The goal of the article is to analyze the development of the professional competency of leadership through the development of soft skills in the students of Russian engineering universities on the example of the Moscow Polytechnic University. The most demanded and dynamic part of the labor market is currently represented by engineering specialists. However, successful professional and career growth, as well as the effective development of human capital as the main resource of the innovative development of modern society, requires a combination of engineering (hard skills) and humanitarian (soft skills) abilities in a specialist. The development of many socially significant processes in modern society demonstrates aggravated contradictions and the development of new realization trends many of which are associated with changes in the parameters of these processes which, in turn, is determined by the mass implementation of innovative digital technologies and globalization processes. Globalization as a process ensuring the accessibility and openness of information has a significant impact on the transformation of national values within a country in favor of the emergence of global social, moral, and legal values and social behavior norms in the field of political and state power, as well as the economy. Leadership as a social phenomenon bearing the main load of managing all socially significant processes is also changing. Leadership as a social phenomenon is subject to constant scientific study and analysis. For this purpose, the GLOBE (Global Leadership and Organization Behavior Effectiveness) International Research Program was created. The GLOBE program coordinates the study of leadership in more than 60 countries which also supports the relevance of researching the phenomenon of leadership. In the professional activity, leadership manifests through the “leadership qualities” competency.