Any employee with a supervisor will be the first to confirm that some people lead effectively and some do not. The difference has a lot to do with leadership style and leadership skills, the soft stuff that allows some to connect while others flounder.
Unlike marketing or accounting, leadership skills are not easily learned from a book or class. Some people never fully understand how to lead people effectively. The good news is that those that consistently work at it do well as leaders.
Here are 7 essential skills good leaders need:
1. Inspiration
Leaders have been described as people who can get things done through other people who normally wouldn’t do those actions independently. This ability is known as inspiring people.
A lot of managers think they have this skill but easily confuse it with direction. The irony is that where true inspiration exists, minimal direction from a leader is necessary.
A key factor of inspiration involves getting people to own their work and become emotionally invested in it. A synergy is developed between a leader and staff that produces high productivity, performance, and morale when this occurs.
2. Self-Confidence
Leaders have one particular trait in common – self-confidence. They know where they are going, and they believe they will get to that destination. This belief drives followers to go in the same direction, often without question, because the exuded confidence carries the group.
Very few leaders can carry a group forward, much less maintain that following without outward confidence. Staff members who realize a manager has no self-confidence quickly begin to distance themselves from them.
3. Admitting Mistakes
Good leaders are willing and ready to admit when they have made a mistake. Admitting error is part of being human, and people respect it as a higher level of management. Of course, a skilled manager isn’t making mistakes right and left. He has a general ability to excel most of the time.
A good leader has the humility to see when a real mistake has been made and a correction is necessary. Rather than hiding the situation, the leader embraces the problem in front of the staff and makes a correction that everyone sees and understands.
4. Delegating
An effective leader doesn’t micromanage or try to do everything himself. He uses his staff and delegates tasks so that multiple hands perform the activities and produce the desired results. Delegation is critical both for the survival of a supervisor and the success of a leader.
Many managers hold onto important tasks, believing critical tasks have to be personally performed. This leads to burnout and a lack of support by staff who feel they are underutilized and not valued. The delegation has the opposite effect, saving the leader’s energy and empowering staff with responsibility.
5. Learning from Others
Smart leaders don’t let their ego get in front of their ability and opportunity to learn from others and their environment. By always engaging in new aspects and concepts, a leader can continually expand his knowledge.
This makes him wiser, more experienced, and smarter. The concepts picked broaden his ability to solve problems and issues as they arise again and again.
A good leader should compare where he is today versus a few years before and realize there is a huge difference in capacity and capability. If the leader thinks he’s the same, then he stopped learning a long time ago.
6. Developing Others
Influential leaders make a point of identifying the best qualities in team members and helping those folks bring out their best performance.
This support, better known as mentoring, not only teaches team members how to do their jobs better, but it provides them specialized attention, which staff appreciates. The result tends to be gratitude and improved loyalty.
7. Knowing When to Follow
Wise leaders realize when one of their staff has the best approach and perspective. The great leader steps aside and lets that person take the point position. This skill of knowing when to follow rather than always being out in front provides a key element of maturity that staff recognizes and respect.
It empowers them to excel, and it acknowledges their skill when they have shown they are ready to perform. The leader then creates deeper relationships with his staff as a result.
Evolving Leadership Skills
Ideally, the best leader has all of the above leadership skills nailed down. In reality, leaders have varying degrees of leadership skills and have to learn the rest. They are good in some areas and have a lot of work to do in other areas. At the same time, their leadership style is evolving through experience.
The leaders that move forward are the ones who are willing to work at learning and constantly adding to their portfolio of leadership skills and tools that improve the relationship between them and their followers.
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