According to the World Economic Forum, leadership skills are some of the most in-demand soft skills in today’s complex workplaces.
Strong leadership skills are not good-to-have – they are an absolute necessity. As workplaces continue to be disrupted, the need for effective leaders increases.
If you are starting your first job, charting your career, leading a team, or collaborating within a global organization, you need to demonstrate leadership skills. As you progress into leadership roles, it’s crucial to distinguish yourself as an effective leader who not only completes tasks but also meets objectives by developing leadership skills to work with anyone, anywhere, anytime.
Discover the 10 essential leadership skills that will set you apart and elevate your ability to lead effectively.
Do you know what the future workforce wants from their leaders?
Download the Leaders People Love Global Survey Report to find out.
10 Core Leadership Skills an Effective Leader Needs to Develop
1. Connect and Communicate Effectively
John Maxwell said a good leader communicates; a great leader connects. An effective leader often has a knack for working with people.
Strong communication skills are on top of the list of leadership and management skills I see leaders consistently need. In my professional coaching and training career, I’ve seen many who were impeded due to their lack of these essential skills.
Ultimately, communicating effectively with diverse team members and senior leaders is not easy. However, once leaders master this, the impact on their executive presence and influence is astounding.
Examine your communication skills now with these questions.
- How effective are you in engaging diverse audiences and workers?
- How do you measure success in communication?
- Going beyond words, what are your actions saying?
Leadership Storytelling will increase your communication mastery.
Check it out here.
2. Inspire Confidence
In a leadership role, a successful leader helps employees and team members sail through crises. One of the most important leadership skills great leaders need to develop is the ability to inspire confidence.
To do so, followers need to first trust the leader. That often means followers believe the leader is guided by values. For example, when the team faces challenges or takes risks, they feel confident and safe because the leader role models a learning focus instead of blaming others.
Some questions to help you develop your ability to inspire confidence.
- What’s your current leadership brand?
- How comfortable are you to share your vulnerability and stories of failure?
- How much do you know what motivates others, and leverage them to create a compelling WHY?
Discover how you can become a trustworthy leader with the Leader of Impact exercise. Complimentary with every purchase of Leaders People Love.
Making the vision clear is also one of the valuable leadership skills that successful leaders leverage to inspire confidence. Under the agile leadership framework, the skills are described under the category of the VISIONARY.
Related Post:
Leadership 4.0: Developing Agility By Listening To Five Of Your Inner Voices
3. Demonstrate Emotional Intelligence
Emotional intelligence is the ability to understand your emotions and the emotions of others. It is also the ability to manage those emotions within yourself and others.
This is one of the most fundamental leadership skills that can speed up your success. That is probably why many leadership programs begin with a ‘personal mastery’ segment because increasing self-awareness for leaders is an ongoing process.
When you demonstrate high emotional intelligence, you will be able to do the following:
- Recognize and validate emotions in yourself and others.
- Tailor your message to meet the emotional needs of your audience.
- Flex your range of leadership styles.
If you are new to this area – Here are five elements of emotional intelligence according to the American psychologist, Daniel Goleman.
Listen to our podcast interview with Seetha Cristian, Transformation Technology Leader, as she explores the importance of self-reflection.
Click here to tune in to the episode now.
i. Self-awareness
Being self-aware is about being aware of what your emotion is in the moment, why you feel it, or what triggered it.
Structured reflection time (for example: writing down your thoughts and feelings (in a diary or journal) can help you make sound decisions
ii. Self-management
You manage the emotions you discovered in your observation from the first step (why you feel that way and what triggered it) to prevent negative verbal or physical reactions.
Self-management is one of the leadership skills that help you stay calm in stressful situations and be accountable for your emotions. With self-management skills, you have great critical thinking skills.
iii. Self-motivation
Self-motivation, although considered a character trait, is also considered one of the leadership skills because it can be learned and applied in your organization/team.
A motivated team leader is like a spark that lights a fire – your high energy is infectious to your employees.
iv. Empathy
Effective leading is often done with empathy. Having empathy will gain the trust and loyalty of your team. Walking in their shoes helps you connect with employees authentically and validate their emotions – one of the critical leadership skills.
Developing leadership skills will help you have a dialogue with employees of various ages, cultures, genders, and backgrounds.
v. Social awareness (or social skills)
Leaders who are socially aware interact well with employees and others inside and outside of the organization/team.
One simple way to demonstrate leadership skills is by genuinely showing interest in others, actively listening to their stories, and giving honest feedback.
I recommend that you embark on building your emotional intelligence because Daniel Goleman has found that “emotional intelligence proved to be twice as important as other skills like technical skills and IQ, for jobs at all levels.”
4. Build Trust to Empower Members
“Leadership is an honest business,” said one of my clients, and indeed it is.
To lead with integrity and honesty is a crucial leadership skill needed to become successful leaders. Many people who are in leadership positions I know are guided by these great leadership values; Where they can easily accelerate their progress is by communicating such that these values are seen, felt, and understood by employees.
A study by Marcus Buckingham has recently found that leaders need to build more trust in the workplace. In his study, he found that employees do not fear change. On the contrary, what makes change management difficult for them is being kept in the dark.
In my practice, I have discovered that leading by vulnerability is a powerful skill to acquire. Consider how and why you can use the vulnerability to your advantage.
Tune into our podcast interview with Frank Koo, Head of Asia for LinkedIn Talent and Learning Solutions, as he delves into the concept of Selective Vulnerability.
Listen to the episode here.
5. Promote Healthy Failures for Disruptive Innovation
Successful companies are innovative. At the same time, the world’s largest companies are facing the threat of an increasing rate of constructive destruction. This means, that only the businesses that can learn fast, fail fast, and innovate will survive the constant waves of disruption. How you respond then, as a leader, in the face of ‘failures’ makes or breaks the innovative culture.
Some questions for you to reflect on:
- How do you show that you are comfortable with failure?
- What does failure mean?
- How will you manage the risks of each experiment?
We discuss how leaders can lower the fear of failure in their organizations in Leaders People Love, so be sure to check it out.
6. Expand Common Ground and Facilitate Conversations
A good leader understands the need to bring workplaces suitable for a diverse workforce. Multiple studies have shown that companies that employ people across genders, ethnicities, age groups, sexual orientations, and educational backgrounds operate more successfully than those that limit employees to one demographic.
In today’s business landscape, fostering common ground among stakeholders and leveraging their strengths and weaknesses are necessary for business leaders.
As challenges arise, mastering difficult conversations becomes crucial. By honing these skills, leaders empower organizations to navigate complexities and achieve substantial progress.
Check out the section on facilitating generative and inclusive conversations in Leaders People Love.
7. Make Difficult Conversations Easy
Managing conflicts in the office and difficult conversations is vital for leaders. That is why many leadership training programs include conflict management.
Leaders may be reluctant to confront deep-seated biases that are part of their organizational culture, but working on yourself first increases your courage to resolve such issues in the workplace. This is where strengthening the inner voice of the Captain through CliftonStrengths assessment and coaching is highly useful. You can leverage your innate talents to navigate conflicts, making difficult conversations more empathetic and effective.
You can consider learning coaching skills for managers for professional development or read about the Developer in Leaders People Love. These skills have been transformational for my clients.
8. Manage Attention (not Time)
We hear time management all the time. In my opinion, attention management raises leaders’ performance far more than time management. As my clients’ seniority grows, the more important it becomes to manage their attention.
Prioritizing and focusing your attention on what’s most important to your strategy will give you a long-term strategic advantage. When I’m coaching clients, I always see positive change when they manage their attention better.
Some key questions for your consideration:
- How can you accomplish more with less time?
- What’s your real responsibility as a leader?
- How can you motivate team leaders to develop good leadership skills?
Read the section on Strategist in Leaders People Love to gain more insights into managing your energy.
– If time were a field
– What’s your highest-yielding activity?
9. Empower Employees to Aim for Success
Delegation and empowerment might look like the same skill, but they are not identical.
Delegating and empowering are both important when in a business environment, but have different functions. When delegating tasks, it’s obligatory to assign people what they need to do. When you empower someone they become more motivated and creative.
Here’s a quote that defines empowerment more clearly:
“True leadership strengthens the followers. It is a process of teaching, setting an example, and empowering others. If you seek to lead, your ability will ultimately be measured in the successes of those around you.”
David Niven
Empowering employees is a key leadership skill that requires more than assigning tasks. Career development is increasingly important for employees today, so every task you assign must serve this purpose.
Consider these questions:
- What does your team feel interested in and want to learn?
- How will you delegate a task to develop your team or employee?
- What support will this employee need from you to be successful?
Enforcing vs Empowering from 8 Paradoxes of Leadership Agility
Read the paradox of Enforcing vs Empowering in my book, ‘8 Paradoxes of Leadership Agility’ to get more ideas and work through the exercises.
In Leaders People Love, I highlighted the importance for all leaders to become great teachers. You too, can benefit from developing skills that will transform your employees’ employability and become lifelong learners.
10. Deliver Constructive Feedback
Do you like feedback? What makes feedback effective and useful?
Constructive feedback should be specific and timely. It is important to acknowledge the good work that was done. When you are specific, you show that you are paying attention.
Research has shown that constructive feedback works best for employees when you give them in a timely manner. That means, do not wait till the annual performance review to do that because that tends to feel more judgmental instead of being developmental.
Similar to communication skills, delivering constructive feedback is both an art and a science. Find the best time – you do not want to do it during a company party or when an employee is dealing with a personal problem like a death in the family, a sickness, etc.
One thing is certain – employees who are looking for growth will appreciate that you are noticing them and giving them regular, constructive feedback that helps them grow.
Check out these articles too.
7 Critical Skills Leaders Need for Successful Management of Change
Effective Communication Skills for Managers in the Workplace and How to Improve Them
Effective Leadership Development Training Requires Intentional Design
All of these skills are necessary for effective leadership. They align with my Agile Leadership Framework and should be taken into consideration when you’re reviewing your programs to make sure they will help prepare your organization, business, etc., for success in the future.
In your decision-making process, carefully identify any gaps in skills or abilities in your existing programs and close the gaps. Ensure the new program you now design truly helps you develop your leadership pipeline because a strong core built upon the right vision, attitudes, and mindset will future-proof your organization.
Wondering how to design leadership development that works?
Read our blog here.
Ready to Take the Next Step?
Take advantage of Chuen Chuen’s extensive experience coaching leaders worldwide. Her deep expertise in designing agile leadership corporate training will benefit your teams. No matter which stage of leadership you are at, we’ll partner with you and meet your business needs.
Explore our executive coaching programs, and corporate training courses. You can also hire Chuen Chuen as your speaker at events so that your organization will become agile, adaptive, and future-resilient.
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