20 Indispensable Leadership Skills

Wouldn't you love to be a great leader? Would you like to know good a leader you are now? Wouldn't you love to better yourself? If the answer to these questions is "yes", then you have come to the right place. Here is a check list of 20 indispensable leadership skills for you. Compare yourself honestly to each skill given here, and see whether you feel it rings true in your case. The more of these you have, the better your leadership skills are are. And even if you may not have many of these qualities, improving your leadership skills is just a matter of adding all these skills to your arsenal, and constantly polishing them.



1. Ethics and Values: Being a great leader involves having great ethics and values. If you are out to cheat and manipulate people, then your fan following would be an ever-thinning one. It is important for every great leader to have honesty, integrity, compassion and courage.


2. Respect and Trust: People are only naturally drawn to leaders who they trust and respect. Fear and control based leadership could get you some followers in the short-term, but loyalty wouldn't be their top quality. To build a loyal team, be someone who can be trusted and respected.


3. Confidence: Self-confidence and assertiveness attract people like a magnet. Develop your self confidence and assertiveness, and you can be a leader.


4. Decisiveness: Leaders need to make tough decisions in tough times. Hone your decision-making skills. Learn to be calm under pressure. People will naturally look up to you and want to be led by you.


5. Delegation: You cannot do everything just because you are a leader. You need to delegate tasks effectively. Know your team. Know each member's strengths and weaknesses and delegate responsibilities accordingly. This will make your team members feel appreciated and recognised.


6. Communication skills: Improve your communication skills. Always communicate your vision, goals, plans, strategies, potential problems and expectations to the team members. Get input from your team. Listen, ask suggestions, convey, involve, co-operate. There is no need to be a know-it-all; be open to contributions.


7. Appreciation: A great leader values each team member and makes each team member feel valued. Each member of the team feels their role is important and appreciated. Praise in public and criticize in private.


8. Handling Successes and Failures: It is very important that a great leader should know how to handle each success and failure. Celebrate your successes, learn from your failures and move forward. Remember - whenever your team has a success, attribute it to the entire team. When your team faces a failure, accept responsibility for the failure.


9. Emotional mastery: A great leader has a great control over his/her emotions. S/he is not given to temper tantrums, yelling spells, name calling, nervous breakdowns or guilt trips. Keep your emotions under check. Never ever lose your cool. Calmness is an extremely important trait of a great leader. Develop a high EQ (emotional quotient).


10. Planning skills: A leader is expected to formulate strategies, plan and organize. Hence, polishing your planning and organizing skills is inevitable when one aims to be a great leader. Time management is yet another vital skill you would need.


11. Conflict management: Having a skill to manage and resolve conflicts is a great skill for any great leader. The leader has to be an expert in interpersonal conflict management if s/he aims to succeed.


12. Change management: Often, a leader's skills are called to play when there is a major change in the offing. The leader has to be open to change and adaptable. And it is the duty of the leader to convey the details of the change to the team, address their concerns, provide necessary support and work with the team to make the transition as smooth as possible.


13. Knowledge: A great leader has a good deal of knowledge about the task at hand. S/he continuously educates herself/himself, and is always aware of the goings-on. It is not necessary to know everything (although that helps ;) ) but a good working knowledge is essential. You cannot expect to lead a team of chefs if you cannot tell one vegetable from the other.


14. Admit mistakes: Everyone makes mistakes. That is probably the oldest cliche there is, but is true nonetheless. If you made a move and it turned out to be a disaster, then admit it. People generally forgive mistakes, but not cover-ups. Learn from your mistakes and move on.


15. Self-improvement: A real leader constantly commits himself/herself to self improvement. It is journey you must take pride in, and feel good about. Make sure that each day the world sees you a little better than the previous day.


16. Team player: A great leader is also a great team player. S/he always puts the team's interest before her/his own. S/he is willing to forego personal accomplishments for the benefit of the team.


17. Positivity: A leader should be very positive and should be able to convey it to the team. His/her statements should reflect optimism and positivity, both in good times and, perhaps even more importantly, in bad times.


18. Pleasant demeaneour: Being pleasant and approchable is very important. If you are rude and distant, your team will probably isolate you, and with good reason.


19. Informality: Sometimes informal environments are very productive. Get to know your team personally. If you control a really vast organization, it would still be helpful if you can do small yet touching things for your employees - like for example you could remember the name of a junior member you came to know briefly, and address him/her by name the next time you meet. Remembering names is a very useful skill. If your environment is really rigid or formal, you could still arrange informal outings and fun celebrations and contests.


20. Health: While this may seem a little out of place, but having a healthy body is important when you are a leader. If you have an over-weight or uncared-for body, it can subconsciously create a feeling of irresponsibility about you in the minds of people who associate with you. Maintain peak health and balance your life.




These 20 skills, when mastered, produces a killer combination in you which automatically propels you to leadership. It takes effort and time, but it is very much worth it and it can be done by anyone. Leadership skills are a very important facet of personality development, so go grab the skills now!



Thank you!