Are leadership skills important for your employees? 

Every corporate environment nowadays is struggling to find and develop good leaders. Every company out there is looking for employees who will not necessarily be great leaders but will incorporate leadership characteristics in their skills portfolio. So, which skills turn someone into a good leader?

One of the most vital skills is efficient communication; you must be able to communicate in a variety of ways and often with people in different levels and in different ways. It is important to have a dialogue rather than a monologue and learn how to meet the needs and expectations of the person you are communicating with,

Leadership skills involve having a plan and a strategy. Things may not always go as planned but a good leader would look at the bigger image rather than get lost in the detail. To do so you must always maintain a strategic outlook.

Another skill that will be necessary on a daily basis is problem-solving. You must be able to identify problems, understand their structure and develop a clear image of them and then start looking for possible solutions which you will then implement.

Another quality that is in a successful leader’s skill set is assertiveness. Respecting people around you and listening to their views while standing up for your own beliefs and opinions is not easy. Treating everyone as an equal while maintaining self-control is highly demanded in today’s workplace.

Coaching and building a team is also one of the aspects that help someone become a better leader. Managing your own team means finding the right people who will work alongside you. You must learn how to give and receive feedback as well as improve the team’s performance.

One more thing that many people often disregard is intuition. Guiding a team through uncertain or unexpected events and situations is usually stressful because there are no guidelines to follow. You must do your own thing. That’s when you must trust your intuition and yourself before expecting your team to trust you.

Self-management is a leadership that is rarely mentioned as one of the most important skills but it is imperative in the process of becoming a strong leader. What makes self-management even more important is the undeniable fact that in the future, more work will be done remotely which will require leaders and employees to possess this valuable competency.

So how can you help your employees become better leaders?

Let them play Unlock: Leadership. It only takes a few hours and it can help you see all the leaders you didn’t know you have in your organisation.

Magda Bekou