What soft skills should you look for when recruiting team leaders?

Ability to demonstrate an understanding and respect for diverse cultural norms and values, promoting an inclusive workplace. Ability to actively listen to team members, foster open communication, and values others input. Ability to convey ideas clearly and inspire teams to work towards common goals. Ability to manage and navigate work pressure, including meeting deadlines and achieving sales targets, by breaking them down into actionable, measurable tasks. These are some attributes that shape the profile of a well-rounded team leader who can help lead, inspire, and support teams.

Agree soft skills are key when hiring team leaders! There are 6 that I look for. 1. Effective Communication -strong communicators bridge gaps and ensure everyone's on the same page. 2. Empathy -created a positive work environment and support their team members through challenges. 3. Adaptability-In a fast-paced world it is crucial to handle changing circumstances and lead by example. 4. Problem-Solving-ability analyze complex situations and find practical 5. Time Management -prioritization is vital. 6. Emotional Intelligence -Understanding and managing one's emotions is vital for leading with grace.

I am looking for a person that listens and thinks critically around what could be an emotionally charged situation. Their ability to see the value in differing opinions and express the need for them to a team. More times than not this is a learned behavior through either great leadership or leadership that's been found wanting. Either way the mentee has found value and is looking to apply their experience to a new opportunity.

I would look for a leader with a servants heart who is a great listener. Someone with a passion to lead and empower their people. It’s also crucial that the leader is skilled in creating a vision people can rally around.

When I recruit for leaders, I’m looking for people who are curious, life long learners. And I’m looking for people who are both introspective and able to receive feedback with grace and humility. Many people assume that leaders have to know it all, but good leaders are able to continuously learn and grow - modeling how this is down for their team. I also look for someone skilled at scaling their talents, while also being confident enough to seek advice in areas where they are not strong.

To me "Soft skills" or rather "human skills" are crucial for successful team leaders as they allow for effective communication, empathy, adaptability, problem-solving, and time management. Good communication helps to build relationships and resolve conflicts, while empathy creates a supportive work environment. Adaptability enables quick adjustments to changing circumstances, and problem-solving and time management ensure projects are completed on time. Possessing these skills equips team leaders to lead their teams towards success.

"Soft skills" in my experience are human skills, and inextricably connected to success. When hiring for a leader, these traits are of highest importance in my opinion: -Do they practice empathy? Can they demonstrate that they are capable of connecting to an emotion, utilizing emotional granularity and literacy, and be present without trying to solve? -Do they practice humility and celebrate others? -Are they self-aware? Do they know their strengths and weaknesses and how to leverage them on a team? -Are they willing to adaptively roll up their sleeves while maintaining a positive outlook? -Do they ask questions before making judgements? These traits influence if this person will manage or lead, and that distinction is of utmost importance.

When a leader has strong soft skills, it's fair to say they've done previous work on their personal development. They've taken the time to explore their blind spots, resolve their issues, and become more attuned to their strengths and weaknesses. This level of connection to self enables leaders to create meaningful relationships with others. It opens the door to a more empathetic leadership style and helps leaders activate their intuition. With a strong intuition, leaders are well-equipped to ask questions at the appropriate time and with the necessary tone. Ultimately, it enables leaders to create emotional connections with their team members and colleagues and establish trust.

1?? Trust Building: Teams rally behind leaders they trust, and that trust is usually earned through emotional intelligence and consistent communication. 2?? Effective Delegation: Knowing your team's strengths and weaknesses means you can delegate smarter, optimising morale and results. 3?? Conflict Resolution: No workplace is without conflict. Leaders skilled in diplomacy can defuse tension and focus the team on objectives. 4?? Inspiration: A leader who can motivate is gold. When the going gets tough, it's often the leader's soft skills that keep the team pulling in the same direction. 5?? Adaptability: Markets shift, challenges arise. Leaders need to adapt and guide their teams through change, keeping everyone engaged and committed.

Agree with some of the comments here, these are not just "soft" but essential human skills to help us connect with others and nurture meaningful relationships. That's why learnable skills like active listening, empathy, and developing a growth mindset are necessary for success in leading and participating in teams. Essentially, if you develop your emotional intelligence, you're bound to succeed as a leader!

When hiring leaders i look for Emotionally Intelligence Servant Leaders. Someone that is humble, can self-regulate their emotions and is cognizant of their own opportunities without coming off as trite or disingenuous, will motivate others to do better and create a following amongst peers and subordinates. A strong leader must have empathy and consider others perspectives and opinions equitably, and the social skills to tie it all together.

In my experience, empathy is absolutely key. A team leader needs to listen to the team, and understand how they can feel. This is important in professional life, but also critical when something unexpected happens in a colleagues personal life. A team leader needs to understand their team member as a person, not just a resource.

I love the conversation around the importance of empathy. I strongly believe to be an effective leader, one must couple empathy with compassion. Both are distinct but interconnected. Neither are skills in themselves. Active listening is a key skill in practicing empathy, as it fosters deep understanding. Compassion extends empathy by taking action to alleviate suffering or promote well-being. It often leads to facilitating problem-solving, a vital component of compassion. To wrap up my thoughts here, active listening and facilitating problem-solving are two vital soft skills for any leader. Active listening with empathy enhances understanding, while facilitating problem-solving with compassion leads to meaningful, supportive actions.

One additional skill is the power of persuasion. You have to use your collaboration skills and critical thinking skills together to determine what the benefits are of initiatives and projects to help get buy in and support.

I have always looked for servant leaders with self-awareness, empathy and patience. Many of the technical skills or business skills can be taught, but these 'soft' skills are hardest to develop, and yet the most critical! If leaders can exhibit these behaviors, their team will be more likely to feel empowered, included, listened to, and will be more trusting.

Building soft skills is a life-long journey of examining one's behavior, taking personal responsibility for one's actions, learning to empower others, and influencing decisions through clear and thoughtful requests of others. There's no "right" or "wrong" way to do it, but embracing humility and a beginner's mindset makes the journey more manageable and enjoyable.

Soft skills are interpersonal attributes that enable individuals to interact effectively and harmoniously with others. They include communication skills, teamwork, problem-solving, adaptability, conflict resolution, leadership, time management, and creativity. Soft skills are highly valued in the workplace as they help individuals to build strong relationships, work collaboratively, and achieve common goals. In addition, soft skills are transferable and can be applied in any job or industry, making them an essential asset for career success.

As a comms expert my first soft skill pick is undoubtedly Communications! This skill is crucial as a good team leader needs to be able to communicate with every aspect being important from your tone, body language, facial expressions and hand gestures, too. A good team leader really should be a good active listener , truly listen and not listen to just add commentary. By being a good listener you can gain insights to the unsaid comments from the team ;you listen to learn more about the team. A good leader should be motivational have a positive mental attitude. The team leans on you literally rides on your energy to get that task done. A final one I could possibly add though there are more skills is emotional intelligence and Kindness!

Investment in self-knowledge and how human brain works also pay a good return when developing skills. However, leadership is an art and real life practice is a must to advance in the life-long journey of a leader.

Leaders are a different breed, they are not "managers". The role of a leader is to communicate ideas, goals and objectives clearly to the team. This should be done in a variety of ways; 1. Give a briefing then ask questions to gauge understanding and acceptance of the task in hand. 2. A leader should never directly ask the question: "Do you understand?" this can be seen as demeaning. It is far more effective to ask " Have I explained it clearly, are there any details that need to be clarified?". 3. Always give clear and unambiguous direction to let the team know what you expect. This may be a specific timescale, a financial target or simply a confirmation that the task has been completed.