How you can use leadership skills in the workplace
There are plenty of ways you can use leadership skills across your organization.
• Sales: In the sales team, you want to have people who will take the lead and show the way to others. Salespeople can find themselves frequently in new positions, so this team needs people who can think and act on the spot, leading by example.
• Marketing: Marketing needs bold people who aren’t afraid to take risks and lead. With attention spans going down to six to seven seconds, marketing teams need leaders who aren’t afraid to innovate and try out new things to achieve results.
• Product development: These teams need leaders who can listen to ideas from their colleagues and see if there’s merit in them. This can result in new products that become another revenue stream for the company. So leaders are needed to hear people out and decide if their ideas are good enough to “bet on them.”
• HR: HR teams need leaders who will push new initiatives to bring better results. With engagement rates falling to less than 30%, HR leaders need to start new initiatives, get people behind a single connecting purpose, and lead by example.
There are also general uses of leadership in the workplace, such as finding talent who might become the next C-level executives to lead the organization.
Leadership competencies for candidates
There are certain skills all good leaders share. They are:
• Communication skills: All good leaders know how to communicate with peers, colleagues, managers, and other stakeholders. They understand that they need to present their message in a way that will convince others to follow their lead.
• Motivation: Good leaders need to know how to motivate others, whether it’s the final push in a long project or jump-starting a new product.
• Ability to delegate: Leaders know that they can’t do everything by themselves, so they learn to trust others. Because of trust, they can delegate tasks to their team members and be confident that they will complete them successfully.
• Integrity: Good leaders are ethical and they walk the talk. They keep their word and promise only things that they know they can deliver.
• Responsibility: To be a good leader, someone must be accountable and responsible for their actions and their people. They know that their team members need to believe that they can rely on them in times of need.
• Decision-making skills: Good leaders know that they need to make decisions even when the information available is limited. They know that people count on them to be decisive and they know that any decision is better than no decision.
• Problem-solving: Being a problem-solver is a key feature of a good leader. Not only do they lead by example, but they also know that they need to lead their people through uncertainty and trust in their ability to solve problems when they emerge.
By using a management test, you can identify which applicants have exceptional leadership skills.