Employability Skills: Leadership

How to Develop Leadership Skills to Succeed at Your Workplace

Did you know that even footballers have to possess leadership skills in order to be successful in their game? Whether it is Messi or Ronaldo or Neymar, communication, team building, time management and the ability to make quick decisions are helping them stay ahead in their game and be effective leaders.

Irrespective of which field you choose to work in, certain leadership skills are essential for success. Also, the use of leadership skills is not only for coaches or managers or team leads or senior employees.

Every job role or title demands dealing with various situations and different types of people at the workplace and developing leadership skills will help you do it. Remember, no one is born a leader. Everyone, including you, can develop leadership skills.

Below are ways you can learn and develop leadership skills that will help you become successful individuals and leaders at your workplace.

Be a Good Communicator: Effective communication plays a huge role in the ability to influence your coworkers to work in collaboration towards achieving better results for the organization.

• Always communicate efficiently to your team members. Instead of speaking at length, be concise and maintain interest in what you have to say.
• Be persuasive where required. It will improve your negotiation skills.
• Speak clearly and pause where required. Show your energy and enthusiasm for your work through your choice of words and style of speech.
• Be patient and listen to others. Active listening skills, maintaining eye contact and responding appropriately are part of being a good communicator.
• Learn to be adept at using technology, such as mobile phones, emails and social media, to communicate instantly.
• Improve your writing skills too in order to communicate well.

Be Persistent: When things are not working out, do not give up easily. Always follow through what you have agreed to do.

• You can work hard and be persistent until you achieve your goals.
• This shows your commitment, courage and focus along with self-discipline.
• It goes without saying that you have to be well-planned and organized in your work.
• Ask for more resources or support when you require help with any problems.
• Stay goal-oriented, develop plans and strategies to achieve your objectives.

Be Positive: Being positive instills confidence to make the right decisions and builds courage not only to take initiatives, but also to take risks even under pressure.

• Maintain a positive attitude not just in times of success but in times of failure as well.

• Treat failures as stepping stones and boost the morale of your team by staying optimistic.
• If something doesn’t go well, do not blame others. You can think of alternate ways to achieve your goals and work with your team in a positive manner to resolve the issues.
• Staying positive will earn you respect and encourage your team members to work harder.
• It will help you to be empathetic and friendly during conflicts at work.

Accept Challenges: Do not let go of opportunities.

• You must challenge yourself and embrace new opportunities that come your way.
• Learn to delegate work where required and empower your teammates.
• This increases your sense of responsibility and helps in being accountable.
• Accept feedback and work on them.
• Learn to share your vision with your team and motivate others to take initiative and action.

Be Flexible: Always be willing adapt and change according to the changing environment or requirements.

• You should accept any last-minute changes and deal with decisions that need to be taken suddenly.
• Be open-minded to try new ideas and suggestions from others.
• Be willing to learn from others on the team.

Be Creative: A good leader should also be creative. Core employability skills includes creativity as a main skill required to succeed at the workplace.

• Develop your problem-solving ability through creative thinking in addition to critical thinking.
• Approach problems in unconventional ways.
• Recognize possibilities for improving any situation and adapt creatively to deal with it.

Become Self-Aware: Self-awareness helps you analyze your actions and improve yourself to be a better person and leader.

• Accept who you are, your knowledge and competency as well as your limitations.
• Be aware of your strengths and your weaknesses.
• It will help you to be a caring individual who is empathetic and sensitive to the needs to coworkers.

Become Culturally Aware: Being inclusive, culturally aware and accepting of people from all walks of life will enable you to be a more compassionate and empathetic leader.

• This is important for you in developing collaboration – building connections and network, developing a good working relationship with customers and at the workplace.
• It helps you earn the respect and trust of your team members.

Be Humble: Your integrity, honesty and transparency in all your actions is equally important as your humility.

• Being modest and letting your team take credit for good work is an essential quality in a leader.
• Your character and personality traits along with your morals and values will help influence the team to do better.

As you can see, most of the traits to develop leadership skills are interlinked. So, do your best and work on each of them within a given situation to develop these skills effectively.

What are your thoughts about the various leadership skills outlined above? Let us know the challenges you face in your work environment and how you would apply these skills to effectively resolve those challenges.