7 Ways You Can Excel in Developing Leadership Skills

Taking on a leadership role should not make you complacent. On the contrary, it should make you work twice as hard now that your responsibilities have expanded and your role has shifted. If you want to succeed and excel as a leader, there are certain leadership characteristics you should develop. Here’s how to start:

Focus on Your Strengths
Find out what you are good at and build on it. Why try to be a pilot when you are a better engineer? You are much more likely to excel as a leader is you know what it is you can do and accept what you cannot do. You can always try to improve on you weaknesses. But, you have better chances at success if you fine tune your strengths.

Delegate
Learn to delegate. If you have no spare time to develop your weaker areas, turn to your team instead. No matter how hard you try, you simply cannot do what is physically impossible. Explore specific competencies of your team members. Develop a plan to use them to your team’s advantage.

Learn From Your Mistakes
There is no single leader in the world who is without fault. All important leaders (ie., CEOs, presidents, prime ministers, church or community leaders, etc.) have made mistakes in their lives. A good leader will treat a mistake as an opportunity for learning.

Refuse Mediocrity
Always aim for excellence. Compromising yourself for second best when you should insist (and, actually obtain) the best will show your standards are easily obtainable without a lot of effort. In the end, your team does not have to work too hard!

Be Consistent
Do not renege on your promises or turn your back against a policy as if nothing has happened. Always avoid double standards and try to be as fair as possible. If, for any reason, you feel you must make a 360-degree turn, be ready with a plausible explanation.

Practice Good People Skills
You can only excel in good leadership if people are willing to follow you. You must be able to inspire and motivate your team. Develop communication skills and maintain communication lines. If you are seen as a team player, your team will be more willing to discuss ideas with you openly.

Learn, Learn and Then Learn Some More…
You should never stop learning. Consider opportunities to expand your leadership role and find ways you can develop further. Learn new techniques in problem solving, consider new ideas or take lessons to improve your technical proficiency. By building your personal competence, you are much more able to cement your value as an excellent and competent leader.

Special Note: Join us in this discussion on Wednesday, February 11, 2009 on www.blogtalkradio.com/wbo-radio. Victoria C. DePaul, of www.galileoconsultants.com, will share with our listeners techniques describe in the book she co-authored with Thomas Michael Powell, The Science of Leadership: The Manager of the Third Millennium. We will broadcast at 11 a.m. (EST) and the “dial in” phone number is (347) 205-9229.