If you run a business or if you are a team leader, you certainly have asked to yourself if you are a good leader to your team. Although some people saying that leadership skills are innate to some people, behavioral theories say that they can be taught and developed with experience.
The best leaders need to have some qualities to motivate their team members. If you want to know which are these skills, keep reading this article.
What is leadership?
If you are in a position where you need to manage a group of people, you need to become a good leader.Â
Leadership is the capacity of setting challenging goals and guide a team to achieve them.
Seeing trough this point it looks easy, however leadership is much more than this. A leader must have skills that help a team to keep motivated, it is working in collaboration with others, understanding perspectives and managing conflicts.
But what are the skills that a good leader needs to have?
Below, we defined 10 leadership skills that are crucial to become a good leader:
1. Communication
Leaders must be open-minded and ready to discussing issues and solving problems. They need good communication skills, however there is something more important than knowing what to say when it’s needed and that is listening.
You will be able to say the right things when you show yourself available to hear first. This way you will end up building empathy with others.
2. Delegation
More than doing things by yourself is knowing how to delegate work. A good leader knows exactly the strengths and weaknesses of their colleagues and will delegate work to ensure that the work is completed as a team.
Leaders also must elevate their tam and give everything they need to be successful.
The rule is to be more essential and less involved.
3. Confidence
Confidence is the key for a good leader. People understand lack of confidence and if you don’t even believe in yourself, how will other persons do it?
True leaders don’t just talk about problems, they take charge and come up with solutions fearlessly.
4. Positivity
Stressful times are really common in corporative environments and a positive mind provide extra support that people need in difficult times.
If you have the ability of managing stress and conflicts, transmitting positivity, know that you have this skill really well developed.
5. Vision
Vision is another skill that you must have to be a good leader. If the leader as the capacity to influence team members to understand the direction of the company and goals, then you are on the right path.
A good leader always reminds people the purpose of their job and challenges them to want more from themselves.
6. Motivation
A successful leader needs to have the capacity to motivate everyone around, even when things go wrong. Leaders motivate their teams to go extra mile and do better their jobs.
Rewarding your team members efforts and giving them the deserved recognition, help them to keep focused and wanting more and better results.
7. Empathy
Understanding and listening those around you is really important. Empathy is not about being just nice, is about being aware of what’s happening and not forgetting that your colleagues are just humans as you.Â
Being empathetic will help you to make better predictions, improve strategies or even increase creativity.
8. Resilience
Good leaders must adapt themselves to every situation. A good leader is  not someone that performs good during good times but someone that gives a step forward and produces when times get difficult, leading their teams, no matter the circumstances.
9. Responsibility
Since not everything is good, leaders have the responsibility of success but also of failures. So, a person with good leadership skills is prepared to take full responsibility in difficult times and to accept blame.
10. Creativity
Giving the best answers and the best solutions is not possible if you don’t use a little bit of creativity. Sometimes finding new ways of doing something is needed and only a true leader is capable of that.
If you have these skills and use them in your projects, you’re for sure a good leader but can you demonstrate them to others when it is needed?
Tip: Know how to show your leadership skills in interviews
It is not easy to show your skills and although you can list all of them, they need to be demonstrated. The best way to do it is by:
– Being consistent with what you say in your CV or the recruiters will understand the discrepancies.
– Giving real examples from your life, showing how you use the skills in real situations. Talk about a project that you led in school or even a successful job where you used that skills.
– Showing good communication skills and professionalism are also a must if you want to be seen as a leader.
By demonstrating these abilities and how you used your leadership skills, you are showing what they need in the company.
Do you have any of these skills and do you use them in your daily routines? Share with us some examples in the comments.
