Leadership Skills

One of the many Employability Skills. Teams will require some direction and guidance from others. Leadership involves being able to gain the respect of others and the ability to motivate them, for example through appropriate praise, to achieve a successful outcome.

Leadership skills mean more than being able to lead others. Employers require employees who can take ownership of activities and lead on them within their own area of responsibility. For example, an employee will have a line manager who provides the general guidance and direction needed to achieve a satisfactory outcome.

However, within the tasks that an employee carries out there might be part of a process or procedure that they are particularly interested in and which they feel they can offer a valuable contribution. They might like to take a lead on this area of interest, which raises the awareness of others who then increase their respect towards the individual for their contribution and which also acts a motivation to a successful outcome because an improved and easier way of working has been identified.

If you are able to provide examples of how you may have demonstrated leadership skills, then this will show to an employer that you could become a valuable member of a team that might currently lack someone with this skill.

Developing and then being able to demonstrate leadership skills can provide someone with a springboard into a supervisory or management role if the opportunity arose. Within many businesses the activity of succession planning forms part of their business plan; if a potential employee can demonstrate leadership qualities, they will have stolen a march on potential competitors for the job role they are applying for.

Warren Bennis (1925-2014) identified four management characteristics that were commonly associated with successful leadership:
1. Attention: Provide a vision and focus for success.
2. Meaning: Effective communication of desired and measurable outcomes.
3. Trust: Honesty and respectful of others, whilst being consistent in your approach.
4. Self: Understanding your own strengths and limitations, improving throughout.

Attributes that a good leader will also often have include: