The Great Leader: Improving Leadership Skills

Leadership skills can play a large role in career development. Leaders provide direction; they keep themselves and everyone else rowing the boat in a coordinated rhythm towards a clear destination. As a leader, the ability to ask yourself how you can find ways to empower and inspire your team is one of the most genuine examples of leadership skills.

“A leader is the one, who knows the way, goes the way and show the way”

— John C. Maxwell

A good leader should understand the mission statements, objectives, action plans and goals of the company to be able to lead your workforce into realizing them. There are several benefits of leadership qualities and skills.

• Improved productivity of the workforce
• Improved ability to succeed under pressure
• Increased emotional intelligence
• Improved charisma and seriousness in business operations
• Growth in confidence in your team
• Improved listening and communication skills
• Increased awareness of diversity in the workforce
• Improved innovation and creativeness
• A dependable, reliable and competent workforce

Leadership skills are important in any organization since they facilitate a strong team and the ability to get tasks done efficiently. Developing leadership skills can make a transformation to your professional and personal life. There are many different types of leadership, and there are many skill sets that can help you become a successful leader. Here are are some tips on how to develop your leadership skills:

Be an Inspiration

Being a good leader depends on how you get things done. A leader should be able to motivate others and drive them to do their best in the worst situations. The best way to become a great leader is to train yourself to become a better person, not only help others learn and grow but also make sure you learn and grow as the organization grows.

Keep Learning

Some say that some people are born leaders. But, experience also makes good leaders. A great way to develop your leadership skills is to take on more responsibility: with responsibilities comes more experience.

Communicate, Communicate, Communicate

Communication is one of the most powerful tools. A good communicator is not just a great speaker but a great listener too so that nothing said can get misunderstood or misinterpreted.

Always see the Bigger Picture

As a good leader, you must have the ability to overcome unpredictable challenges. A trait of a good leader is the ability to see the bigger picture and foresee problems before they occur. The ability to foresee and provide suggestions for avoiding potential problems is invaluable for a leader.

Let Your Actions Speak for you

You will probably remember a good leader but a great leader is truly unforgettable. A great leader is someone who leads their team and motivates them to perform at their best, but he is also someone who challenges them and persuades them to move out of their comfort zone and at the same time make them work as a team. A great leader is someone who helps the team member grow personally and professionally, strategically nurtures future leaders, and at the same time realizes the importance of providing emotional support at the right time. Strong leaders aren’t defined by popularity, external power or influence. Leadership has nothing to do with the title. A true leader does not desire power and control over others. Rather, a strong leader marks their success by the number of people they inspire and empower. They do this not by force, intimidation or coercion, nor byway of their name, position or rank. They do so through their actions, and by demonstrating their personal power, values and integrity at all times. A great leader is not someone who brings out the best from the best, but someone who has the ability to bring out the best form the worst.

What makes a Strong Leader

“If your action inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more  you are a leader”

— John Quincy Adams

Developing Personal Responsibility and Self-Discipline

To become a better leader, you need to fully understand and have a leadership of yourself. Being a strong leader also means practicing and developing self-discipline in order that one’s decisions and actions are undertaken in an unbiased and controlled manner, and that one is always fully aware of and prepared for the consequence of those actions and decisions.

Learning to Fail Gracefully

A strong leader isn’t afraid or ashamed to fail, and instead fully examines the losses, scouring them thoroughly for opportunities for learning, making adjustments and improvements for the future. A leader refuses to let the value of their mistakes pass them by.

Practicing Careful and Active Listening

When a good leader practices active listening, they foster respect in those they are leading, but they also gain from the wisdom that is inherent in each and every person.

Developing Well-Roundedness

Being well-rounded in one’s scope of experience and skills also means one will be better able to relate with, understand, and therefore lead a broader spectrum of people. The important key to success as a leader in any arena is developing multiple areas of competence,

Building Resilience

By always striving to increase and diversity of their knowledge and competence, a good leader builds resilience in the face of hardship. Resilience is a set of qualities and character traits that allows us to remain flexible in times of change, to bend instead of breaking when we are faced with stresses and challenges, and to endure and overcome life’s inevitable hardships and failures.

Developing Leadership Presence

To be an effective leader, one must gain the respect of others. You cannot hope to inspire loyalty, honesty, and respect in others if you do not behave in a manner that is honest, loyal and respectful.

Identifying and Fostering Leadership in Others

People who take directions and run the minute operations of complicated processes literally make the world run. The role of the leader is primarily to mentor, delegate and direct others. Vitally important to make themselves redundant by creating new leaders who can eventually step into the role they currently occupy.

Understanding Persuasion

A leader understands that all people, including themselves, are emotional creatures, and that they will not respond positively to instructions, information or guidance to which they feel hostility, confusion or doubt. A strong leader also understands what motivates others to want to help them in their causes and strives to encourage others by building their confidence and bringing out their best qualities.

Managing Personal Resources

Good leaders take care of themselves physically, mentally and emotionally, and are careful not to overload themselves. Those determined to master the art of leadership recognize that their personal resources–their energy, emotions, and minds–are not limitless, and need to be recharged on a regular basis.

Always seeing the bigger Picture

Leaders always endeavor to think in terms of the bigger picture, keeping a bird’s eye view of the events and happenings of the day-to-day so as not to lose sight of the larger goal.