8 Tips for Developing Leadership Skills

Key takeaways

By developing common characteristics successful leaders share, such as vision, trust, and consistency, you can become an effective leader.

• You can develop leadership skills by observing effective leaders in action and by working with a coach or mentor.

• Self-awareness is important for leaders, as knowing your strengths and weaknesses can lead to growth.

• You can develop leadership competencies by understanding different types of leadership styles, setting goals for yourself, and targeting specific skills.

Discover how you can develop leadership skills with the right plan. If you’re interested in getting started with your leadership development for yourself or your employees, Coursera for Business offers expert-led courses and customizable training programs to help you and your team gain a competitive advantage in today’s evolving economy.

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What makes an effective leader?

Influential leaders know how to inspire people and support them to work toward goals. According to the Center for Creative Leadership, leadership is a learned skill you develop through experience: 70 percent from challenging experiences and assignments, 20 percent from developmental relationships, and 20 percent from coursework and training [1].  

Although leaders often have different leadership styles, they share some common characteristics. If you think about the best leaders you've ever worked with, you've likely noticed the following traits in them:

• Clear expectations

• Compassion

• Consistency

• Encouragement

• Organization

• Trust

• Vision

Successful leaders are resilient, have exceptional decision-making skills, and hold themselves accountable for their actions. Ultimately, the people they lead trust them to do the right thing for the good of the group.

Effective leadership: The fundamental 4

The fundamental four refers to four essential skills for leaders: communication, influence, learning agility, and self-awareness. These skills span industries, locations, and positions, and most successful leaders know how to develop and leverage these skills in their daily work. Explore what these skills look like in practice.

Communication

Successful leaders can express and explain ideas so that all team members know each project's goals, expectations, and tasks. They are active listeners and know how to express themselves clearly when speaking or writing. In many ways, communication skills lay the foundation for the rest of the core leadership skills and go a long way toward establishing and maintaining trust in the organization.

Influence

Effective leaders influence and motivate the people they work with to meet and exceed goals. Their ability to influence stems from the relationships they build with others. They take the time to understand the people they're working with and what inspires them. With this knowledge, they can present rationales for their ideas and show team members how they stand to benefit from their work. 

Learning agility

As a leader, you should continue seeking learning opportunities, even after reaching an executive position. Learning comes in many forms, including professional development courses, certificates, and degrees. However, leaders also look to their experiences, both successes and perceived failures, as opportunities to examine their behavior, knowledge, and skills and adapt them as needed.

Self-awareness

Leaders take time to understand what motivates them to work in their field and pursue leadership roles. They know their strengths and weaknesses and spend time reflecting on their experiences in life and at work to help them learn their purpose. This self-awareness allows them to set goals and seek growth opportunities to improve their leadership skills.

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8 tips for developing leadership skills

No matter where you are in your leadership journey, you can challenge yourself to grow and hone your skills. Use the following tips to set goals, explore strategies, and evaluate your progress.

1. Identify your strengths and weaknesses.

Understanding your leadership strengths and needs can help you identify the leadership skills you want to develop and improve. Universities and organizations offer a variety of free and paid assessments that can help you identify your leadership style, strengths, and areas for improvement. You can find many of these tools online, such as:

• Center for Creative Leadership 360 Leadership Assessments

• US Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Leadership Assessments

• US General Services Administration (GSA) Leadership Self-Assessment

• Emotional and Social Competence Inventory (ESCI)

• Dr. Brian Uzzi, Kellogg School of Management, Leadership Assessment Tools

• Free leadership self-assessments

2. Understand leadership styles.

Knowing your leadership style can help you identify your strengths and weaknesses, which can be a good starting point for figuring them out. For example, if you have an authoritarian leadership style, you may find it easy to make decisions but may need to learn how to improve your listening skills. If you prefer a delegative style, you like giving your team plenty of freedom and may want to brush up on your decision-making or relationship-building skills.

Read more: 8 Management Styles in Business: Choosing the Best Fit

3. Target specific skills.

After you identify your areas of strength and need, you can choose the specific leadership skills you want to target. With a particular skill in mind, you can set a goal, develop a plan to meet it, and monitor your progress. Some specific leadership skills to consider developing include:

• Adaptability

• Communication

• Conflict management

• Creativity

• Critical thinking

• Decision making

• Motivation and influence

• Negotiation

• Relationship building

4. Expand your network.

Observation is a powerful tool for developing leadership skills. By expanding your network to create more opportunities to watch great leaders in action, you'll be able to see how these leaders tackle challenges, make decisions, solve problems, and develop strategies to help their teams succeed. Start by connecting with leaders currently working in your organization, and expand your network by attending industry events and interacting with leaders on social media sites. 

5. Get a coach or mentor.

The world's greatest athletes have coaches who help them train and achieve their goals, and a coaching relationship also works well in a business environment. Your coach can help you evaluate your leadership skills, plans, and goals. Coaches are often senior or retired staff members who understand your industry and have the expertise to guide your professional development. Some organizations have formal coaching programs designed to develop leaders, but you can also meet informally with a mentor.

6. Read and research.

Effective leaders are lifelong learners who seek learning opportunities and stay up to date with the latest industry research and trends. Read books. Sign up for seminars. Take online classes. In doing so, you're investing in yourself. When starting out, look for broad leadership topics like communication or conflict resolution. Then you can explore more specialized areas, such as negotiating global contracts.

7. Take on leadership roles in your current position.

You can start practicing leadership skills before you have an official leadership role. Seek opportunities to try out what you're learning. This can be through a stretch assignment or a project that gets you out of your comfort zone. Other options include working in a new department or location to practice using the new strategies you're learning. Start small, reflect on your experiences, and identify which techniques are working and which you need to refine.

8. Practice.

Thinking like a scientist as you practice your newfound leadership skills may be helpful. Each time you try a new technique or strategy, whether it's a big project or a small interaction with a coworker, pay attention to how well it works and how others respond. Over time, you'll be more aware of the strategies that work best for you, so you can add them to your leadership toolkit.

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