The Secret Code of Talent: Part III - Identify The Soft Skills & Play like a Skateboarder

Part III of a series about talent: Lets have a look at your "Soft" skills

"Soft skills catch our eye, because they are beautiful"

Daniel Coyle (D.C.)

Hi Actor,

First installation of the series we introduced Hard and Soft Skills as defined by Daniel Coyle in his wonderful book The Little Book of Talent. The second, we had a closer look at the Hard skills of an actor and discussed how we should practice those. In this article we will discuss the actor's Soft skills.

Picture the soccer star Lionel Messi improvising his way to a brilliant goal, or Jimi Hendrix blazing through a guitar solo, or Jon Stewart riffing through a comic monologue. These talents appear utterly magical and unique. In fact they are the result of super-fast brain software recognising patterns and responding in just the right way.

While hard skills are best put together with measured precision, soft skills are built by playing and exploring inside challenging, ever-changing environments. These are places where you encounter different obstacles and respond to them over and over, building the network of sensitive wiring you need to read, recognise, and react. 

D.C.

So Actors! Lets have a look at some examples of soft skills:

• Performance: Film or Theatre

  • Everything in between "Action and Cut" or "Opening Act & Curtain"

• Working off your scene partner/ reader

• Taking direction & interpreting

• Use of accent throughout a scene

• Chemistry test between actors.

  • Friendly, Family or Sexual/Romantic

• Auditions

• Comedy

• Improvisation

• Communication & other social skills

• "Yes, And"

• Ad Lib

• Any kind of openness to discovery in a performance

• The concept of "Different every night".

• A "f*ck it take"

• "Having fun" within the work - Playing

• Communication Skills: Familiarity, Humour, Story Telling, One-minded Connection.

• The balance between all the methods of acting you wish to use in your work.

• Scene work should have a sense of "I don't know where this is going, but lets be curious and find out".

• Developing relationships with people in the industry (building rapport)

• Animal Work (body work) - although I'm not super sure about this - if someone else with more experience in that kind of "body work" could provide some thoughts that would be wonderful! Would animal work be more a soft or hard skill?

When we practice these soft skills we:

"should behave less like a carful carpenter and more like a skateboarder in a skateboard park: Aggressive, Curious and Experimental, always seeking new ways to challenge yourself."

D.C

You become skilled at the soft stuff by:

"performing thousands of intensive reaches and reps in an endlessly challenging, variable, engaging space. When you practice a soft skill, focus on making a high number of varied reps, and on getting clear feedback. Don't worry too much about making errors."

D.C

Just play, explore and experiment. These skills demand that you to coach yourself too. Also interestingly these soft skills may entail a large period of clumsiness so mistakes are actually a good thing!

I encourage you to think outside the box with your practice now. You'll want to create a sort of laboratory for you to experiment. You want the challenge to be frequently varied, highly intensive & flexible. We want to be reaching just beyond our current ability too.

To get a little more of an understanding, look at these 2 different fields of play. Football and Comedy.

An intense laboratory for each:

• Football Players (Soccer) - utilise Futsal

  • Smaller Field

  • Harder floor

  • More touches on ball (600 % more touches)

  • Less team players to rely on.

  • The ball is smaller and heavier (requiring more accuracy).

  • Demands faster reaction times & more ball control due to the space being much smaller.

• For Comedians - Chicago's Second City

  • A rich, competitive, endlessly varied space to practice Improvisation, Sketch Comedy & Standup.

Go ahead and come up with your own laboratories to practice your soft skills in.

After your soft skill practice sessions ask yourself: What worked? What didn't? And Why?

So there you have it. We've had a look at how we should practice both the hard and the soft skills. Lets identifying some more of the Actor's Soft skills in the comments section below. Hit that like button. Share with your friends & enemies. Talk about it with your peers. The only way this blog gets out there is through word of mouth! So lets get those words mouthed.

NEXT WEEK: We cover the symbiosis of the Hard and the Soft skills. I also discuss which type of skill you should prioritise. Right now have a ponder 🤔 what do you think actors should prioritise? Hard? or Soft?

Talk soon,

Lachy

Disclaimer: The insights shared here are drawn from Daniel Coyle’s books 'The Talent Code' and 'The Little Book of Talent'. I’ve reinterpreted his findings through the lens of acting practice. I've also taken grabs here and there from his book 'The Little Book of Talent' to assist.

Lachlan is an Australian Actor who has been working within the industry for a decade. He’s worked in Film & Theatre.

© Lachlan Stuart 2025