Many people consider themselves to have good leadership skills when in reality they’re better at discouraging than encouraging. They’re better at scattering people than gathering people around them.  Just being in a leadership position does not turn a person into a leader any more than sitting in a garage turns a person into a car.

Leadership seems to be innate in a few people, but most of us have to learn how to be a good, effective leader.

What are Good Leadership Skills?

Good leadership skills encompass so many aspects, they are rather intangible.

Yes, a leader leads in the most basic definition, but how do they gain the trust of those following them?  How do they make people feel safe in their situation, even if it’s a dangerous situation?  What do they do that makes people say, even years later, “She was such a great person to work for” or, “If he hadn’t been my boss, I wouldn’t be as successful as I am today.”

There is nothing more rewarding than helping others to be more successful.  If you help others to improve their abilities and they are able to better provide for themselves and their family, what is better than that?

Good Leaders Care

Good leaders care about those they lead and seek to provide for their well-being.  A military commander tries to keep his troops alive and win their battles.  Parents work to provide a house and food.  Supervisors look for opportunities to better their employees, perhaps through additional training and responsibilities that prepare them for promotions.

It’s important to care about your people, there isn’t a way to shortcut this.  If you don’t care there are several books that can help you care and understand caring.  You can get training and coaching on Emotional Intelligence and it will help.  (It helped me!)

Good Leaders Listen

Good leaders listen.  They assimilate information and process it against the big picture goal.  They listen to people who work above them to understand the big picture and company goals.  They listen to team members working for them to understand their concerns and ideas.

Good leadership skills

The best information you can get is from your people.  Your people have vital information, perspectives, understanding, even tidbits they hear from other departments or competitors.  Your people have good ideas, if you are fair and manage them well they will do their best to help the team succeed.  Build the team.  Follow the steps, use the tools.

Good Leaders Change

Because change in life and business is inevitable, a leader has to be able to adapt well to change.  More than just adapting, good leaders continually look for ways to improve a situation and, where possible, initiate positive changes themselves.

One saying you can be assured is accurate “The only constant is change.”  Don’t fight it, it’s useless.  Embrace it.  Use the change to build your team and help them grow from it.  There’s no point making a negative if you can turn something into a positive.  Every chance you can turn negatives (or spin them) into positives is a win for you and your team.

Good Leaders Share

Leaders are all about teamwork, not dictatorship.  Now, your position may have you working in a bureaucratic type of environment where “the rules are the rules” and there’s not much room for creativity.  You can still be an effective leader to your team.  You can still encourage, listen, create goals for their personal and professional growth, and develop them into the best team in the company.  It just takes adapting to your situation.

You can create motivational fun things with potlucks, movie tickets.  Find leadership development material and have a mini-series of classes for them, they will appreciate it and become better managers themselves.  Volunteer as a group to paint a children’s center or volunteer as a group somewhere, have a cause that matters.  If the company is stifling you should try to find outlets for creativity of your team.

These are only a few good leadership skills.  Do you recognize any in yourself?  If you don’t already you can if you want to.