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Aug 06, 2020 ▪ Approx. 20 min. read

What Are The Top

Leadership Skills That Make
a Great Leader?
Leadership skills are some of the most in-demand soft READ NEXT BLOG POST
skills. So, what does it take to be a great leader in the Who Are Knowledge Workers and How to
workplace? Set Them Up for Success
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Leadership skills are some of the most in-demand soft skills. So, what
does it take to be a great leader in the workplace?

Whether one is a team leader, a project supervisor, or a business

executive, all professionals occupying leadership roles are required to
possess strong leadership skills.

📚Download our eBook "10 Principles of Modern Employee

Communications" and learn how to communicate with the modern
employee in today's digital age.

Leadership and Good Communication

Skills Go Hand in Hand
It goes without saying that leaders are expected to be great
communicators.

They run projects and make decisions that have a direct impact on the
business’s bottom line and most importantly, they constantly interact
with people.

Think about it: most leaders manage a team and no matter how big the
team is, leaders need to communicate with each member of the team,
whether it’s on a daily or weekly basis.

And the way they communicate with their team has a tremendous impact
on the company’s success.

Top Skills You Need to Develop in the Workplace

Put di erently, developing strong leadership skills plays a critical role

in the success of any organization. You can’t build a successful business
without having the right talent — including leaders — on board.

Now, the Question Is: Can Anyone Be a

Great Leader?
If so, how can you get and develop the skills you need to become a great
leader, how does the learning process look like?

The thing is, it’s not that simple.

Some agree that some people are born to be great leaders. Others
believe that leaders are made.

The truth is, there’s no manual or guide that will give you all the tricks to
become a great leader. But what’s for sure is that leadership involves
great soft skills.

So, what are the most in-demand leadership skills? Why developing
leadership skills is critical in the workplace? What does it take to become
a great leader? What do successful leaders do di erently?

Let’s dive in!

Leadership Skills: Definition and

Examples
There is no unique way to describe great leadership skills.
Unsurprisingly, you can nd di erent lists describing the leadership skills
one should possess to become a great leader in the workplace.

In essence, leadership skills are the abilities people have to lead and
deliver projects, encourage initiatives, build a sense of common purpose,
and empower others.

Leadership skills also include the abilities people have to steer

employees toward the achievement of the business goals, inspire them,
drive change, and deliver results.

🔎Read on: 5 Employee Communication Predictions for 2020 (And

Beyond)

Keep in mind that not all great leaders possess the same leadership skills
since these skills are strongly connected with people’s personality
traits and communication abilities. In sum, di erent people, di erent
leadership skills!

Examples of the Most In-Demand

Leadership Skills for Employees
There are many di erent leadership skills required in the workplace, but
the most in-demand ones include:

Active listening
Empathy
The ability to share clear messages and make complex ideas easy
to understand for everyone
Strategic thinking skills
Creativity
The ability to inspire and convince others
Flexibility
The ability to turn information into action
Project planning
Active listening
The ability to assess employees’ strengths and weaknesses
Business storytelling
Time management
The ability to build trust
Strong communication skills
Positivity
Reliability
Management skills
The ability to align the employees with the company values and
goals
A strong leadership vision
Recruiting skills
Persuasion skills
The ability to help employees nd meaning at work
Strong charisma

🔎Read on: Top 5 Communication Skills and How to Improve Them

What Leaders Are We Talking About?

There are some misconceptions about leadership in the workplace.

By “leaders”, we usually mean employees that occupy supervisory

positions in the organization. They are at the top of the hierarchy and they
manage teams or even entire business units.

Think about it: when we talk about or read articles about leadership, the
rst leaders that come to our mind are company founders, business
executives, directors, or team leaders.

However, employees — including those that don’t occupy

supervisory positions — can potentially become leaders.

Indeed, if employees have what it takes to be a leader — including

leadership and management skills — they can inspire, motivate, and also
challenge their colleagues.

Kim Turnage, Director, Leadership Consultant at Talent Plus, says:

“Having a measure of autonomy to make decisions in the workplace is a

way to both identify leaders and help them develop. In every culture,
there are people who do what’s expected of them and not much more.
And then there are people who just naturally step forward and take more
responsibility, take more initiative. Those are the people who have that
real leadership potential”.

But having great — if not exceptional — leadership skills is not enough

for employees to become leaders. They need to be inspired and
encouraged by their supervisors.

🔎Read on: Interpersonal Communication: De nition, Importance and

Must-Have Skills

That's the reason why more and more businesses start launching in-
house leadership development plans to help employees grow their
leadership skills.

Leadership Skills — What Does Being a

“Great Leader” Mean?
There are hundreds if not thousands of di erent ways to describe a
"great leader".

Ask communicators, management experts, professors or even business

leaders how they would describe a great leader. They’ll all come up with
di erent de nitions!

However, most leadership experts agree that great leaders:

Translate the company’s vision into reality

Believe in their teams
Have the ability to motivate and inspire others
Know how to connect and engage with employees
Have a clear vision and know how to e ectively communicate it in
the workplace
Know how to coach employees so they can develop their skills and
improve their performance
Recognize others’ achievements
Have empathy
Translate the company’s vision into reality
Have a great understanding of the business’s strategy and know
how to communicate it to their teams
Enhance dialogues in the workplace
Listen to employees
Lead by example
Know how to create unity in the workplace
Encourage open and transparent communication
Are change drivers — they encourage creativity and innovation in
the workplace
Include employees in decision making, they e ectively delegate
Make employees’ well-being and safety one of their top priorities
Last but not least: great leaders don’t fail. They learn.

Leadership skills — including communication skills — are some of the

most important skills leaders are expected to have.

🔎Read on: Top Communication Channels to Consider for Your

Business

But we’re not there yet: a recent Interact-Harris Poll found that 91% of
the surveyed employees think their managers are not good
communicators.

So, what does that mean for your organization if you don’t have the “right
leaders” on board?

20+ Leadership Statistics to Know in

2020
Great leaders have a direct impact on their team' success and ability to
deliver results.

And here’s why: the way leaders communicate in the workplace has a
direct impact on employees' motivation, morale, productivity, and
ultimately on employee engagement.

🔎Read on: 8 Employee Engagement Statistics You Need to Know in

2020 [INFOGRAPHIC]

Think about it:

Only 19% of organizations say they are “very e ective” at

developing leaders (Infopro Learning)
56% of organizations are not ready to meet leadership needs
(Deloitte)
77% of organizations overall are currently experiencing a
leadership gap (Elucidat)
Employees supervised by highly engaged leadership teams are
39% more likely to be engaged themselves (MDA Training)
58% of managers say they didn’t receive any management
training (Forbes)
82% of employees don’t trust their boss to tell the truth (Forbes)
37% of employees consider recognition the most important thing
a manager or a company could do to help them be more
successful at what they do
Only 29% of employees are happy with the career
advancement opportunities their companies have o ered so
far now
Companies with high-engaged workforce are 21% more
pro table but 85% of employees are not engaged at work
32% of UK employees lack the con dence to put ideas forward to
employers (MDA Training)
1 in 3 professionals cite boredom as their main reason to leave
their job
81% of employees feel ready to leave their jobs
Overall, disengaged employees cost companies $450-500 billion
each year
Only 42% of employees strongly agree that leadership e ectively
led their organization through the COVID-19 crisis (Perceptyx)
85% of employees say they’re most motivated when
management o ers regular updates on company news (Trade
Press Services)
56% of employees believe that managers should update their
skills to support a remote team (CIPHR)
79% of employees want to quit their jobs because of a lack of
appreciation from leaders (GoRemotely)
63% of millennials feel their leadership skills are not being
developed (HRPA)
38% of remote workers and 15% of remote managers
received no training on how to work remotely.
87% of millennials rate "professional or career growth and
development opportunities" as important to them in a job (Gallup)
One in two employees have left their job to get away from their
manager at some point in their career (Gallup)
56% of employees believe managers need to adapt their skills to
manage a remote workforce (PowWowNow)

10 Inspiring Business Leaders with

Strong Leadership Skills
Are great leaders the ones that inspire and motivate their teams? Are they
the ones who can make complex ideas easy to understand for everyone?
Or are they the ones that encourage employees to develop their
creativity?

Maybe great leaders possess all these leadership skills, maybe they
don’t. But they all have one thing in common: they know how to attract
and grow top talent.

They hire the right employees, inspire them, and support their creativity
and professional development. And it all starts with great leadership
skills!

But what does it actually take to be a great leader?

We’ve compiled below inspirational quotes from business leaders that

have built or contributed to some of the most successful companies in
the world.

They have di erent ways to describe leadership and success, but they
all have at least one thing in common — great leadership skills.

Are you ready to nd out what great leadership means to them?

Let’s take a lot at some of their most famous quotes! 💬

Indra Nooyi, Former Chairman and CEO of PepsiCo

"As a leader, I am tough on myself and I raise the standard for everybody;
however, I am very caring because I want people to excel at what they are
doing so that they can aspire to be me in the future". (Mirror Review
Quotes)

"Just because you are CEO, don't think you have landed. You must
continually increase your learning, the way you think, and the way you
approach the organization. I've never forgotten that". (Business &
Leadership)

"The one thing I have learned as a CEO is that leadership at various levels
is vastly di erent. When I was leading a function or a business, there
were certain demands and requirements to be a leader. As you move up
the organization, the requirements for leading that organization don't
grow vertically; they grow exponentially". (Fast Company)

Bill Gates, Co-Founder of Microsoft

“The leader needs to create an environment in which people can analyze
the situation and develop a good response”. (Pondot)

“Great organizations demand a high level of commitment by the people

involved". (Pondot)

"I believe that if you show people the problems and you show them the
solutions, they will be moved to act". (Telegraph)

Mary Barra, Chairman and CEO of General Motors

"If we win the hearts and minds of employees, we're going to have better
business success". (Stanford Business)

“It’s important to surround yourself with people who will challenge you
and tell you when and why you are wrong”. (Strategies for In uence)

"As a visionary leader, you should be thinking about more than just the
next quarter. You should also be thinking about the next decade, and
what your company’s reputation and place in the world will be after 40
quarterly results”. (Strategies for In uence)

Richard Branson, Founder of Virgin Group

“People are fundamental in driving the success of a business. If you treat
your sta like the smart and capable adults they are — and give them
choice to make informed decisions — you will cultivate an environment in
which everyone can ourish”. (Virgin)

“If you look after your sta , they'll look after your customers. It's that
simple”. (Virgin)

Herb Kelleher, Co-Founder of Southwest Airlines

“Your employees come rst. And if you treat your employees right, guess
what? Your customers come back, and that makes your shareholders
happy. Start with employees and the rest follows from that”. (Employers
Resource)

“You must be very patient, very persistent. The world isn’t going to
shower gold coins on you just because you have a good idea. You’re
going to have to work like crazy to bring that idea to the attention of
people". (Employers Resource)

Tim Cook, CEO of Apple

“The most important thing is, do you have the courage to admit that
you're wrong? And do you change? The most important thing to me as a
CEO is that we keep the courage”. (Fast Company)

“Ultimately, it's on the company leaders to set the tone. Not only the CEO,
but the leaders across the company. If you select them so carefully that
they then hire the right people, it's a nice self-ful lling prophecy”.
(Business Insider)

"You're trying to pick people that t into the culture of a company. You
want a very diverse group with very diverse life experiences looking at
every problem. But you also want people to buy into the philosophy, not
just buy in, but to deeply believe in it." (Business Insider)

"You look for people that are not political. People that are not bureaucrats.
People that really don’t care who gets credit. People that can privately
celebrate the achievement, but not care if their name is the one in the
lights. There are greater reasons to do things". (GeekWire)

Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google, Alphabet

“As a leader, a lot of your job is to make those people successful. It’s less
about trying to be successful (yourself), and more about making sure you
have good people and your work is to remove that barrier, remove
roadblocks for them so that they can be successful in what they do. So
that’s how I’ve always thought about it.” (Think Marketing)

Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos

“I view my role more as trying to set up an environment where
personalities, creativity, and individuality of all the di erent employees
come our and can shine.” (InnovationManagement)

“We believe that it’s really important to come up with core values that you
can commit to. And by commit, we mean that you’re willing to hire and
re based on them. If you’re willing to do that, then you’re well on your
way to building a company culture that is in line with the brand you want
to build.” (Inc.)

Howard Schultz, Former Chairman and CEO of

Starbucks
“You can’t expect your employees to exceed the expectations of your
customers if you don’t exceed the employees’ expectations of
management. That’s the contract.” (BusinessInsider)

“I think the currency of leadership is transparency. You've got to be

truthful. I don't think you should be vulnerable every day, but there are
moments where you've got to share your soul and conscience with
people and show them who you are, and not be afraid of it”. (Forbes)

"People want guidance, not rhetoric. They need to know what the plan of
action is, and how it will be implemented. They want to be given
responsibility to help solve the problem and authority to act on it.” (Good
Reads)

Mark Zuckerberg, Co-Founder, Chairman and CEO of

Facebook
“People can be really smart or have skills that are directly applicable, but
if they don’t really believe in it, then they are not going to really work
hard.” (Inc.)

“We look for people who are passionate about something. In a way, it
almost doesn't matter what you're passionate about”. (Inc.)

So, What Do Successful Leaders Have in

Common?
All successful leaders have di erent ways to de ne leadership and the
top skills it takes to e ectively lead a team.

For some of them, great leaders are the ones who inspire their teams
while for others, being a great leader means motivating employees and
stimulating their creativity.

But they all put communication as a key skill leaders should have.
Indeed, it’s through great communication that leaders can motivate,
inspire and support their teams.

💡Check out the importance of communication in the workplace in

the infographic below 👇

Ultimately, great leaders are the ones that build high-performing teams,
drive change, and impact the business’s bottom line. And guess what? It
all starts with strong leadership skills!

What's next? Download the eBook “10 Principles of Modern Employee

Communications” where we share tips & best practices for successfully
communicating with your employees in today's digital age.

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WRITTEN BY
Valène Jouany
Content Marketing Manager

READ NEXT BLOG POST

Who Are Knowledge Workers and
How to Set Them Up for Success

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