Improving your leadership skills can not just help you in the work place if you are seeking a higher level position, they can also help you in many other aspects of your life from parenting to social situations and everything in between. There are some people in the world like Leslie Hocker who are natural born leaders but these people are few and far between and the rest of us must work hard on improving our leadership abilities.
In order to improve these skills it is important that we first understand what skills leaders possess and how we can best emulate them. Let’s take a look then at what kind of skills a great leader possesses.
Communication
Leaders need to be excellent communicators when dealing with people of all levels an they must show consistency in how they speak to anyone from children to Chief Executives. Communication skills are not just about how well you can speak and how you can convey a message, they are also about your ability to listen and knowing when the right time is to hear what someone has to say as well as being about knowing who are the right people to listen to.
Inspire
A good leader has the ability to inspire those around them to be better at what they are doing and to work harder. This is a difficult skill to acquire as there must be a level of flexibility within it that means that you can encourage and inspire a wide range of people who require different things to get them inspired.
Focus
A leader’s ability to get things done requires heavily on them being incredibly focussed on the things that are the most important. It was once said that a leader cannot major in the minor things and this is particularly true when it comes to the level of focus that is required in a great leader. Leaders are looked upon to lead and without a high level of focus, they can fail to give confidence to those who are looking to them.
Confidence
a shrinking violet will not be able to become a leader as a great deal of confidence is required to become a strong and successful leader. At the heart of confidence is knowledge and if you want to improve your leadership skills then you must ensure that you know exactly what you are talking about. Do not confuse confidence with arrogance, the two are very different and arrogance is a negative trait which leaders must avoid.
Dedication
Leaders must show an example to those around them and this comes primarily from their levels of dedication. I you want to be a leader at something then you must be prepared to show all out dedication to whatever it is that you are doing. This level of commitment will be see by those around you and become infectious, you must be the most dedicated person in the team if you want to be a great leader.