10 Leadership Skills And Qualities Needed In Business & In Life

Leadership skills and qualities necessary in business & in life. This article by The Female Professional will explore 10 essential skills needed to be a leader. Guest post by The Female Professional. This article may contain affiliate links.

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When it comes to life, work, business, or anything else, having a few key leadership skills can determine your success or failure. You have to be a good communicator, a good listener and have some decisiveness. The ability to step up to the plate and provide the necessary leadership is an important part of business and can play a key role in achieving your life goals in general.

Perhaps the best news is that leaders are made, not born.

You become a leader by practicing the qualities and behaviors of leaders who have gone before you. Like any set of skills, leadership is developed by practice and repetition until you master it.

So which learned skills am I referring to? Check out the 10 leadership skills and qualities needed in business & in life:

10 Leadership Skills And Qualities Needed In Business & In Life

10 Leadership Skills And Qualities Needed In Business & In Life

Leadership Skill #1 – Integrity

Great leadership is characterized by honesty, truthfulness, and straight dealing with every person, under all circumstances. No exceptions. It doesn’t matter what their political views are, who they love, or what they look like.

Integrity means keeping commitments, even though the circumstance in which you made them have changed.

There is a quote that illustrates this: 

“When integrity is the referee, your lips and your life will be in agreement. Your behaviors will mirror your beliefs. There’ll be no discrepancy between what you appear to be and who you are, whether in good times or bad.” – Unknown

Integrity frees you from being swayed by popular opinion or trending behaviors. Acting and living with integrity ensure that you remain true to who you are, irrespective of outside influence.

As a leader, trust is conferred upon you by others. To keep this trust and lead effectively, you have to be true to yourself. Good leaders are reliable, make promises carefully, and always keep their word. They deliver when they say they will. It sounds simple, but the impact is great. 

When it comes to building integrity, here are some questions you should ask yourself regularly.

• Am I the same, no matter who I’m with?
• Am I willing to make decisions that are best for others, even though another choice would benefit me more?
• Can I be counted on to keep the commitment I’ve made to myself and others?
• How do I treat others who are subordinate to me when no one is watching?

Leadership Skill #2 – Courage

The ability to make decisions and act boldly is the key to greatness in leadership. Your ability to speak, to step out in faith even when there is a chance of loss or failure, is the mark of leadership.

Courage is not a lack of fear or absence of fear; it is the ability to control it. Steve Ross said you couldn’t operate a company by fear, because the way to eliminate fears is to avoid criticism. And the way to avoid criticism is to do nothing. If you really want to grow you can’t do nothing. 

Everyone is afraid; the struggle is real. Effective leaders are simply those who face their fears and take action in spite them. 

Leadership Skill #3 – Realism

I once heard this:

“The first mistake a human makes in life is to take life the way they want life to be rather than taking life the way it is.”

Leaders speak to the world as it is, not as they wish it would be. You have to be rooted in reality so that you can address problems correctly and plan your next move. 

In other words, focus on facts and use data to back up the things you say. The quality of your decision is then determined by the quality of information on which those decisions are based.

Many people get away with living in an alternate reality, and gain a following for a while, but eventually (even if it takes years), they’ll realize you’re a snake in the weeds.

To remain sustainable, stay realistic.

Leadership Skill #4 – Bringing Power To Your Voice

It’s important to note that power is the ability to influence the allocation of people, money, and resources. Power gravitates to the person who can use it most effectively to get the desired results. 

Power is invariably the “power to speak”. How does this come to be? The first step is for you to become valuable and then indispensable. You do this by stepping up and speaking out in moments of need. Use your voice to solve problems, provide solutions, and create unity. Everything else falls into place.

Leadership Skill #5 – A Clear Vision

Have a clear vision of a better future, and the determination to realize it is what sets leaders apart.

Leaders have a clear picture of the kind of future they want, and they can communicate this vision to others in an exciting and inspiring way. Some of the most famous leaders in the world today are considered inspirational. They don’t tell people what to do, or how to be creative, they inspire people to be great. 

Part of being able to do this requires that you clearly show people where you want to end up. Show them the endgame, the end result of their efforts. Paint a picture of the future state of the company (or your life) and then have them go to work. 

The clearer the picture, and the better the communication, the clearer the path to achievement.

Related post from the archives: A Window Towards Financial Independence – The Importance Of A Clear Vision

Leadership Skill #6 – Optimism

The true leader radiates the confidence that all difficulties can be overcome and all goals can be attained.

Leaders speak optimistically. Optimism in a leader inspires and empowers people to believe that they can do more and be better than they ever have before. It is one of the most powerful communication skills of all the qualities of leadership and success.

Optimists are “can say” and “can do” people. They look for the good and say the good in every situation. They look for opportunity in every difficulty. Above all, optimists are solution-oriented rather than problem-oriented.

This is not to say that being optimistic means you aren’t grounded in reality. There must be both optimism and realism. Realism to see the situation for what it is, and optimism to help you change what you see.

Leadership Skill #7 – Emotional Maturity

Emotional maturity is one of the most essential and respected qualities in leadership. It requires, first, that you are at peace with yourself and, second, that you remain calm in the face of crazy, emotional situations.

Emotional maturity requires a bit of empathy as well, to be able to relate to the world and people around you. This can then help with your people management skills when addressing and understanding employee differences or general staffing issues that may arise.

This circles back to having and nurturing your integrity. If your actions and decisions are free from outside influences and trends, then you are better able to stay true to yourself. This translates to how you react to situations as well. Don’t take things personally, understand that emotions have a time and a place to show up, and it becomes easier to act and react in a way that maintains who you really are.

Leadership Skill #8 – Communication

Good and effective communication skills are the underlying commonality on what’s been discussed so far. Being able to explain yourself, your vision, your feelings, your emotions, your goals, not just to others but to yourself as well is extremely important.

Everything here is then related to how and what you communicate and if your communication shifts depending on the audience. Of course, be open to opinions and get feedback, but keep yourself (or your business) always at the forefront of that information. 

Leadership Skill #9 – The Ability To Change

In business or in life, things are constantly changing. To stay relevant and grow, we must also change, or create change within the business. Pay attention, trust your instincts and use your strategic thinking skills to pivot. 

As you gain more and more experience, you’ll realize that sometimes there isn’t a real explanation for decisions, just what your gut tells you is right. 

The problem with change is that it’s difficult and in the beginning you’ll potentially lose more than you gain. You may lose friends, relationships, time, or money. No matter what, understand that everything happens for a reason and change always takes you to a better place. 

Leadership Skill #10 – Finding The Right People

You can lead and be a great leader, but how far you go is also determined by the types of people you surround yourself with. In life, this is the friends and mentors you have; in business, it’s your team and workforce that you bring on board. 

Finding the right people is important. You want talent, drive, intelligence and creativity; you want people who support you and aren’t threatened by you. 

One of the biggest things that holds us back, I think, is that we hang on to people for too long, be it friends, partner, or workers. This doesn’t mean you have to go about firing everyone from your life. What this means is that you have to be discerning about who you spend your time with. 

Friends should support you and be understanding versus being critical and holding you back. Your team at work should be willing to learn and receive feedback while also speaking up and advocating for growth.

This is probably one of the hardest skills to cultivate. However, if you can surround yourself by the right people, you’ll automatically be ahead.

Leadership Skills And Qualities – Final Thoughts

As you may have noticed, this leadership skills list doesn’t include getting a degree. Of course, a degree can help in other areas of business and in life, but these skills here are abstract and develop over time with intentional practice. In addition, understand that different leaders have different leadership styles, and not all will be applicable to you. Instead, work to know yourself and your own unique style will naturally come through.

So, don’t be afraid to fail, stay true to yourself at all times and stop caring about what anyone else thinks. Take the skills you already have and hone them. Anything you don’t have yet, work on them. 

Step up to the plate and be the leader you know you can be.