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Key Takeaways: discovering your leadership strengths and how to develop in core areas
- Self-confidence and positivity are core leadership traits that inspire trust, motivate teams, and improve resilience in challenging situations.
- Emotional intelligence – empathy, communication, and relationship-building – strengthens collaboration and enhances team performance.
- Transformational leadership relies on creating a compelling vision, motivating people to deliver it, and leading by example.
- Effective performance management combines clear expectations, fair rules, and targeted support to develop high-performing, motivated teams.
Maybe it's a politician, a famous businessperson, or a religious figure. Or maybe it's someone you know personally – like your boss, a teacher, or a friend. You can find people in leadership roles almost everywhere you look.
However, simply having the responsibilities of a leader doesn't necessarily make a person an effective leader. This is a shame because, with a little study, humility and hard work, all of us can learn to lead effectively.
So, how can you do this?
You can start by analyzing your performance in specific areas of leadership. Watch our video, and then complete the interactive self-assessment quiz below to identify where you already lead effectively, and to explore where your skills need further development.
In the analysis sections underneath the quiz, we'll direct you to the resources you need to be an exceptional leader.
How Good Are Your Leadership Skills?
Instructions
For each statement, click the button in the column that best describes you. Please answer questions as you actually are (rather than how you think you should be), and don't worry if some questions seem to score "in the wrong direction."
When you're finished, click the "Calculate My Total" button at the bottom of the test to get your results.
There are many leadership skills and competencies that, when combined and applied, go toward making you an effective leader. You have the ability to develop each of these skills within yourself. Read on for specific ideas on how you can improve your leadership skills!
Personal Characteristics of Good Leaders
Successful leaders tend to have certain traits. Two keys areas of personal growth and development are fundamental to leadership success: self-confidence and a positive attitude.
Self-confident people are usually inspiring, and people like to be around individuals who believe in themselves and in what they're doing. Likewise, if you're a positive and optimistic person who tries to make the best of any situation, you'll find it much easier to motivate people to do their best.
Self-Confidence
(Questions 2, 8)
Self-confidence is built by mastering significant skills and situations, and by knowing that you can add real value through the work that you do. One of the best ways to improve your confidence is to become aware of all of the things you've already achieved.
Our article on Building Self-Confidence explains what you can do to understand yourself better and build your self-confidence. From there, you'll begin to make the most of your strengths and improve your weaknesses.
Positive Attitude and Outlook
(Questions 10, 17)
A positive mindset is also associated with strong leadership. However, being positive is much more than presenting a happy face to the world: you need to develop a strong sense of balance, and recognize that setbacks and problems happen – it's how you deal with those problems that makes the difference.
Positive people approach situations realistically, and are prepared to make the changes necessary to overcome a problem. Negative people, on the other hand, often give in to the stress and pressure of a situation. This can lead to fear, worry, distress, anger, and failure.
Stress management techniques, such as getting enough rest, relaxation and sleep as well as physical exercise, are great ways of getting rid of negative thoughts and feelings.
Understanding your thinking patterns, and learning to identify and eliminate negative thinking, are key. You can learn how to do this in our video on Thought Awareness.
Emotional Intelligence
(Questions 5, 15)
The concept of emotional intelligence used to be referred to as "soft skills," "character," or even "communication skills." More recent thinking around Emotional Intelligence (EQ) provides a more precise understanding of a specific kind of human talent. EQ is the ability to recognize feelings (your own and those of others) and manage those emotions to create strong relationships.
Learning to develop empathy is essential for emotional intelligence, as is communicating effectively, and practicing empathic listening. These all help you to really understand the other person's perspective.
Transformational Leadership
Transformational leadership is a leadership style where leaders create an inspiring vision of the future, motivate their followers to achieve it, manage implementation successfully, and develop the members of their teams to be even more effective in the future. We explore the key traits of transformational leadership further, below.
Providing a Compelling Vision of the Future
(Questions 6, 14)
This is your ability to create a robust and compelling vision of the future, and to present this vision in a way that inspires the people you lead.
The first part of being able to do this is to have a thorough knowledge of the area you're operating in.
From there, good use of strategic analysis techniques can help you gain the key insights you need into the environment you're operating in, and into the needs of your clients.
With these tools, you can explore the challenges that you face and identify the options available to you. You can identify the best of these with good use of prioritization skills and appropriate decision-making techniques.
Finally, to sell your vision, you need to be able to craft a compelling and interesting story. Another great way of inspiring people is to use vivid stories to explain your vision: find out more about this in our video on Storytelling for Leaders.
Motivating People to Deliver the Vision
(Questions 9, 12)
This is closely related to creating and selling a vision. You must be able to convince others to accept the objectives that you've set.
Emphasize teamwork, and recognize that when people work together, they can achieve great things. Provide effective leadership by linking performance and team goals. You can do this by using frameworks such as Management by Objectives (MBO) and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).
Ultimately, you need to motivate people to deliver your vision. To better understand your ability to motivate, complete our quiz, How Good Are Your Motivation Skills?, which also explores leading therories that can help to develop them.
Being a Good Role Model
(Questions 4, 11)
Good leaders lead by example. They do what they say and say what they do. These types of leaders are trustworthy, and show integrity. They get involved in the day-to-day work, where needed, and they stay in touch with what's happening throughout the organization.
Great leaders don't just sit in their offices and give orders – they demonstrate the actions and values that they expect from their team.
As with building vision, above, a key part of being a good role model is leading from the front by developing "expert power." A leader can't rely on position alone.
By keeping current, and staying relevant within the organization, you'll inspire people because you're worthy of your power and authority, not just because you're the boss.
Managing Performance Effectively
(Questions 3, 13)
Effective leaders manage performance by setting out their expectations clearly and concisely. When everyone knows what's expected, it's much easier to achieve high performance. There's also little uncertainty, so you're more able to deal with performance issues quickly.
As you create rules, help your team members to understand why the rules are there. Involve them in the rule-making process, and make sure that your expectations align with the resources and support available. Finally, apply rules fairly and consistently.
Providing Support and Stimulation
(Questions 1, 7, 16, 18)
To be highly motivated at work, people need more than a list of tasks to be completed each day. They need challenges and interesting work. They need to develop their skills and to feel supported in their efforts to do a good job.
Think about your approach to task allocation, and look for opportunities to match people with jobs and responsibilities that will help them to grow and develop. Perform "Training Needs Assessments" regularly to determine what your team needs to be successful.
Remember that emotional support is also important. The Blake-Mouton Managerial Grid is a great tool for thinking about the right balance between concern for people and productivity.
What are the Most Important Leadership Skills?
Good leaders need to possess a myriad of skills and attributes if they are to effective in the role.
Some of the most important attributes are listed below. Leaders need to be:
- Good open communicators
- Empathetic
- Strategic thinkers
- Positive
- Flexible
- Adept at conflict resolution
- Reliable/Show integrity
- Mentors and motivators
- Recognize potential
- Organized
- Good delegators
- Offer feedback
Frequently Asked Questions About Leadership Skills
What Is the Key Difference Between a Manager and a Leader?
Leaders create a vision and generate support for it. Managers work to make the vision a reality.
What Are the 5 Traits of Being a Good Leader?
An effective leader is a person who does the following:
- Creates a vision of the future.
- Works well with a team.
- Enables their team's success.
- Demonstrates flexibility.
- Embodies expert power, credibility, trust, and authenticity.
How Can You Improve Your Leadership Skills?
It's now widely recognized that top-down autocratic leadership has far less relevance to today's organizations, which face rapid change and have to fight to survive in an extremely competitive and increasingly global marketplace.
One thing that is particularly helpful is when leaders have expert power. People admire and believe in these leaders because they're experts in what they do. They have credibility, and they've earned the right to be heard and followed. This makes it much easier for these leaders to motivate and inspire their teams.
Good leaders are also flexible, adaptable, ethical, and culturally aware, in order to be credible in the eyes of their employees and stakeholders. The effective leaders of today and tomorrow will consult, collaborate and distribute their power in order to get the best from themselves, their people, and the organization as a whole.
For a more in-depth guide on how you can improve your leadership skills, see our article, What Is Leadership?
How can Leadership Coaching Help You Grow?
Coaching can help leaders identify their strengths and weakness, so they have a clear picture of where they need to develop and improve.
Coaches can also offer honest feedback on new ideas or different approaches. They can also help develop leaders’ emotional intelligence and communication skills, which are vital for effective leadership.
This assessment has not been validated and is intended for illustrative purposes only. It is just one of many that help you evaluate your abilities in a wide range of important career skills.
If you want to reproduce this quiz, you can purchase downloadable copies in our Store.
