Top 10 essential leadership skills

Leaders shape our countries, communities, and businesses. Good leaders are needed to guide us and make the large-scale decisions that keep the globe moving forward. We know how to spot a terrible leader in our culture, but do we know how to spot a good one? What qualities do most people consider to be important in a leader? Great leaders, according to our research, consistently possess the following ten critical leadership skills.

1. Integrity

The value of honesty should be self-evident. Integrity is important for both the individual and the organization, even though it isn't always a statistic in employee evaluations. It's especially critical for top-level executives who are responsible for charting the organization's course and making a slew of other critical decisions.

Our findings suggest that organizational integrity may be a possible blind spot. Ensure that your organization's executives at all levels are reminded of the value of integrity.

2. Delegation Skills

Delegating is one of a leader's most important roles, although it can be difficult to do it effectively. The idea isn't only to free up time for yourself; it's also to empower your direct reports, improve teamwork, provide autonomy, improve decision-making, and help them grow. You must create trust with your team in order to delegate effectively.

3. Communication

Effective communication and effective leadership are inextricably linked. From sending information to mentoring your employees, you must be able to communicate in a variety of ways. You must also be able to listen to and communicate with a diverse group of people, regardless of their roles, social identities, or other factors.

The quality and effectiveness of communication within your company also has an impact on the success of your business strategy. Learn how having better dialogues may help your company's culture.

4. Self-Awareness

Self-awareness is essential for leadership, even if it is a more internally focused skill. You can be more effective if you have a deeper understanding of yourself. Do you have any idea how other people perceive you or how you present yourself at work? Spend some time learning about the four dimensions of self-awareness and how to improve each one.

5. Gratitude

Being grateful can help you lead more effectively. Gratitude can help you feel better about yourself, lessen melancholy and anxiety, and even sleep better. Even while most individuals believe they'd be willing to work harder for a grateful employer, few people say "thank you" at work on a daily basis. Learn how to express gratitude in the workplace and how to give thanks.

6. Agility in Learning

The capacity to know what to do when you don't know what to do is known as learning agility. You might already be learning agile if you're a "fast study" or flourish in novel situations.

Anyone, however, may improve their learning agility through practice, experience, and effort. To get started, look at how exceptional leaders are great learners with strong learning agility.

7. Influence

For others, the word "influence" has a negative connotation. However, being able to persuade others using logical, emotive, or cooperative arguments is an important part of being an inspiring and effective leader.

Influence is not the same as manipulation, and it must be done in a genuine and honest manner. It necessitates emotional intelligence as well as trust. Learn how to use successful influence to change the game.

8. Empathy

Empathy is linked to job success and is an important component of emotional intelligence and leadership. According to our research, if you demonstrate more inclusive leadership and sympathetic behaviors toward your direct reports, you're more likely to be perceived as a higher performer by your boss. Furthermore, empathy and inclusion are essential for enhancing the working environment of others around you.

9. Courage

It's difficult to speak up at work, whether you're trying to express a fresh concept, give feedback to a direct report, or raise a concern with someone higher up. That is one of the reasons why courage is such an important leadership trait.

Courage allows leaders to stand up and advance things in the right direction rather than avoiding problems or allowing conflicts to fester. Truth and courage will be supported even more at a workplace with high psychological safety and robust coaching culture.

10. Respect

One of the most crucial things a leader can do is treat people with respect on a daily basis. It will reduce tensions and conflict, build trust, and boost productivity. Respect is more than a lack of disrespect, and it can be demonstrated in a variety of ways. Learn more about how to create a respectful work environment or how to become an ally to others.

Above are the top 10 essential leadership skills. Do we miss anything on the list? Please feel free to share with us!