The 8 Most Important Leadership Skills You Need

Officevibe – The 8 Most Important Leadership Skills You Need

1. Being Self-Aware
How To Build This Skill
Practice mindfulness regularly, it has been shown to be linked to self-awareness1
Keep track of things to optimize your habits. By taking time to note things throughout the day, you’ll train yourself to be more self-aware

2. Trustworthiness
How To Build This Skill
You’ve got to give it to get it. Show your team that you trust them by giving them freedom and autonomy.
Open up and share a personal story to help people get to know the real you. That vulnerability will help people see you as trustworthy.
Spend more time with your team, like eating lunch with them, or going to work events. As you spend more time with them, you’ll get to know them and build that trust.

3. Empathy
How To Build This Skill
Listen more than you speak. There’s a famous saying that goes “We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak.”
Put yourself in their shoes. Try to think about what people on your team might be going through. Take time to do this to build that skill.

4. How To Delegate
How To Build This Skill
Learn how to let go. Understand that you might not always be right and have all the answers. Like Steve Jobs said “It doesn’t make sense to hire smart people and then tell them what to do; we hire smart people so they can tell us what to do.”
If you want your people to grow you need to let them see projects through from beginning to end.

5. Giving Feedback
How To Build This Skill
Practice makes perfect. The more you give feedback, the better you’ll get with it.
Be open and honest, don’t do the feedback sandwich.
Use one-on-one meetings as a structured way to give feedback.

6. Receiving Feedback
How To Build This Skill
Actively solicit feedback from your team. Tell everyone on the team that you want them to give you feedback.
Listen, don’t speak. Your first reaction will be to defend yourself. Just listen and understand.
Ask followup questions to get more details like “Just to make sure, when I did X, you felt…”

7. Communication Skills
How To Build This Skill
Work on your body language. It’s amazing how much body language can affect how you communicate.
Speak clearly, slowly, and try your best to avoid filler words like “um” and “like”.
Watch your tone of voice and make sure that you’re using a calm, peaceful tone.

8. Consistency
How To Build This Skill
Set clear expectations with your team from the beginning.
Communicate a lot with your team to make sure they’re constantly in the loop.