13 leadership skills you need to lead your team successfully

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Powerful Leadership Skills

“Leadership is hard to define and good leadership even harder. But if you can get people to follow you to the ends of the earth, you are a great leader.”Indra Nooyi, former chairperson and CEO of PepsiCo

Apart from the obvious difference in leadership skills, the main difference between a leader and a manager is people follow a manager because they have to, but they follow a leader because they want to.

In both cases, the team follows the person in charge for guidance. But this minute difference in how a team perceives the person in charge makes a whole world of impact.

Under a leader, the team is happy, trusts their leader, and is willing to go the extra mile. On the other hand, under a manager who is not a good people leader, the team is frightened, hides things from the manager, and just wants to do the work that helps them survive the job.          

And it is not a secret that happy people are the best people for a business. It is because they are productive, feel a part of the company, and want to contribute to achieving business goals.        

If you are an emerging entrepreneur who is newly leading a team, or a working professional eyeing a leadership position in your current company, you must build leadership skills that help you perform your duties better.

What are leadership skills?

Leadership skills are the abilities that empower you to guide people and make them work together to move toward a common objective.

A leader has to perform a range of duties in day-to-day life: strategic planning, coordinating people, communicating goals, making decisions, delegating tasks, and more.

Leader skills help you in the smooth conduct of your duties. It makes you a desirable person in the workplace. Let’s have a look at the core leadership skills list.

Top 13 leadership skills every leader needs in the workplace  

Leadership skills are the set of soft skills that help you effectively manage people and make decisions. 

Here is the list of the top 13 important leadership skills that you need in the workplace to become an effective leader:     

1. Effective communication

One common quality of all good leaders is that they are very good speakers. They are capable of moving the masses with their speech. A leader needs to have good communication skills in the workplace.

It helps you effectively deliver the message, explain the vision, and share information with the team to work together effectively on a project.

Usually, the emphasis is on the verbal communication skills. But in the age of remote working, written communication skills have also become equally important for collaboration. Thus, a leader should be good in both modes of communication.

Apart from that, as a leader, you should be aware of non-verbal communication that communicates through body language, facial expressions, and tone.

How to improve

Read more: 13 Best Internal Communication Tools To Boost Collaboration

2. Active listening

The golden rule of good communication is active listening. Without the ability to listen, it is hard to become a good leader. It is because listening provides you the opportunity to understand others. And a leader needs to understand their people for the right decision-making. 

If you are a good listener, it also helps you understand your client, market, industry, and projects better. This is one of the core skills a leader should have.

Paired with compassion, it also helps in conflict resolution as you can understand the arguments of all parties involved.   

How to improve 

3. Decision-making  

An average adult makes 36,000 decisions in a day

I am not saying they all are related to work, but a leader has to make a decent number of decisions in a day. Without the comprehensive ability to think, it is hard for a leader to make rational decisions. Thus, you need good decision-making and strategic thinking skills. 

For that, you need good analytical thinking skills and critical thinking skills. 

Analytical thinking is defined as the ability to find an outcome based on the data gathered by analyzing it. Whereas, the purpose of critical thinking is to make a judgment based on analysis, reasoning, and logic.

The major difference between the two examples of leadership skills is that you do not question data, identify biases, and try to think objectively in analytical thinking. But in critical thinking, you weigh evidence carefully, analyze information from multiple perspectives, and consider different points of view. 

Both form the basis of problem-solving and decision-making skills of leadership.     

How to improve 

4. Delegation  

A leader cannot do everything on their own even if they want. Thus, one of the most basic skills needed to be a leader is to delegate tasks. It helps you shed some burden off your shoulders, utilize resources efficiently, and save time to focus on more important tasks. This results in effective time management and stress management.

But you might be surprised to know that only 30% of the people who are in charge of employees believe they delegate well. Thus, you need to learn the art of delegating.

It includes identifying who on the team is best suited for new accountabilities. For that, you need to know the skills of each of your employees and assign duties accordingly.

How to improve  

Read more: Top 21 Best Task Management Tools & Software

5. Emotional intelligence     

Emotional intelligence is defined as the ability of an individual to understand their own emotions and the emotions of others. It is one of the most desired skills for leadership. It is because you have to deal with people and resolve conflicts in the leadership position.

Without understanding others’ emotions, it gets hard for you to respond to emotions appropriately and make decisions.

For example, in the case of a high-stakes conflict of interest between two senior members of the same team, you cannot simply say one is right and another is wrong based on the surficial facts. 

You need to understand the emotions behind the actions of both team members. And then try to find the solution after evaluation of their differences for effective conflict management. 

In these situations, emotional intelligence also helps you manage your emotions better.    

How to improve 

6. Coaching and mentoring

Training employees is an important part of the role of the leader. It is because you want to create capable employees that can make your life easier. Thus, you need to have good coaching and mentoring skills as a leader for the leadership development of other employees.   

This ability to coach allows you to teach new skills to your employees. This empowers employees to take care of the increasing responsibilities and makes your life easy.

I have a team of managers and team leads who are good leaders. It makes life significantly easier in the workplace. I do not have to be involved in micromanagement.

How to improve  

7. Positive attitude

The role of a leader is not restricted only to their responsibilities. Employees look up to their leader for guidance, motivation, and inspiration. Thus, a leader needs to have the right and positive attitude. Because it is going to impact everyone in the organization. 

For example, if a leader complains about everything and starts blaming when something goes wrong, this creates an unreliable and negative environment in the organization. It also hampers your relationship with the team.

On the other hand, if a leader has positivity in attitude and takes responsibility, this creates a positive and uplifting environment. Your team tries to find solutions to problems. And it helps in relationship-building with the team.  

The attitude of the leader has a significant impact on employee engagement, employee motivation, and employee experience of the organization.  

How to improve:  

8. Adaptability and flexibility

Things rarely go as planned. There is always an element of uncertainty involved in the real world. Adaptability and flexibility are the business leadership skills that you need to build an agile mindset. 

Adaptability ensures that you are capable of changing to adjust to new conditions. Whereas, flexibility ensures you have the mindset to be able to change or adapt. It means if a situation demands you to do more or less, rather than sticking to your prejudices you are capable of responding to changing requirements. 

How to improve  

9. Negotiation 

Negotiation is among the list of leadership skills that most good leaders have. It is a skill that allows you to find a solution that is acceptable to all parties.

A leader has to be involved in many negotiations in everyday life. And sometimes negotiations are of high stake. 

For example, suppose you are raising funding from investors in exchange for equity. In that case, you need good negotiation and persuasion skills to ensure you close a favorable deal that is beneficial for you and agreed upon by all the parties.

How to improve

10. Self-awareness

Self-awareness is defined as your ability to understand your feelings, personality, behaviors, character, and desires. It helps you understand how you respond to different situations in life and why you do what you do.     

Someone with good self-awareness knows what path they are going and is focused on it. It helps a lot in leadership because you are often flooded with influences and suggestions from all around. With good self-awareness comes self-reflection and self-assessment. And you make decisions that are best for you. 

How to improve

11. Creativity and vision

The reason people follow a leader is because they provide the solution to the problem that others are not able to figure out on their own. Thus, you need to have creative thinking and a visionary mindset to become a good leader. 

You should be able to think out of the box with innovation or see a problem in a unique way to find solutions that are not visible. Also, being a visionary means you need to take risks or go on paths that were not explored earlier. You need to have good risk management skills and courage. 

How to improve 

Ready to Minimize Risks? Discover the ideal risk management software for your needs!

12. Resilience 

It is hard to find a great leader who does not fail miserably. Thus, you need to be resilient as a leader. You have to go through tough times and challenging situations. Resilience is a capability that allows you to withstand failure and bounce back. 

Paired with a positive attitude and confidence, resilience helps you to bounce back. And when you come out of tough times as a team, it helps in strong team building for a long time.

How to improve  

13. Feedback      

75% of employees believe that feedback is valuable in improving performance. In another independent survey, 92% of employees believe that when negative feedback is delivered appropriately, it is effective at improving performance. 

Thus, you should know how to give feedback to your employees. It is one of the most effective leadership skills because feedback provides you with an opportunity to make improvements. If something is not going well, feedback is the way to make improvements. 

Not just that, if you want to improve as a leader, feedback acts as a great source of insights from the employees to make improvements. It requires open-mindedness and social skills to receive feedback positively. 

How to improve  

Do you know performance management tools can help you streamline the feedback process? Check out the top 11 performance management tools

What more do you need to develop leadership skills?

Some people are natural leaders. But the good thing is you can build key leadership skills with the right understanding, knowledge, and approach. Here is how you can develop top leadership skills to become an effective leader:   

1. Gain knowledge 

The first step to developing leadership skills is to gain knowledge. There are hundreds of books, blogs, articles, seminars, podcasts, and influencers that can help you learn the foundational concepts of leadership. Gain knowledge to understand different leadership styles and discover what kind of leader you are.   

2. Find a coach or training program  

If you need a formalized structure of learning, it is a great idea to find a coach or training program. It will help you with personalized learning. Also, when you are in the presence of a mentor, you learn a lot from informal interactions. First-hand experience helps you in learning the intricacies of leadership.

3. Seek opportunities to lead in the workplace 

Every manager loves to have a team member who is eager to do more and learn. Ask your manager for increasing responsibilities apart from your regular work. Show your willingness and share with your seniors that you are eager to grow your leadership abilities. This will help you get real-life exposure to strategic leadership and strategic management. 

Lead from the front to become a great manager

You are as good as the people who work for you. But in the absence of quality leadership, even the best assets are not able to perform. Quality leadership ensures your team trusts you, is happy working as a team, enjoying their work, and is willing to go the extra mile if required.

Being a leader, it is your responsibility to ensure that you perform your duties appropriately. Building core leadership skills is a good step towards it. 

Read more similar articles to master your role as a manager:

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FAQs

What is the difference between a leader and a manager?

The main difference between a leader and a manager is that the workforce follows a leader because they want to, and follows a manager because they have to. A leader is someone who gains the trust of the team following them.

What are the 7 core skills of a leader?

The seven core skills of a leader include communication, decision-making, conflict resolution, relationship-building, negotiation, creativity, and delegation.

How do you develop employee leadership skills?

The best way to develop employee leadership skills is to train them and provide them the opportunity to lead. Paired with learning resources, it can help employees develop leadership skills.

What are the effects of poor leadership?

The most prominent effects of poor leadership are a lack of sense of ownership, disengagement from the work, and lack of motivation. This leads to decreased productivity and wasted efforts, time, and money.

What are the signs of poor leadership in the workplace?

The top signs of poor leadership in the workplace include poor communication, lack of accountability, and misuse of authority. People under a poor leader are misguided and frightened.

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