TOP FIVE (5) SKILLS TO MAKE YOU AN EXCELLENT LEADER

Leaders are critical for the smooth running of our families, communities, industries and our nation. 

We need representatives to mirror the collective needs of the people and work smartly to achieve them. 

Thankfully, behavioral studies suggest that leadership skills and qualities can be taught over a period of time meaning if leaders are born, leaders are also made. Have you struggled with any leadership role and you need help to locate critical skills? Here are five top qualities and skills you need to make you an excellent leader.

Vision

Communication 

Emotional Intelligence 

Delegation 

Transparency

Vision

Jack Welch said, “Good business leaders create a vision, articulate the vision, passionately own the vision, and relentlessly drive it to completion.” 

You cannot drive a car, truck, ship or airplane without a destination. It is the same with leadership and vision. First, you need to have that big picture of where you are going before you can influence others to collectively work towards that direction. This is the reason why people and businesses have a vision and mission statement to clearly show what direction everyone should follow. Always remember, vision first.

Communication 

After creating the vision, you need to CLEARLY pass across this vision; your goals and aspirations, to your organization because it is crucial in running a smooth operation. Everyone should be on the same page. For your communication to be effective you need to:

-Listen attentively to others and encourage feedback.

-Simplify your words and be as direct as possible.

-Demonstrate clarity in speech or written words and always ask your audience if they understand.

If you can communicate effectively, you can lead efficiently.

Emotional Intelligence 

Emotional Intelligence is the capability of an individual to recognize his/her emotions and those of others, to discern between different feelings, to appropriately label these feelings and to use these emotional informations to guide behaviors correctly in order to achieve one’s goals. In other words, you need to learn how to understand people’s feelings enough to know how to positively use them.

Empathy is typically associated with Emotional Intelligence because it involves understanding and relating your experiences with those of others and this is important if you will lead people well.

Qualities such as Self-Awareness, Humility, and Agility, find expression in Emotional Intelligence, with social skills.

Also, you need to show genuine interest in others and give proper eye contact. This shows people you not only care about business but about them as well, which you should.

Delegation

Leaders need to learn when to shift from ‘doing’ to ‘leading’ because they need a 360 view of ongoing activities in order to critically receive feedback and improve on them. 

Learn to assign tasks to team members. Find team members that excel in specific positions and place them there with supervision. This would help them grow on the job, encourage teamwork and give you time to plan and project ahead, no wonder Adam Smith encouraged the Division of Labor.

Delegation ensures that everyone contributes to the team, making the work move faster and better. Team work makes the dream work!

Transparency 

The 21st century corporate culture requires a high level of public transparency than ever before. This entails an excellent degree of accountability, giving credit where it is due and also taking responsibility when necessary. Also, you as a leader should be able to publish correct information of activities. This would provide an enabling environment of trust between you and your team members and guarantee their solid commitment to the organization’s vision.

And there you have it! These top skills and qualities and many others would shape your performance in leading in business, industry, government, family and any other group in need of leadership. 

Management is about persuading people to do things they do not want to do, while leadership is about inspiring people to do things they never thought they could.”— Steve Jobs

À bientôt! 

(Article written by Berachah Uche)

photo credit(Google)