NigCareers

Do you require leadership skills to function well in your job role? This article provides a guide on how you can develop the skills and include them on your resume.

 

What are Leadership Skills?

Leadership Skills are very much important everywhere because it is leadership that brings about orderliness in an environment. Leadership skills are the strengths and abilities that individuals showcase that help oversee the processes, guide initiatives, and direct employees to accomplish the goals of the organization. Leadership skills are very much important components executives utilize to make decisions about an organization’s mission and goals and to allocate appropriately the resources that the company will utilize. One of the most valuable or paramount leadership skills is the ability to delegate responsibility and engage in effective communication in an organization.

Executives of an organization are often demanded to be a jack of all trades so that they can plan strategically and also make the best decision in an organization. Leadership skills can motivate and organize people in a work environment to reach a common goal.

 

Importance of Leadership Skills

• Decision-making: one of the core importance of leadership skills is that it helps an individual to make decisions and to achieve a goal very easily. Strong decision-making skills for rapid solutions to challenges in an organization. Effective decision-making involves making research and using past experiences to make an excellent decision. One of the benefits of decision-making is that it helps to accomplish a project faster and this brings efficiency to the organization.
• It enhances communication and relationship-building: A good executive utilizes leadership skills to explain organizational goals and also complex organizational policies to employees. Open communication between executives and employees is very much important in an organization because it facilitates a comfortable working atmosphere and transparency. A good leader should possess a variety of communication skills.

Leadership skills bring about strong relationship building in an organization and also help employees to collaborate and achieve a common goal. It also enhances team spirit and brings about delegation of a task in an organization.

• It brings about Flexibility: one of the import important skills is that it brings about flexibility in an organization where changes can be made at the last minute by the leader. Leaders are very much open to suggestions and feedback from their employees thus bringing about development in the organization. Leaders manage the unexpected and propose new solutions that can impact the team.
• Delegation of Task: one of the core benefits of leadership is that you can delegate tasks to other employees that are working in your organization. A great leader achieves this by analyzing the strengths and key skills that employees have and delegating responsibilities to employees based on their strengths. A leader also uses his position to establish teams in an organization to achieve a project, this will make employees collaborate and respect each other.
• Conflict resolution: Leadership skills are engaged by a leader to resolve problems and also to avoid conflicts in an organization effectively. Conflicts in an organization can hamper productivity and will fuel disunity in an organization. Leadership skills when maximized in a healthy and friendly work environment.

 

How to Improve your Analytical Skills

• Consult resources about leadership both online and offline: To develop your leadership skills, you need to seek out resources or books that talk about leadership skills. There are many books about leadership that can help you develop your leadership skills. A leader must be someone highly creative because leadership starts from the mind. Reading books about leadership will groom your mindset to be accustomed to leadership. Some many online videos and podcasts elaborate on the subject of leadership which you can consult.
• Participate in leadership training: You can look for online courses or seminars that can teach you about leadership. There are many professional organizations courses on leadership, and you can enroll to acquire these skills. You can research online and in-person courses, workshops and. Simple online research will offer you different options you can choose from.
• Study the leadership style you admire:  when you see leaders that you admire, observe the salient qualities they have that them great leaders and write them down. Focus on the various ways you can develop these qualities and apply them to your job. It will be very beneficial to set specific goals for the goal you want to develop and put them into practice.
• Become a Leader: A good way to improve your leadership skills is to become a leader. Any time you are offered a leadership position, do not reject it but use it as an opportunity to acquire and develop your leadership skills. The best way to enhance your leadership skills is by leading.

You can also start a group or a team based on your area of interest. For instance, if you are a lover of sports, you can start a sports team and be the leader of that team.

• Find a mentor: the best way to learn is by studying under someone who is a professional in leadership or a particular person you admire. If possible, ask someone you respect to mentor you weekly or monthly. They can help you set goals to become a leader by enhancing your skills.

 

Jobs that Require Analytical Skills

• Project manager: Project managers are typically responsible for overseeing the process of initiating and executing projects to the final stage in an organization. They employ their leadership skills to act as team leaders, influence and motivate employees to achieve the company’s goals and objectives
• Executive Directors: Although their duties are performed based on the industry they work. An executive director employs leadership skills for managing, planning, administrative duties, and strategizing development in an organization.
• Departmental Supervisor:  departmental supervisors perform diverse functions such as assigning and delegating tasks to teams, organizing schedules, and providing employee work reviews. They employ their leadership skills to provide mentoring and coaching to assist new and current employees to enhance their skills
• Human Resource Manager: the Human resource manager performs leadership responsibilities in an organization such as recruitment of staff and reviewing the performance of employees. They also utilize leadership skills to perform both administrative and executive functions in an organization.
• Operations manager: An Operations manager engage his leadership skills to perform diverse kind of task although this depends on the industry he or she works. They perform tasks such as overseeing the quality assurance process, observing and evaluating the process, and formulating strategies that productivity. Operations managers are also responsible for recruiting and training new employees in an organization.
• Business manager: a business manager engages leadership skills to manage and evaluate an organization’s business operations. Business managers also act as leaders to influence employees and also to motivate them to accomplish the organization’s goals.
• Brand Manager: A Brand Manager engages his leadership skills to promote, advertise and market an organization’s goods. They also observe the market needs to map out strategies that can make the organization’s product sell well.

 

How to Include Leadership Skills on Your Resume

• Discuss Your Experience as a Leader: One of the best ways to include leadership skills in your resume is to demonstrate your experience as a leader from your previous place of work. Discuss the kind of leadership style you used and the result you got. You should share your most remarkable experience. You should also demonstrate how your leadership style impacted your previous work placement.
• Demonstrate Your Achievement: at this juncture, you need to highlight the awards or accolades you received as a leader in the course of performing your duties. Leadership achievements are very much important because they prove that you are a competent leader. You can itemize your biggest leadership award.
• Highlight Your Skills: you need to highlight the skills you possess as a leader. There are both hard skills and soft skills; start with the most important skills. You can highlight a few of the following skills:
  • • Initiative
    • Research
    • Project-evaluation
    • Collaboration
    • Open-mindedness
    • Innovation
    • Negotiation
    • Adaptability
    • Strength and weakness recognition
    • Conflict resolution skills
    • Empathy skills
    • Rapport skills
    • Public speaking
    • Presentation skills
    • Verbal and non-verbal communication
    • Active listening
    • Teamwork skills
    • Analytical skills
    • Team-building
    • Realistic goal-setting
    • Ability to recognize and reward
    • Mentoring skills
    • Coaching skills
    • Evaluating employee performance
    • Foresight skills
    • Cognitive flexibility

 

Examples of How to Include Leadership on Your Resume

Project manager Resume Sample for an Electronic Company

• Led the electronic company’s85 employees
• Supervised the company’s project for three years. Improved quality by 32% cut lead times by 21% cut costs by 48%
• Organized the company’s project by setting up a team. Created opportunities for 20 change leaders to travel to other facilities. These employees returned to share best practices with other peers.

 

Senior Brand Manager Resume Sample

• Established marketing objectives against business unit priorities
• Executed consumer research and market trends into actionable insights for sell-in and sell-thru
• Organized a high-performing and engaged team of 5 marketing specialists and an analyst
• Supervised content creation (shots, interviews, videos. Etc.) for seasonal initiatives and product drops to be used on all channels including retail, paid media, online, and newsroom
• Labored with the senior manager for sell-in and strategy to shape messaging strategy for the business unit
• Supervised 4 seasonal campaigns and production budgets for all apparel that boosted sales by 50%
• Formulated innovative merchandising strategy to differentiate the brand from our competitors that increased retail sales by 30%

 

How to Demonstrate Leadership Skills in an Interview

• Use the STAR Model

Situation

Describe the situation you met as a leader. What were the challenges the situation brought? How were you able to motivate employees that the situation is achievable? Do not discuss an easy situation but a very complex situation where you have to brainstorm and come up with a good result. Remember that this is an interview that will test your leadership skills. Share a situation you handled that involves your employees; this implies that you should discuss a situation you single-handedly managed.

Task

This is where you have to highlight the task at hand, once a situation spring up there is always a task at hand that one has to engage in to settle that situation. This task can be recruiting new employees, training new employees, or giving employees orientation about your organization. The task can also be a positive task such as handling a project or supervising a team. You should clearly state the task you embark on to handle the situation.

Action

Once there is a task the step is the action you undertook to accomplish the task. The action you took is what will help you settle the situation and it will determine the results. At this juncture, you need to clearly state the drastic steps you undertook such drastic steps. This will show the interviewer that you have excellent analytical ability.

Results

You need to specify the leadership result you got; if you got a positive result then proceed to discuss the impact the result has on your organization. Discuss the remarkable achievements you were able to achieve. There are times when you got a negative result, feel free to share it and discuss what you have learned and also how you felt you should have handled the situation at hand.

 

Examples of Interview Questions to Test Leadership Skills

• What leadership skills do you think is important?

This question is asked to test your leadership style and the leadership skill you feel is the most important. This question allows you to explain leadership in your own words.  You can use this question to discuss the area of your strength as a leader.

• How do you describe your Leadership Style?

Many different leadership styles are demonstrated in a work environment. Evaluate the different leadership styles and determine which one you feel is the best one to approach. You can also say that you combine different leadership styles to get the best result. The best way to answer this question is to provide an experience of your leadership and the result you got.

• How do you ensure that projects and tasks remain on schedule?

You have a responsibility as a leader to communicate the goals of your organization to your team and also ensure that they meet up with deadlines. You can use this question to showcase your timeliness and organizational skills. Consider highlighting your biggest schedule at work and how you prioritize it.

• Can you describe a leadership challenge you overcame?

As a leader, you need to have the ability to lead others no matter the challenges you encountered such as limited resources or miscommunication. This is a situational question, use the STAR method to answer the question and discuss the lessons you learned from it.

• How do your goals help you to become a better Leader?

Good leaders should know how to set both organizational goals and personal goals. To give the best answer to this question, use SMART goals as an answer. SMART goals are simply specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-based. Give a clear example of when you use smart goals.

Resume Skills