Blog

Why you Need Leadership Skills to Improve your Career

Being a leader is more than just a title. It’s about taking charge and getting things done. For example, if you want to improve your career, start by building up your leadership skills. That way, you can take charge of projects at work and show that you’re ready for more responsibility—like getting promoted or landing a new job elsewhere.

You’ll be more effective at your job

Leaders are more effective at their jobs.

Studies show that people who are leaders are better workers overall. They can get more done in less time and make better decisions than their non-leader counterparts. Why is this? Well, it comes down to three main reasons:

  • Leaders have clear objectives and goals for themselves and those around them. They know what they need to do each day, week, month or year to achieve these goals and objectives—and they work hard at achieving them. So if you want to be successful at work (or anywhere else), having clear goals will help get you there much faster than not having any!
  • Leaders motivate others through positive rather than negative reinforcement (i.e., yelling or criticizing). Positive reinforcers include praise or rewards when someone does something well so that they want to continue doing it while engaging in healthy competition between co-workers, which can make everyone want higher levels of performance which ultimately leads us back to the first point again: Clear Objectives/Goals = More Effective Workplace!
  • Leaders don’t give up when times get tough; instead, they use these challenges as opportunities for growth both individually and as a team since everyone needs support from other people sometimes, even if just from one other person who’s been there before with similar experiences.”

It’s helpful in other areas of your life, too

You can also use your leadership skills to improve other areas of your life. For example, it’s often difficult for students to get the most out of their relationships with professors and fellow students. Suppose you have the ability to lead a group or project. In that case, chances are that you’ll be able to help everyone involved get more out of those relationships and work together more effectively as a team.

Likewise, if you want to get healthier by exercising regularly but don’t know where or how much exercise is enough for your goals (or even what those goals are), then learning about leadership skills could help guide you toward making smarter decisions about fitness and health.

Leadership skills are fun to work on

You might think, “Leadership skills are something I’ve never been good at. I don’t have a natural talent for it.” That is not true! Leadership skills are not just something you are born with or have to be born into; they are a skill that can and should be practised, improved upon and developed over time.

Leadership skills can also be fun to work on. Most people who want to develop their leadership abilities wish to do so because they want to help others succeed and make other people feel good about themselves and the work they do together as a team or group (or individually). When leadership is done well, everyone is better off than when it wasn’t done well.

How to improve your leadership skills

Career Skills Project

We have established that leadership skills are something we can improve by working on them. One way to do so is by rolling our sleeves and getting straight to work. We can start being more involved in a school or work project and try to assume the role of the leader. However, it should not be just in words as a fancy title. A leader can only be someone who takes proper decisions solving more problems than creating.

Another way to improve your leadership skills is to read more on the subject. There are many online learning platforms that can teach you how you can become a better leader yourself.

One such platform is the Career Skills MOOC which contains training modules on the most important career management skills. You can find leadership skills among them.

To determine the skills you lack and, therefore, you need to improve upon, you can use the Career Skills Test. This tool can save time by making your learning more focused-oriented on the skills you need the most.

Both tools are results of the Career Skills project we created jointly with our partners.

Learn how to improve your career by exploring the project’s official website.

Conclusion

Leadership skills are fun to work on. They make you a better manager, they can help you get promoted, and they’re good for your personal life too. Everyone has leadership potential—it doesn’t matter if you don’t have an official title or role yet! So if you want to improve at work and in life, try picking up some new techniques from this article.


Do you want to write for us? Read our guest post guidelines here!


Vasilis Bouronikos
Content & Communication Manager