What is Leadership?

(What is it not about?)

  • Seniority or Position
  • Titles
  • Personal Attributes
  • Management

Leadership is best described as a process of social influence which maximizes the efforts of others, towards the achievement of a goal.

What are Leadership Skills?

These are skills that help us organize other people to reach a shared goal. Whether in management or leading a project, leadership skills require you to motivate others to complete a series of tasks, often according to a schedule. It is also not just one skill but a combination of many different skills working together.

Essential Skills


  • Humility - Demonstrate an insatiable desire to learn.
  • Focus on Outcomes - Trust. Delegate authority and create shared ownership
  • Flexibility - Ensure that decisions lead to the ideal outcomes.
  • System View - Design the system to bring your team to the best outcomes.
  • Coach - Nudge them toward their own conclusion


Distinguishing Empathic versus Functional Leadership Skills

Empathy is our capacity to emotionally understand what other people feel, see things from their point of view, and imagine yourself in their place. In the context of leadership, it is a leader’s genuine interest in their team members’ lives, the challenges they face, and their overall feelings. Empathic leadership skills then are the skills needed to express empathic leadership.

Functional Leadership skills, on the other hand, are the skills that enable a leader to bring their team or their organization closer to the goal. It is a combination of these empathic and functional skills that allow leaders to bring out the most potential of their team and organization achieve their goals.


Empathic Leadership Skills


  1. Communication – As a leader, you need to be able to clearly and succinctly explain to your employees everything from organizational goals to specific tasks. It is also important to establish as steady flow of communication between you and your team members either through an open-door policy or regular conversations with workers. Listening also forms a significant part of leadership, being available to discuss issues and concerns is important in achieving success.
    1. Related Skills: Active listening, Articulating, Business storytelling, Clarity, Concision, Correspondence, Editing, Explaining, Expression, Facilitating group conversations, Nonverbal communication, Presentation, Public speaking, Reading body language, Reducing ambiguity Verbal communication, Written communication




2. Motivation – Leaders must be able to inspire their workers to go the extra mile for their organizations. A just salary is important but not enough to inspire. Improving employee self-esteem through recognition and rewards, or giving new responsibilities are ways to show that you are confident in what they can achieve.




3. Delegating – Taking on too many tasks by yourself is a sure way to not get anything done. Often times, delegating is seen as a weakness when actually, it is the sign of a strong leader. Identifying the skills of your team members and assigning duties based on those skills are key to reaching the goals of the organization. 

               a. Accepting Feedback from employees, Allotting resources for employees, Defining expectations,                    `    Evaluating employee performance, Identifying measurable Outcomes, Matching the Task to the                          right Employee, Prioritizing Tasks, Setting Expectations, Teamwork, Time Management, Training,                       Trust in Employee


4. Positivity – Being able to laugh when things don’t go according to plan creates a happy, healthy working environment, even during busy, stressful periods. Even simple acts such as asking about your employee’s weekend or vacation plans can develop a positive atmosphere in the office and raise morale. Positive environments make employees feel at ease and work enjoyable.


a. Related Skills: Caring, Conflict Management, Developing Rapport, Diplomacy, Encouraging, Empathetic, Friendliness, Helping Others, Humor, Interpersonal, Positive Reinforcement, Respect. Social




5.Trustworthiness – Employees need to be able to feel comfortable coming to their manager or leader with questions and concerns. It is important to demonstrate integrity. Being open and honest with your team also encourages the same behavior from them.


a. Related Skills: Ability to apologize, Accountability, Business Ethics, Confidentiality, Conscientiousness, Consistent in behavior towards employees, Emotional Intelligence, Credibility, Empathy, Honesty, Integrity, Moral Compass, Reliability, Respectfulness, Standing up for what is Right, Thoughtful



6. Creativity – As a leader, there are situations where you have to make decisions which have no clear answer, so you need to think outside the box. Learning to try nontraditional solutions or approaching problems in nontraditional ways, will help in solving an otherwise unsolvable problem.

a. Related Skills: Analytical, Cognitive Flexibility, Conceptualization, Critical Thinking, Curiosity, Embracing different cultural perspectives, Foresight, Identifying patterns, Imaginative, Innovative, Listening to others’ ideas, Making Abstract Connections, Observation, Open-Mindedness, Problem Solving, Sound Judgement, Synthesizing, Vision




7. Feedback – Leaders should constantly look for opportunities to deliver useful information to team members about their performance. However, there is a fine line between offering advice and assistance, and micromanaging. By teaching team members how to improve their work and make their own decisions, you will feel more confident in delegating tasks to your staff.


a. Related Skills: Being open to receiving feedback, Building confidence in employees, Clarity, Clearly laying out expectations, Coaching, Following Up, Frequent Feedback, Listening to Employees’ Responses, Mentoring, Positive Reinforcement, Providing Specific Advice, Respectful




8. Responsibility – A leader is responsible for both the successes and failures of his or her team. Therefore, they must be ready to take the blame when something does not go correctly. Pointing fingers and blaming others is a sure way to lose your team members’ respect. Accepting mistakes and failures and then devising clear solutions for improvement are important.

a. Related Skills: Acknowledging mistakes, Being open to customer feedback, Evaluating Best solutions, Forecasting, Learning from past mistakes, Listening to feedback from employees and managers, Project planning, Reflectiveness, Resolving Problems, Transparency, Troubleshooting



9. Commitment – It is important for leaders to follow through with what they agree to do. You should be willing to put in the extra hours to complete an assignment: employees will see this as commitment and follow your example. Similarly, when promising a reward, always follow through. A leader cannot expect employees to commit to their jobs and their tasks if their leader cannot do the same.


a. Related Skills: Applying feedback, Commitment to company objectives, Determination, Embracing Professional Development, Following Through, Keeping Promises, Passion, Perseverance, Prioritization, Professionalism, Team Player, Work Ethic




10. Flexibility – Mishaps and last-minute changes are common occurrences at work. Leaders need to be flexible and accept whatever changes come their way. The ability to accept changes in stride and creatively problem solve are very much appreciated by employees. Similarly, leaders must be open to suggestions and feedback. For example, if staff are dissatisfied with an aspect of the office environment, listen to their concerns and be open to making necessary changes.

a. Related Skills: Ability to learn new skills, Ability to respond to new problems or issues, Adaptability, Improvising, Negotiating, Open to feedback, Recognizing individuals’ strengths and skills, Treating employees as individuals


Functional Leadership Skills

  1. Strategic Thinking – In simple terms, having an idea or vision of where you want to be and working to achieve that. Good strategic thinking is based on evidence and being able to gather and analyze information from a wide range of sources. Knowing and understanding your market and using that information to support your strategic decisions.
  2. Planning and Delivery Skills – The best vision in the world is no good without the plan to turn it into reality. Therefore, strategic thinking goes together with organizing and action planning, both essential to the delivery of your vision and strategy. Good risk management is also important to help you avoid things going wrong and manage when they do. Facilitation skills are helpful to manage groups effectively. 
  3. People Management Skills – Leaders are expected to motivate and encourage their followers, both directly and by creating a motivational environment. Delegation is among the skills in effective people management. Being able to give team members responsibilities and a taste of leadership helps them remain motivated. Among the challenges of delegating is balancing workloads and ensuring that everyone is given opportunities to develop, Understanding how to build and manage teams is a key skill of leaders and managers. Knowing how to recruit effectively and bring people onboard. Understanding performance management on a regular basis and to manage poor performance is also important.
  4. Change Management and Innovation Skills – Leadership is often very important during times of change. A leader needs to understand change management in order to lead an organization through the process. For example, change management requires the creation and communication of a compelling vision. It also requires the change to be driven forward firmly and leadership to make it ‘stick’ if the organization is not to revert within a very short period. An important element of change management is innovation. Good leaders know how to innovate and also how to encourage innovation in others. 
  5. Communication Skills – Good leaders tend to be extremely good listeners, able to listen actively and elicit information by good questioning. Assertiveness allows leaders to make their point without aggression but firmly. Building rapport quickly and effectively allows them to develop good, strong relationships with others, whether peers or subordinates. These skills come together to help build charisma, a quality of ‘brightness’ which makes people want to follow a leader.
  6. Persuasion and Influencing Skills – Being able to persuade and influence others allows leaders to bring people to their thought process, understand their vision, and work together to achieve it.

Becoming a Good Leader

  • Microbehaviors - Master Complex skills by developing microbehaviors. Microbehaviors are tasks that you have boiled down to their core concepts.
    1. For example, to develop the skill of Managing Priorities, you must break it down into explicit tasks, establishing a hierarchy of importance within the tasks, estimating a tasks completion time, and ensuring that the logic governing prioritization is clear to all involved.
  • Leader Habit Formula – Linking Microbehaviors to simple cues and rewards as reinforcement. Look for inbuilt rewards you can find in the tasks you perform or situations you encounter.
    1. One micro-behavior required for influencing others is working out unstated or implied questions that others might have. By doing this, you can better fulfill their needs. The cue for this micro-behavior is hearing someone complain. A cue like this occurs in real time and comes about naturally with no need for further pruning. This means that it's scientifically easier to remember say than some note you've just scribbled on a piece of paper. For Example, Ask Open-Ended Questions.  What leadership skill does this habit build?
    2. Sure. Asking open-ended questions is a habit that strengthens active listening, which is a core leadership skill. As a leader, you don’t have all the answers, and you need to consult others and learn from them – and you can only do that with strong listening skills. Open-ended questions encourage people to talk more and create opportunities for genuine conversation because they require more than a simple yes-or-no answer. The Leader Habit exercise for this micro-behavior is: After realizing that you want to ask a question (cue), start it with the words “what” or “how” (behavior). If you practice this simple exercise once per day for 66 days, it will become second nature, and you strengthen your listening skills.
  • Develop Keystone Habits – These are habits that develop and encourage the correction of other habits.
    1. For example, in an analysis of pizza delivery driver behaviors, when the company discussed the benefits of using seatbelts and put up signs about safety in the office, there was not only an increase in the use of seatbelts but also in use of turn signals.
  • Develop Task-oriented Skills – The key to prioritizing microbehaviors is to ensure that these provide actionable tasks and set deadlines. Try to find the common theme in problems (for example, missed deadlines, clashing, finishing the wrong tasks all point to a problem in coordination)

Encouraging Leadership among Team Members

  • Encourage your Team Members to Take Initiative – Let your team members look beyond the tasks of their JD. Allow them to think long-term and look into opportunities that would be beneficial to the team and the organization.
  • Allow them to take more responsibility – With initiative should be the opportunity to have more responsibility. Allow them the chance to show what they are capable of and cultivate their potential
  • Target Specific Skills – Provide a plan for developing specific skills that they would want to develop. Promote opportunities for growth beyond what is available in the workplace. These may come in the form of short classes or courses, reading books, finding a mentor, even friends from outside the office are all avenues in the pursuit of self-improvement.