It is easy to become a good employee, motivator or manager, but the journey to become a leader is not an easy one. It requires a lot from a person to become a good and effective leader.
Leaders are required in every field. They help the employers to achieve their goal. The leaders should not only be good in their technical skills, but they should master certain soft skills also.
Here are some top leadership skills that are must have to become an effective leader.
#1 Should be a Motivator
The leader should be a good motivator. He should be able to motivate people to give their 100% or even more than 100% for the company. He should be able to motivate people to think the organization’s goals as their own goal and work towards achieving them.
There are lots of ways to motivate people, like introducing rewards system, providing global recognition to the top performers, sending appreciation mails etc. The leader should always look for ways in which he can build the self-esteem of the employees, and keep the morale of his team on doing the good work.
#2 Should be honest
A leader should be honest and transparent. People love to work under someone who they can trust. A leader should show high integrity so that people under him are able to trust his words and also feel comfortable to come up with questions and concerns to him. Unless the leader is honest, we cannot expect others to show honesty.
#3 Should have good communication skills
A leader should be a very good communicator. It is very important to be clear and concise while communicating with people. Be it verbal or non-verbal communication, the leader should be best at it. A powerful communicator, uses his skills to motivate people, build a relationship and help create a healthy and productive work environment.
#4 Should know how to delegate responsibilities
A single person cannot look after all the activities in big projects. As a leader, a person should be able to trust his team and delegate the work and responsibilities to them. As a good leader, one should provide space to each employee to perform their work in their own way. It is also important to identify the strong areas of each employee and delegate the tasks according to their expertise. This will not only save time, but also increase the overall productivity of the team.
#5 Show commitment to the organization
People generally tend to follow the footsteps of their leader. Hence it is very important that a leader should practice what he wants his team to do. One important thing is showing your commitment to the organization. A leader should always give priority to the organization and go an extra mile to complete the work on time. When a leader shows such commitment, the team will also automatically show this characteristic.
#6 Should help develop the team
A leader should not only look for this own progress, but also look for ways to develop his team. He should be analyzing the team, and identify the potential future leaders. Also, look out ways to provide training to gain the skills and give them opportunities to lead wherever possible.
#7 Should be a problem solver
The organizations expect the leaders to have strong analytical skills to solve any kind of problem that arises in the business. A leader should be able to analyze the problems and look out for optimum solutions for them.
#8 Should build relationships at all levels
Building positive relationships with people at work, is another important skill of a leader. A leader should be polite, sensitive, emotional towards others across all the levels and also invest some time on them. This helps in developing a good relationship with people, which ultimately helps in achieving their goals.
#9 Should be able to tackle employees
In any organization or even a team, there will be all kinds of people, some easy to work with while some can be difficult ones. As a leader, one should be able to handle all kinds of employees, especially the difficult ones. A good leader, always try to come up with a plan to correct the unacceptable behavior, instead of ignoring or removing it.
#10 Should be Professional
Everyone looks forward towards the leader to be fair and treat equally all his subordinates. It sometimes become difficult to manage the personal relationships and work. But as a good leader, one should be able to draw that line, and treat everyone equally, without favoring friends and family.
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Suggested Reading: Interpersonal Skills
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