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7 Examples of leadership skills

Examples of leadership skills
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Leadership skills are usually found in people who hold positions of management, presidency or leadership of groups of people or institutions.

Different from the entrepreneurial skills, you may find all 7 examples of leadership skills in a single person or have them scattered throughout a group of workers, but usually everyone possesses at least one leadership characteristic in their personality.

Being a leader can be indicative of power and control, but it can also resemble intelligence, mastery, better overview of problems and the ability to manage a large group of people in an assertive and respectful manner. Let’s learn a little more about leadership skills and the exact definition of a leader.

Definition of a leader

To define what a leader is, it is important to analyze where the word comes from and its meaning.

It has been used since time immemorial to refer to a person who has the ability to drive, guide and influence in a positive or negative way over a large group of people.

To be a great leader it is necessary to be recognized as such, since you can have the skills of a leader, but if you do not have a group to lead you lose power.

Within the wide spectrum of leadership there are different ways to classify a leader, where we have natural or naturalized leaders and institutionalized leaders. To define the former, we refer to those who emerge from a social group and are chosen and followed by a group of people by their own choice.

Institutionalized leaders are those who obtain the position legitimately, who despite not possessing the skills of leaders or not knowing how to handle them correctly are assigned positions where they have to cover the role with leadership and control over a group of people, where normally in this role of leadership and management we find political leaders, educators, spiritual leaders.

In addition, we can find positive leaders and negative leaders, in the case of the first leaders, are those who lead their team with leadership skills, with respect, assertive communication, good development of interpersonal relationships and allows an exchange of ideas among members.

In the case of negative leaders, they are characterized by being authoritarian people, they tend to go over the heads of their work team or group, to always be right and have the power. They do not allow a good coexistence as a team and tend to abuse the power granted, for the manipulation and control of the weakest.

In general terms, leadership is a role that not just anyone can assume and it is important that you can have the following 7 examples of leadership skills to be considered a positive leader, with ideas of group growth and dedicated to guide in the right way.

Importance of leadership skills

Being a leader is not only about commanding and dictating orders to a group of people, you are not a leader when you impose decisions.

Leadership experience is provided by having a series of skills which must be handled correctly. Not everyone is born a leader and not everyone has the ability to lead a group despite possessing leadership skills.

The importance of a leader with skills and important business values lies in the fact that if you do not have them, you will only have a person without respect for human rights, abusing power and obtaining benefits from the hard work of his subordinates.

A leader with skills will be a human being willing to make his group grow together with him and enjoy the achievements both individually and as a whole.

To improve your leadership skills is important to also work on these set of skills every day to improve gradually.

There are many valuable leadership skills but we present to you the 7 most important examples that a leader must possess.

Assertive communication

Among the leadership skills that a person considered a leader by him/herself or by a group of people must possess is the ability to communicate with respect and accepting the opinion of his/her peers.

Assertive communication allows group conversations to flow correctly without anyone being discriminated against or left out.

An example of strong communication skills can be seen during a work meeting where the group leader gives all members the opportunity to speak and a discussion is held about a particular situation, allowing everyone to participate in an orderly manner and respecting each person’s opinion.

There can also bee the importance of developing intercultural communication if the leader has to manage people from all around the world.

Team Management

Team of financial experts using tablet during brainstorming

A leader must know how to delegate to a group of people, without raising his voice or using threatening words.

Team management skills is a very important leadership skill because without this soft skill many conflicts can be created and control of many people can be lost.

As a team leader, to control does not mean to override human rights or to use the power one has to minimize the group.

A correct team management is achieved through good communication, sincerity and making clear the role that each person will have within the team, understanding the rules of coexistence and good treatment.

Time management

Normally when you become a leader, you have a large accumulation of responsibilities and work ahead, which requires proper time management skills, organization and administration of work.

Knowing how to delegate and seek support within the team can be a good way to work on time management as a key leadership skill.

Time is money when it is required to participate as a leader in different spaces, so it is important to write down the different meetings and events, respect everyone’s time and provide spaces for relaxation and rest.

A good management of the schedule and a correct structure, will allow to achieve the objectives in the scheduled time and meet deadlines.

Conflict resolution

The most important effective leadership skill that few leaders know how to exercise.

Conflict resolution is essential within a large group of people, since not everyone has the same opinion and there are colleagues who do not know how to handle respect and acceptance of ideas that do not agree with their own.

As a leader you must know how to deal with situations like these and reach a healthy agreement for both parties and be fair when imposing sanctions if necessary so that the problem does not recur in the future.

This will allow a good work environment to be created and personal problems will not interfere in the team’s development.

The best leaders use their problem-solving and effective communication skills among the team members to reach an agreement point to the conflict.

Development of interpersonal relationships in the workplace

A good working environment encourages a rapid development of the assigned tasks, so it is important among the good leadership skills that make the successful leader can have tools to achieve a correct development of interpersonal relationships among their workers.

Workshops, recreational activities and meetings are usually held to encourage the union of groups.

An effective leader must be present to support and also integrate his work group, know important details of each worker and be concerned about the individual and group welfare of his staff to make decisions.

Creativity

Being creative means being able to look for different ways of looking at the same situation, it is to be able to give a variety of uses to a single object and to find solutions to problems.

Perhaps one might think that creativity to highlight your leadership role is not so important, but it is necessary to be open-minded and flexible in the face of change, as this is what will allow for better adaptation.

The leader is in charge of encouraging creativity in his work group, looking for a way to give them freedom without them leaving the role that corresponds to them.

Being creative gives greater opportunities to approach situations and see things from another perspective.

Empathy

Empathy is understood as the ability to be able to understand people’s problems, put oneself in their place and give the respect they deserve.

A strong leader must be empathetic by nature, must be able to listen, understand and support the members of his group, be fair at the right moments without giving preferences but without going over people’s emotions.

Empathy as a great leadership skill is underestimated, since normally a leader is not expected to give importance to the emotions of his employees, subordinates or members, only to guide and encourage them, but being human beings it is very normal that emotions play important roles in their development at work.

Important leadership skills are the most outstanding characteristics that are sought in a person to be chosen as a leader but, normally not all of them are found, since some are born with some and others can be learned and molded with the passing of time and during the development of that person.

Few people are born leaders, but it is a characteristic that is noticeable from childhood, so it is very important to encourage them and help them develop their leadership qualities.

More about Leadership
More about Leadership

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