Soft man, extremely likable (6)
I believe the answer is:
gentle
'soft' is the definition.
(I know that soft can be written as gentle)
'man extremely likable' is the wordplay.
'man' becomes 'gent' (gent is a kind of man).
'extremely' means to remove the middle letters (only the extremes of the word are used).
'likable' with its centre taken out is 'le'.
'gent'+'le'='GENTLE'
(Other definitions for gentle that I've seen before include "'Mild, soft, tender (6)'" , "Soft and mild, quiet and soothing" , "that may help angler catch fish" , "bait used by anglers" , "Mild, not rough" .)