We want to help you develop the various skills needed to become an effective leader and therefore we recommend that you consider looking at the following guides that we have created especially for you.
Great communication skills are paramount for leaders. Understanding how people cooperate, and work together is important but more vital than this is the ability to inspire and motivate others. Being brave and having the confidence and courage to have difficult conversations with team members are signs of a good leadership style.
Resilience can transform a leader’s ability to deal with stressful and difficult situations in a constructive way. Resilience is achieved through a mixture of mindset, your own personal beliefs and values plus strategies that you put in place – See our guide on Resilience here.
“Our daily interactions and the world’s innovations and advancement have the ability to improve the world around us and in many ways are doing so, but they also introduce new, unchartered territories, experiences, and challenges. We must be equipped with the right set of skills, tools, and empowerment to feel that we are capable of tackling these challenges.” (Baker, 2022, p. 28)
How you approach change and new ways of working will depend on your ability to adapt or to be flexible. This might include being positive to change, actively seeking out new ways of doing things through ‘bigger picture’ or innovative thinking or simply keeping an open mind. It might include how you would respond in a particular situation or an emergency. Leaders are challenged by internal and external forces and will need to show strength through effective and, at times, difficult decision making. Internally, there may be culture changes in an organisation, restructures, or new technology to contend with. Externally, supply chain issues, climate change and pandemics are just a few examples of changes that have had a huge impact on organisations and the way they work.
“Accepting that change will occur enables us to be more prepared for it when it does occur” (Baker, 2022, p. 38)
Fostering a growth mindset through which you can remain optimistic and be prepared to develop weaker personal skills is worth investigating. Having a ‘can do’ attitude and role modelling positive behaviours is a vital skill for a leader. We have many books in the University Library related to mindset. Here are just a recommended few:
We are all leaders: leadership is not a position - it's a mindset eBook
Elevate your excellence: the mindset and methods that make champions eBook
The 8th Habit: From Effectiveness to Greatness eBook
You could also take a look at our You Tube video on Perseverance and motivation.
Putting yourself forward and being prepared to take responsibility and ownership for a situation, project or event is all part of the role of a leader. As a student you will take responsibility for your own commitments and meeting assessment deadlines. As a leader, you take responsibility for projects, group work, initiatives or events and you will be setting the deadlines and making sure your team fulfils their responsibilities. However, as a leader you will be accountable for the work of your team and, therefore, understanding how to work with and motivate your team is crucial.
Take a look at our guide on Self direction and Planning for help on how to take accountability for your own success and, ultimately, that of others.
It is important to understand yourself and to be able to manage your own emotions. However, being empathetic towards those in your team reaps its rewards. Understanding other people, their values, capacity, motivation, and resilience will help you assign tasks correctly, decide on the appropriate leadership style, and avoid pressure and stresses in the workplace. Remaining positive and motivated whilst maintaining fairness and objectivity are behaviours that are crucial to effective leadership.
“Emotional intelligence is the ability of understanding the feelings and emotions of ourselves and at the same time of the people around us. The capability of understanding emotions and control of emotions can make leaders successful in the organizations.” (Franco, 2022)
Leadership is not all about you, but your support for the growth and development of others too. Encouraging your team members to be successful, investing in them and valuing them will earn you respect.
Taking time to reflect on your own behaviour will help you understand others. Take a look at our reflection guide to find out more about self-awareness.
Leading a team is a responsibility but creating a positive and successful team is an aim you should work towards. Fostering honest and empathetic communication and taking time to build good working relationships will lead to better outcomes.
You will likely have spent time working in a team at university (through group and project work), outside of university in sports clubs or maybe in your workplace if you are in employment. Understanding how to work alongside others, listening, adapting, communicating, supporting, and questioning are skills required to become an effective team worker.
‘Leaders need to be able to influence individuals through negotiation’ (Berberick et al, 2017, p. 38)
Negotiation is an important skill for a leader – it does not have to be combative. Understanding your own position and the interests of others will help you to achieve mutually beneficial outcomes for your team or your organisation.
Questioning is an important tool to learn and to grow. Ask family, friends or colleagues to provide you with honest feedback about your leadership skills, the way you go about coordinating tasks, delegating and organising. Receive the feedback in good faith and write it down so that you can come back to it. You can question other leaders and ask them what drew them to leadership and what qualities they believe are worth developing to lead successfully.
Whether at work or at home try to delegate tasks instead of gatekeeping and doing them all yourself! Tasks can be completed in a variety of ways, and you will allow other to develop their skills if you do not hoard the tasks! If you are unable to delegate tasks in your personal or work life, then what about during group projects at university. You may have taken the opportunity to become the group lead, and you can practise delegating here instead. You can develop your leadership styles by training or showing others how to go about completing tasks you might have completed yourself. Use the time you gain to develop your own additional skills through courses, guides, books or podcasts.
You may find delegating difficult because you may have particular expectations of how a task should be completed correctly. However, it is okay if another person completes the task differently. If the task gets completed competently, and in a timely fashion, it will free up your time and will develop the skills of others.
The art of delegation will be a valuable skill should you move into a leadership role.
Being organised includes developing a whole raft of skills including time management, prioritisation, planning and avoiding procrastination. You can be organised in some parts of your life but not in others, and this is okay. As a leader, you will need to exhibit organisation skills to ensure that members of your team feel secure and aware of their responsibilities, tasks, and deadlines. Take a look at our guide on Being Organised.
Having an awareness of global trends, cultural differences and being open minded to opinions and experiences that are different to your own is all part of forming a global mindset and outlook.
There are ways in which you can begin to develop your understanding
Find out what is happening in the world through wider reading. The Library has access to a vast number of resources which you can access freely. Have a look at articles, newspapers, books, and databases to broaden your understanding of current affairs.
You might be studying abroad for part of your course and this experience will be invaluable.
You could learn a new language
Attend international guest lectures or cultural events
Choose module choices with an international focus
Look out for opportunities abroad for internships, placements, or summer schools.
Read literature from underrepresented backgrounds.
Organisations are now increasingly globalised. If you accept a leadership role within a workplace, you will not just be dealing with other international organisations, but it is possible that the people in your teams may live and work in other parts of the world.
We hope that you now have a better idea of some of the key leadership skills. Here are some activities you could try to develop your skills further. These were created by former lecturer at the University of Derby and can be found in UDORA, our research repository.
References
Baker, J. M. (2022) The Unexpected Leader: Discovering the Leader Within You John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated
Berberick, T. R., Lindsay, P. and Fritchen, K. (2017) The Leadership Habit: Transforming Behaviors to Drive Results. Hoboken, New Jersey: Wiley.
Daley, J. and Baruah, B. (2020) ‘Leadership skills development among engineering students in Higher Education – an analysis of the Russell Group universities in the UK’, European Journal of Engineering Education, 46(4), pp. 528–556.
Franco, M. (2022) Leadership. London: IntechOpen.