hogan Personality Inventory’ and more):

The 4 Core Characteristics of Good Leaders

Integrity: Leaders must be honest, trustworthy, transparent, and fair.

Judgment: Leaders need to make sound decisions that guide the team in the right direction.

Competence: Leaders must possess deep knowledge and expertise in the team’s business.

Vision: Leaders must provide a clear plan that justifies the team's temporary unselfish behaviour.

In order to show these competencies, you need to, first, be aware of them and, second, understand how to accomplish them.

Q: What's next for you, and what would you tell other founders building at the intersection of psychology and business?

I have been working, and am looking forward to doing so more, with C-suite executives of medium to large entities, including listed companies, mostly in the UK and Europe. I am very much looking forward to working alongside leaders who understand that the so-called ‘soft skills’ are paramount to setting the foundation for any value the business will create and helping them find the missing pieces to becoming their best selves.

I am now bringing together three strands of my career: my training as a psychologist, more than a decade of experience as a CEO, and what I learned building an evidence-based mental health company. I am working with C-suite executives in medium-sized and large organisations, including listed companies, primarily in the UK and Europe.

I am particularly interested in leaders operating under significant pressure, because their self-awareness, emotional regulation, judgment, and communication affect far more than their own performance. Their behaviour travels through an organisation, shaping decisions, relationships, culture, and the conditions in which other people work.

We still call these capabilities ‘soft skills,’ but there is nothing soft about managing conflict, maintaining clarity under pressure, setting boundaries, earning trust, or having difficult conversations. These are often the skills that determine whether a strong strategy can actually be implemented by a functioning team. The more well-rounded, clear-thinking, and clear-communicating leaders we have, the better our organisations - and, I believe, our world - will be.

For anyone working at the intersection of psychology and business, my advice would be to keep the scientist working as closely as possible with the business and marketing experts to maximise efficiency and innovation - unusual cross-pollination is where innovation happens.

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