7 Leadership Skills to Include in Your Development Program

Leadership development needs to be intentional to work.

Leadership development is important for companies that want to retain their best talent, improve productivity, and impact the company’s bottom line. While some leaders already have many of the skills they need to succeed, most need to develop leadership skills to be effective.

Here are some of the top leadership skills to include in a quality development program.

1. Communication

Your identified leaders probably have some level of communication skills, but there is always more to learn about communication. Some aspects of communication leaders need most include listening to others, asking effective questions, and identifying the thoughts and feelings behind what people say and do.

2. Change Management

Change is constant in business, but it can be so difficult to manage well. When change is well-received, it can lead to growth for a company. When change is poorly managed, however, negative results like turnover and bad press can result.

3. Coaching

Employees need more than just rules and directives to reach their full potential. Teaching leaders to be coaches results in employees that meet goals and objectives and feel supported by their leaders while doing so. Coaching also helps develop next-generation leadership among employees to perpetuate the culture of continual evolution.

Listening is an important skill for leaders.

4. Motivation

Motivating others to do their best work is quite a task, and learning to do so requires building a number of skills. Some of the essential components of motivation include recognizing effort and achievements, reward programs for meeting goals, and appealing to both intrinsic and extrinsic motivators. A number of tools can be used to help with the motivation of employees as well.

5. Accountability

An important part of managing employees is being able to hold them accountable for their work and its results. Accountability keeps employees on track and helps make adjustments when things don’t go as planned. Without accountability, employees can quickly slide into complacency and mediocrity, taking productivity and profits with them.

6. Time Management

Time management is even more important for leaders than it is for the employees who work under them, whose duties may be more structured with little or no unplanned time. Time management can mean the difference between being able to lead effectively and running from urgent need to urgent need with no time for other important priorities.

7. Flexibility

To some extent, this skill may be more innate than learned, but it’s important to be flexible when leading others because unexpected needs will always present themselves and need attention when that wasn’t how you planned your day. The better you are at adapting to the unexpected, the better your leadership will be perceived by those working under you and the better you will feel that you are handling your job.

Narish International uses assessments to identify leadership potential and skills that need development. Let us help you build higher-performing teams.