What Are Leadership Skills, and Why Are They Important?

Leadership skills are the qualities individuals in influential roles possess to direct and complete tasks, support initiatives, create a sense of unity within a team, and empower others. Learn about these key leadership skills and how you can benefit from developing them.

What is meant by leadership skills?

Leadership skills include the abilities or strengths shown by people in management roles that guide and encourage a group of people and their team to achieve a common goal or set of goals. These skill-sets include communication, negotiation, conflict resolution, and decision-making.

Examples of leadership skills

Having a few examples to refer to to gain a deeper understanding of leadership skills can be helpful. Here are some popular leadership qualities companies may value and look for in a candidate.

Communication

When you work in a leadership position, you must clearly explain everything from expectations to goals and tasks. Establishing open communication between yourself and your team members is also important. Creating an environment of open communication promotes cohesiveness as a team and often encourages an atmosphere of transparency. Excellent communication considers not only what you communicate but how you communicate it. 

As an effective communicator, you do more than just clearly verbalise expectations. You also incorporate active listening, nonverbal communication, presentation skills, and engaging public speaking.

Negotiation

Negotiation involves two or more parties engaging in a conversation to find a solution acceptable to all parties. As a result, you and the person you are negotiating with may reach a formal agreement, such as a contract or a less formal verbal agreement. When used as a leadership skill, negotiation can foster a sense of fairness and equality, allowing all parties to have a voice and feel heard. Employees and coworkers may be more likely to feel understood when you handle conflicts with negotiation.

Effective negotiation involves understanding the interests of all parties and working to reach a solution that satisfies each one.

Conflict resolution

Compelling leaders understand how to avoid disputes and can resolve them quickly. Ideally, as a good leader, you should be able to maintain your composure and make thoughtful decisions when handling disagreements. A great example of conflict resolution is a human resources (HR) representative actively listening while working to help a manager and their subordinate settle conflict.

Adaptability

As an adaptable leader, you adjust your behaviour in response to situational changes. You are resilient when things don't go as expected and recover quickly from setbacks by viewing them as an opportunity to grow. Showing adaptability in leadership involves being flexible and adjusting to changing conditions and environments.

Critical thinking

Critical thinking involves analysing information to comprehend an issue or topic fully. The steps of the critical thinking process often entail gathering facts and data, posing deliberate queries, and examining potential answers. For instance, if you work in HR and must settle a dispute between two coworkers, critical thinking skills can help you determine the nature of the conflict and the appropriate course of action. Critical thinking is a vital component of decision-making.

Decision-making

Influential leaders make decisions that benefit themselves, their team members, clients, stakeholders, and organisations. Using critical thinking skills in decision-making allows you as a leader to identify problems and develop solutions advantageous to your business and your employees. Leaders' decision-making must always be fair and objective and use appropriate language when communicating.

Problem-solving

Effective problem solvers in leadership can foresee issues in the workplace, define them, identify their causes, and develop a plan to remedy the issue. Using challenges as a learning opportunity that can help avoid future issues is also critical. Problem-solving requires strong communication skills and respect for all parties involved. Viewing and presenting issues as opportunities can benefit leaders and staff alike. An example would be a decline in social media engagement, which is considered an opportunity to increase social media presence rather than a problem.

Relationship building

The general nature of leadership roles revolves around people. Leaders cannot effectively lead without understanding the people they are guiding. The ability to forge bonds and establish communities is necessary for an effective leader. A study on the UK workforce found that job satisfaction and company culture increase when workers have strong, happy relationships with their colleagues, including superiors [1]. 

Time management

Time management involves planning and regulating how much time to devote to different tasks. Leaders who manage time effectively may accomplish more in less time, feel less stressed, and succeed in their careers [2]. Proper time management by leadership members affords leaders more time to invest in their team.

Reliability and trust

Trust is the cornerstone of a successful organisation. Trust, or belief in another person's skills, integrity, and character, is frequently thought of as something built upon in personal relationships.

Leadership develops best through reliability. Leaders must ensure their words and deeds are consistent to be trusted. If those you lead cannot trust you to keep your word, they will lose faith in you rapidly.

Creativity

A creative mindset is open, not closed or rigid, and produces ideas and solutions that are both significant and effective. By encouraging a team of people to solve problems creatively, leaders provide the opportunity to develop goods and services that set the team apart from rivals, creating a competitive advantage. Creative leaders also foster an innovative culture by encouraging teams to showcase ingenuity as a unit.

Strategic approach

Leaders must think strategically and critically when making difficult decisions. Effective leadership involves making well-considered and critically-analysed decisions to lead teams to success. Successful leaders will think before they act, or in other words, have a strategic plan before taking action. The time it takes to devise a strategy depends on the problem or decision. A good leader devotes the necessary time to strategy development.

Self-awareness

Self-awareness in leadership involves understanding your personality, behaviours, and motivations and then considering how these traits and qualities influence your leadership skills. Self-reflection can be a powerful tool all on its own. Self-awareness and reflection can help you realise what you offer to your job as a leader and where you need improvement. Self-awareness entails identifying where you excel and where you should grow—and when your leadership excels, your company's productivity tends to follow.

Who needs leadership skills?

Whether a learner, teacher, project manager, or CEO, anyone in a role that involves influence over others and decision-making can benefit from strong leadership skills. They can benefit early-career professionals, newly promoted leaders, and start-up leaders. Leadership skills are essential in roles that don’t even involve leading others. These skills also help you to exude confidence and may be beneficial in progressing your career into leadership positions.

What makes an effective leader?

While possessing leadership skills can make a leader effective, specific workplace skills or qualities also lend to effectiveness. Effective leaders are respectful, empathetic, patient, motivational, and willing to be held accountable.

When you make your team feel respected, cared for, and motivated, you are more likely to lead your team successfully.

How to develop leadership skills

Committing to continued learning and planning personal growth and development is essential to succeed in leadership positions. Becoming an effective leader involves gaining leadership skills and fine-tuning key workplace skills. You can accomplish these goals by receiving coaching or mentoring, gaining experience, taking courses, and enrolling in leadership certificate programmes.

Coaching and mentoring

Leadership coaches work with leaders to help them optimise their abilities and effectively manage a team. Leadership coaches and mentors act as supportive advisors who help those receiving the coaching improve their workplace relationships and job performance.

Mentorship is more of a collaborative relationship between a successful leader and a leader in training. Mentor-mentee relationships are often more personal and can offer accountability and help the mentee make beneficial connections as the mentor acts as an advisor.

Experience

Leadership experience can come in many forms. From playing on sports teams to participating in social groups and volunteering, you can gain experience in leadership in almost any aspect of life. While these experiences may not directly relate to your career, the skills gained from them can last a lifetime.

Courses and training 

Enroll in training courses for a more formal method of gaining leadership skills. They offer a highly effective way to develop new abilities, enhance existing ones, and establish the foundation for a successful career in leadership.

Certification

In addition to courses and training, pursuing leadership certifications is also an option. Through these programmes, you can learn valuable leadership skills and earn a credential for your CV to increase job prospects in your field.

Build your leadership skills

Developing your leadership skills can benefit you personally and professionally. If you want to gain or improve your current leadership skills, consider taking online courses on Coursera from world-class organisations and educators that can help you enhance your career. 

Take the first step and enroll in one of these programmes today:

• Leading People and Teams Specialisation: Gain essential leadership skills, learn how to motivate and inspire others, influence without using a position of authority, and manage teams of people.

• Strategic Leadership and Management Specialisation: Learn the strategic, organisational, and human relations foundations for sustainable, impactful leadership.

• Connected Leadership: Enhance your capacity to make the most of life, create your leadership toolkit, and understand the strength and complexity of system thinking.