Becoming A True Leader, Skill By Skill

Most people think that great leaders are born, not made. Actually leadership is nothing more than a set of skills, and it can be learned in the same way as we learn foreign language or how to work in Photoshop. In this article we shared some of the most important skills, great leaders should have.

Organizational Skills

Superb organizational skills are one of the most important requirements for successful managers. Every leader should be able to divide work in a way that employees don’t feel too much pressure. Even in the most difficult circumstances, leaders stay organized and focused on the project their team is working on. Organizational skills nclude: planning, scheduling, time-management, coordinating resources, managing bigger and smaller teams, etc. Managers who lack these skills in most cases were upgraded to this position, by showing great dedication as regular employees. For learning these skills they should enroll to leadership training courses.

Communication Skills

Determining team’s objectives and issues that stop you from reaching them is easier part of manager’s job. Hard part comes when you need to explain your thoughts to other team members and assign them with special tasks. For this you will need excellent communication skills. Every manager needs to clearly and thoroughly explain team’s goals and objectives, and motivate team members to meet them in full.

This doesn’t mean that good leader is a sweet talker by default, it means that he/she can wrap all of the instructions, orders, rebukes and praises he wants to share with other team members in easy understandable sentences and speeches.

In addition to this good leader also needs to talk to other team members on an hourly basis and have open-door policy 24/7. With making yourself available to discuss all office troubles, you will gain more trust from your employees, and it will be easier for you to convince them to work better and harder.

Motivational Skills

One of the best qualities of every leader is his/hers ability to motivate employees to work better and harder. Bad managers use penalties and pay cuts to keep their team agile and obedient, while real leaders use motivational speeches, rewards and praises.

Great leaders are able to convince employees that their work is meaningful and that it makes a difference in the world. This will make them work better and put much more dedication in creating better products and providing better services to customers.

Problem Solving Skills

After they are assigned to the team, managers usually need to solve all problems
themselves. If they are unable to solve them, or they act indifferent, every new problem that comes around will be sent directly to manager’s desk. On the other hand if a new manager uses innovative ways for problem solving and teaches his/hers employees to do the same, employees will realize the importance of fast and efficient problem solving tactics, and will take their part in this action.

This will leave managers with much less problems to solve. People with good problem solving skills are also seen as better leaders by other team members because one of the primary tasks of each leader is to solve organizational problems and to use market opportunities for company’s or team’s benefits.

Innovative and Creative Approach to Daily Tasks

Constant innovation is the right way to create more competitive economy. That’s why good leaders need to upgrade their knowledge constantly and to follow new trends in leadership and advanced technologies. This will enable them to have unique and innovative approach to every daily task, which will earn lots of praises from their subordinates. Creativity is another very important characteristics of great leaders. Most decisions that leaders need to make are not clear-cut, which is why they need to add dose of creativity and personal touch.

As we said in the beginning of this article, leadership can be learned by combination of theory and practical work, and today there are dozens of different courses that can be used for this purpose. Of course to become a great leader, you will also need years of work experience, on various different positions, because this is the best way to realize thoughts, wants and needs of your subordinates.