What are the Most Important Leadership Skills?

What are the most important leadership skills?

The ten most important leadership skills are as follows:

1. Personal initiative.
2. Goal setting.
3. Effective communication.
4. Strategic planning.
5. Decision making.
6. Delegating.
7. Selecting the right people to join the team.
8. Self-belief.
9. Persistence.
10. The ability to inspire confidence and motivation in other people.

1. Personal initiative.

Personal initiative is the habit of acting, BEFORE anyone asks you to, and BEFORE action is required.

Non-leaders lack personal initiative. They act only when someone tells them, or when the situation has become so desperate, that they need to act to avoid a crisis.

On the other hand, leaders always are ready to act on their own will. They do not wait to be told.

It is the possession of a Strong Will that sets apart the leaders from the non-leaders.

Therefore, if you want to be a leader, consciously develop your sense of will.

2. Goal setting

Leaders must lead people somewhere.

Therefore, they need to decide what the goal is to be. Success means, the achievement of a valuable goal. Therefore, to be successful, the first task of a leader is to set a worthwhile and valuable goal.

If you want to develop your leadership skills, develop your goal setting skills.

3. Effective communication.

Leaders need to gain the willing cooperation of others. And in order to do that, leaders need to develop effective communication skills. It is interesting to note a list of the great communicators and a list of the great leaders, have many names in common.

If you want to be a leader, develop your communication skills. That includes the effective use of language, body language, voice tones and written communications.

4. Strategic planning.

A goal requires a plan capable of achieving it. Therefore, leaders need to develop good strategic planning skills. They need to plan and communicate the strategy to their subordinate colleagues. Leaders who make strategic errors, fail.

If you want to be a good leader, then learn to think LONG range.

5. Decision making.

Your life runs on your capacity to make the right decisions. YOU make decisions all the time, and your ultimate success is dependent on you making the right decisions.
There are many types of decision: Yes or No? Which one? What Kind? and Priority order decisions.

Leaders are willing to make a decision and willing to act on them once they are made.

NON leaders fail to make decisions, and fudge and delay the decision-making process until progress grinds to a halt.

If you want to be a good leader, practice making decisions, and have the courage to act on them once they are made.

6. Delegating.

Leaders don't try to do everything themselves. Instead they delegate the work to the right person, at the right time.

7. Selecting the right people to join the team.

In order to delegate to the right person, a leader must have selected the right people to join the team.

Leaders are good judges of ability and character. They need to be, because they need to trust their subordinates to organise the resources effectively.

If you would be a leader, study people and try to discern the good from the not so good.

8. Self-belief.

All leaders need self-belief because it takes a certain confidence to assume that other people will follow your vision and carry out your strategy. If you don't have sufficient self-belief in your abilities, then you can never act as a leader.

If you want to be a leader, consciously build up your levels of self-belief.

9. Persistence.

No great task was accomplished without many setbacks and defeats along the way. Leaders need to be persistent. They need to bounce back quickly and recover their composure after a setback or defeat. And they need to be back at their desk, the next morning ready for another crack at the goal.

10. The ability to inspire confidence and motivation in other people.

When you combine the above list of nine skills, you will be ready to do the last: inspire the others.

There are three types of people in the world.

1. Those who inspire others,
2. Those who don't.
3. Those who cause people to lose heart.

Obviously, leaders fit into the first category.

If you want to be a leader, ensure that the majority share of your spoken language presupposes a better future.

Then you will inspire others.

Definition: leadership skill

In business and management, a leadership skill is a learned ability that lets a person guide others to a shared goal, shapes clear plans and actions, wins willing support from the team, and keeps group progress steady when things change. Without all four traits, the ability is not a true leadership skill.

Article Summary

Leaders act first, set clear goals, speak with purpose and craft smart plans; hone initiative, goal setting, communication, strategic thinking, decision making, delegation, talent choice, self-belief, persistence and inspiration to guide any team towards lasting success.

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About the Author: Chris Farmer

Chris Farmer is the founder of the Corporate Coach Group and has many years' experience in training leaders and managers, in both the public and private sectors, to achieve their organisational goals, especially during tough economic times. He is also well aware of the disciplines and problems associated with running a business.

Over the years, Chris has designed and delivered thousands of training programmes and has coached and motivated many management teams, groups and individuals. His training programmes are both structured and clear, designed to help delegates organise their thinking and, wherever necessary, to improve their techniques and skills.

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