What are Leadership Skills?

What are leadership skills?

This is a question that I hear again and again.

My understanding of leadership skills is not in a vacuum – it is not an abstract definition that is applicable to any human being in any situation.

Rather, my approach to leadership skills is inherently related to two facts:

1) The organizational context
2) The behavior

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1) The Organizational Context:

The leader I talk about in this website is an organizational leader: Be it a for-profit organization or a not-for-profit organization.

Hence, not all the leadership skills on this website might be applicable to a person with leadership responsibilities outside the organizational context.

2) The Behavior:

A skill by definition is a behavior.

Hence, my understanding of a leadership skill is not an intangible concept floating on the air such as charm, appeal, or charisma – these are theoretical beliefs that are susceptible of different and subjective interpretations.

On the contrary, a leadership skill is observable, tangible, and objective. A leadership skill is learnable, like any other skill.

However, learning to become a leader is not about reading and studying a specific set of skills and voilà – all of the sudden you are now a great leader.

Learning to become a leader takes years of practice and experience.

Photo courtesy of Joi

What are leadership skills then?

Leadership skills are specific behaviors that allow you to optimize the performance of your organization.

This organization could be made up of three people, three thousand people, or thirty thousand people.

In my Management Skills Section, I talk about the skills you need to manage the performance of your direct reports.

In my Leadership Skills Section, I talk about the skills you need to lead the performance of your entire organization.

And in this Section, you will find other leadership skills that are useful in most organizational contexts.

What are leadership skills? Leadership skills are precise behaviors that help you influence the performance of the people you are responsible for, in order to reach desired goals.

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In contrast to my previous two sections (Management Skills and Leadership Skills), I present here several skills in alphabetical order.

Keep coming back as I will continue adding new skills to this page in an ongoing basis.