Skills All Good Leaders Should Develop and Work On

A good leader is always working on themselves. Some skills, such as charisma and confidence, come naturally, but others can be learned. Not only can they be learned but a good leader will want to learn them. In fact, they never want to stop improving and growing their skill set.

Here are the skills that a good leader should develop and work on.

Proactivity 

Being passive can be a leader’s demise. A good leader will always try their best to be proactive. Proactivity is a skill that will further productivity and confidence in both the leader and employees.

“A successful leader doesn’t wait for things to happen; they are proactive and they anticipate desired results. They identify threats and take action against them.” – Career Addict

When employees watch their leader take action against threats and actively work towards goals, the employees will be more confident in their leader’s ability to get things done and they’ll want to further that. A proactive leader helps make everyone proactive.

Delegation

A good leader knows the importance of delegation and learns how to do it right. It can be a hard thing to be good at. It means losing a bit of control. A lot of people instinctively think that if they want a task done right then they need to do it themselves. A good leader knows that they don’t have to do everything.

The Balance Careers lists some skills that make a good delegator as the following:

• Accepting feedback from employees
• Allotting resources for employees
• Assessing employee strengths and weaknesses
• 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 employees

A leader that takes on too many tasks will struggle to get things done. Delegating tasks isn’t a sign of weakness as some leaders think, but a sign of a good leader. It’s not as simple as handing out tasks to employees, it’s a skill that involves knowing your employees and their skill sets so you can assign the right tasks to the right person.

Relationship Building

A strong company is built on a foundation of strong relationships. A good leader knows this and tries to build those relationships.

“Business is built on a solid foundation of relationships and trust. Without these two things, you can’t have a business, or at least not a successful business.” – Inc

Building strong relationships takes a kind of skill that you can only learn by doing. A good leader isn’t afraid to work on these relationships constantly and authentically. They’ll take time out of their day to build relationships with their team, their customers, their community. Basically, they’ll want to build a relationship with anyone that they can. They know that’s what will make their company stronger.

Vulnerability

Although it may not seem like it, vulnerability is a skill. People often look upon it as a weakness, but it’s certainly not. It’s one of the most important parts of leadership.

“It creates an environment where everyone is safe to learn and grow from their mistakes. It also saves time and creates a better work culture for all. While it might seem counterintuitive, vulnerability makes stronger leaders.” – COO Alliance

Vulnerability leads to better communication, increased creativity, better time management, and better company culture, which are also all things that a good leader works towards.

Good leaders are always looking for ways to develop. No matter who you are or how high up on the ladder you are, there are always skills to be worked on. A good leader knows this. They always strive to be the best they can be.

If you have questions or would like more information, I’d be happy to help. Please leave a comment below and my team will get in touch with you.

__________________________________________________________________________

Cameron Herold grew up in a small town in Northern Canada. When his father, an entrepreneur, figured out that Cameron wasn’t going to fit into what they were teaching in school—because of his severe ADD—he taught him to hate working traditional ‘jobs’ and to love creating companies that employed others.

By 18, Cameron already had 14 different little businesses and he knew he loved money, entrepreneuring and business. And by 20 years old, he owned a franchise business painting houses and had twelve employees. He spent his twenties and early 30’s heading up 3 large businesses and coaching over 120 entrepreneurs. He was also the COO of 1-800-GOT-JUNK?, and during his 6.5 years he took the company from 2 million to 106 million. 

Knowing that every CEO needs a strong COO then led Cameron to start the COO Alliance in 2016. He noticed that there were no peer groups for one of the most crucial roles in the company—the Chief Operating Officer/2nd in command.