8 Leadership Skills to Develop
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8 Leadership Skills to Develop

Leadership isn’t a quality you either innately possess or lack; it’s the sum of eight skills you can develop over time:

Authenticity. Work to build self-awareness, and put yourself in positions to highlight your strengths and improve on your weaknesses.

Curiosity. Ask questions about what you don’t know. Think expansively and ambitiously. Present as someone who constantly wants to learn, explore, and innovate.

Analytical thinking. Leadership requires the ability to break down complex problems, identify their root causes, and come up with fresh solutions. Develop your analytical skills by focusing on cause-and-effect relationships and being attentive to patterns and trends.

Adaptability. Take on assignments and seek out experiences that demand flexibility. Push yourself to work in new environments with different kinds of people.

Creativity. You don’t necessarily need to come up with every great idea on your own. Sometimes it’s about establishing an environment that nurtures creativity in others.

Comfort with ambiguity. Managing ambiguity is about holding conflicting ideas in your head and dealing with competing priorities that feel equally important. Ask a lot of “what ifs” and “so whats,” and scrutinize matters from different perspectives.

Resilience. When things get tough, exhibit the resilience to recalibrate, regroup, and get input from others by asking, “Is there another path?”

Empathy. Developing your emotional intelligence gives you a deeper appreciation of the complex challenges others are working through — and helps you foster a more supportive and nurturing environment.

Read the article: "8 Essential Qualities of Successful Leaders," by Rebecca Knight


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Randall S. Peterson

Professor of Organisational Behaviour at London Business School | PhD in Social Psychology

9 个月

Great topic! In today's world, I think strong communication skills are crucial for leaders.??

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Paul McCarthy

Emerging Leadership Executive Advisor | Best Selling Author of The F.I.R.E.D. Leader? | Speaker on Disruptive Leadership

11 个月

From my work in this field over the last 5 years (as well as developing leaders throughout my career), my research uncovers how we are not preparing future leaders with the leadership qualities that will be increasingly needed to navigate ongoing disruption... I write about this more in my first best-selling book: https://mybook.to/Fired-Leader And in a recent article published in Authority Magazine and Medium: https://www.dhirubhai.net/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7175815408581517312/ Interestingly, when my literary agent pitched my book to the likes of Harvard Business Review, the feedback was that it was 'too bold' for their audience....and yet 50 of the world's top experts in leadership, HR, culture and industry have so far endorsed it...

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Simona Spilak, MSc

??Executive Coach to CEO's and Top Management ??Managing Director @BOC Institute ??Lecturer ??Speaker

1 年

Resilience, Empathy & Authenticity. ??

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Habib Ategeka

Group COO/Assistant CEO Citadel Holdings Ltd | The Medical Hub/ RosWell Hospital

1 年

This is Nice!

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