How to Develop Leadership Skills

The following article helps you to understand how to develop leadership skills and leadership characteristics that are essential for professional advancement in your job. Furthermore, this article will give you a definition of leadership and what it is all about as well as you will see what qualities make a good leader.

Definition of leadership:

Leadership skills are the abilities of a person to motivate groups of people and to enable them to reach a specific goal. A charismatic leader is able to express his visions and goals clearly, takes responsibility and is equipped with excellent communication skills.

Leadership quotes:

“Don’t tell people how to do things, tell them what to do and let them surprise you with their results.” ~ George S. Patton

The very essence of leadership is that you have to have vision. You can’t blow an uncertain trumpet. ~ Theodore M. Hesburgh

How to develop leadership skills

• Great leaders are great listeners: Being a charismatic leader means not only to delegate work but also to have excellent listening skills. If team members are talking to you about their problems and worries or are suggesting you improvements you should listen carefully and try to suggest alternatives, or implement their suggestions. It is very important that you take subordinates seriously and make them feel to be an important part of the department.

• Communication skills: Effective communication helps you to motivate your followers as well as to delegate your work more efficient. Keep attention that you phrase your visions and goals in a positive and motivating way. Every great leader that knows exactly how to develop leadership skills has developed communication skills over the time, which enabled him to gain lots of followers.

• Have a focus on your team: Don’t constrain your employees by being a choleric boss that only delegates work and controls his staff excessively. Instead, you should enable your subordinates to develop their own solutions in order to reach cooperative objectives. Involve them in the decision making process on certain projects and issues. It is important to let every single person know that it is an important part of the team. By trusting your subordinates you will enhance their motivation, which will be beneficial for the performance of your department.

• Be positive: Don’t waste your time blaming subordinates for mistakes and telling them whole the time what they are doing wrong. This behavior will only cause demotivation and anxiety within the team. A charismatic leader knows that mistakes can’t be avoided sometimes. Therefore you should create an environment of trust and supports subordinates in finding solutions for their mistakes. Furthermore, you should encourage them to learn out of their mistakes and enable them to avoid similar mistakes in the future.

• Develop self-control: Another very important key to developing leadership skills is the ability to have control over yourself in any kind of situation. You will see that self control is an essential part of an excellent leader, since a person will not be able to lead and control its employees and team members when this person cannot even control itself. Or would you wholeheartedly follow a leader that is lacking self-control and could possibly lead you into problematic situations?

• Have a vision: An essential thing to develop leadership characteristics is to know exactly where you are heading. A clear vision that includes all your values, passions and desires and points the way to specific goals and aims. Communicate this vision to your followers and let them exactly know what kind of objectives they are going to pursue.

• The power of emotions: An intelligent leader knows how to create emotional bonds between himself and his followers. Such a leader combines strong emotions with his visions and makes others feel his emotions as well.

• Appreciation: Everyone of us loves it to get an appreciation for something we did really well. An excellent leader knows of this fact and appreciates good work in order to raise the motivation of his subordinates to an even more advanced level.

What qualities make a good leader? (Characteristics of an excellent executive)

A true leader has developed interpersonal skills over the years, such as advanced communication skills and organizational skills that finally enabled him to build leadership skills. Other characteristics of leadership skills are the integration of motivation building activities into the team building process. The development of time management skills as well as problem solving skills are further attributes of the person who leads.

This might also interest you:

• The Key to Leadership Success
• How to Deal with Autocratic Leadership
  

This article has shown you how to develop leadership skills, but you must be aware that the development of leadership characteristics needs a lot of experience, practice, and patience.

The leader should not forget who is carrying the weight

What has helped you to develop your own leadership skills?

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