5 Essential Leadership Skills Employers Look For

Strong leadership abilities are extremely valuable in the workplace, especially in today’s fast-paced and competitive work climate. These talents are applicable to a variety of positions and responsibilities, from executives to senior management.

They have the potential to promote productivity, boost morale, stimulate innovation, and aid in problem solving. Furthermore, as businesses seek to enhance visibility and adapt to ever-changing markets and consumer needs, strong leaders may provide a competitive advantage.

As a result, companies will constantly be on the lookout for applicants that possess these essential talents.

With that in mind, you should understand how to successfully highlight these skills on your resume. To assist you in this endeavor and boost your chances of landing an interview, we’ve compiled a list of the five critical leadership and management skills that top employers want.

This explains why you should emphasize these in your application and how to achieve so.

1. Communication

Almost half of employers (45.2%) believe communication is the most crucial trait in an effective leader. This includes various important skills, such as speaking, listening, writing, and visual communication. These are all essential talents in the job, and there are several reasons for this.

Communication is essential for providing employees with the information they require, as well as for establishing goals, initiatives, and workflows. It’s also vital for developing relationships with coworkers and clients, listening to one another, and fostering collaboration.

Furthermore, without good communication, there is possibility for errors and misunderstandings.

This is why it is critical to highlight your communication abilities on your resume, as well as your important successes in this field.

To maximize your effect, quantify these skills wherever possible. For example, ‘oversaw initiatives between the sales and marketing divisions, assisting them in developing an advertising plan that raised sales by 25% within the first six months’.

2. Interpersonal skills

Building and sustaining meaningful relationships at work requires interpersonal skills. This primarily entails cultivating positive relationships with your team and coworkers, but these abilities can also be used while interacting with clients and consumers.

The various traits you may employ to interact with people on a daily basis are known as interpersonal skills. These cover a wide range of abilities essential to leadership, such as collaboration, persuasion, active listening, teamwork, and dispute resolution.

It is a good idea to provide a few examples that illustrate this crucial skill set because there are many vital traits involved and they can help to improve your application.

3. Problem-solving

Most jobs require the ability to solve problems, but leadership positions require it even more. You must be able to thoroughly evaluate many circumstances in order to decide on the best course of action as an effective leader.

In addition to dealing with your own everyday problems, you can also be in charge of assisting other coworkers or reports in resolving their own problems. When leaders successfully and regularly resolve issues, their people are more likely to trust them and feel more comfortable approaching them in times of crisis.

Therefore, be sure to include more information about this skill in your application than just “problem-solving.” Make sure to provide instances of how you have addressed issues in the past and the impact this had on the team and business as a whole.

4. Decision-making

Leaders must have the ability to make wise judgments that will benefit the company and must be decisive. This occasionally entails making a choice under duress.

Making decisions well demonstrates self-assurance, accountability, and the capacity to consider the available data and act, even if it involves taking a measured risk. Furthermore, being a leader involves more than simply making judgments; it also entails helping and mentoring the team or less experienced workers as they make decisions.

It can be challenging to highlight these abilities on a resume, so it’s preferable to include actual instances of your ability to make important decisions in previous positions and the value you were able to provide to the company.

5. Delegation

Not to be overlooked is delegating. Being in a leadership role makes it impossible to achieve everything by oneself. Employers will therefore seek for on your resume the ability to demonstrate strong delegating skills.

Additionally, it demonstrates that you may choose who is most qualified to handle jobs and projects by allocating assignments to your team and colleagues according to their capabilities.

Furthermore, time management, another critical ability that companies would seek in a strong applicant, depends on delegating. Thus, you are able to exhibit a number of important transferable talents.

Although you can emphasize many other skills on your CV, showcasing your accomplishments and these five crucial abilities can improve your chances of impressing the recruiter and securing an interview.