Key Skills to Develop

Jan20
2012 19 Comments Written by danonleadership

Reaching your leadership potential requires developing your skills. The most successful and talented leaders, athletes, writers, artists, and business people know the importance of becoming better. A leader’s development is a journey and not a destination. No amount of success should cause a person to stop becoming a better person and leader. I have discovered 3 skills everyone should intentionally develop on a regular basis.

1. Leadership skills - It is essential to develop your leadership skills. Because if you don’t become a better leader you will hold yourself, your team, and the organization back.  John Maxwell says, “Leadership ability determines a person’s level of effectiveness.” Since this is the case, if we want to be effective then we need to become better leaders. It helps if you have a Personal Growth Plan.

2. Communication skills – Becoming a better communicator is essential when it comes to reaching your leadership potential. This is because being able to communicate to an individual and to an audience are among the most important skills every leader should have. The best part about communication is that everyone has the ability to become better at it. Winston Churchill, “Became one of the twentieth century’s greatest orators by practicing his many speeches intensively and with great precision over a period of many years.” If you want to develop your communication skills then practice and become a student of great communicators.

3. Relational Skills- I have already written about this topic in Qualities Of A Leader but wanted to share some more about this essential skill. This skill is important to have because the majority of a leader’s time is spent around other people. It allows a leader to build and have lasting friendships and relationships, which in turn produces people who are loyal and motivated. Developing in this skill requires taking the time to learn about human development, emotional intelligence, and relationship skills.

Question: What are some other skills a leader should develop?

 

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  • http://www.lifeofasteward.com/ Loren Pinilis

    I think this might fall under the leadership skills category, but I think that managing our time, setting goals and direction, and being effective are skills in and of themselves that we need to learn. I only think that’s going to get more and more important.

    • Anonymous

      Loren,
      These are such important skills to have. I almost added time management skills to the list but decided not to. Thank you for sharing.

  • http://ericspeir.com/ Eric

    I think one of the most important skills to manage is our time. Most everyone could learn to manage it better. I hear people say all the time that they do not have time to read or to ________ (fill in the blank.) I remind people that you make time for what’s important in your life. If we watch TV a lot then we have decided that it is important to us. If we exercise then we have decided that our health is a priority.

    • Anonymous

      Eric,
      Time management is all about knowing and following your priority’s. What we spend our time doing shows a lot of who we are and what we could do. Great thoughts.

  • http://talesofwork.com kimanzi constable

    I think you hit it out of the park. I would also add that a leader should have or learn patience!

    • Anonymous

      Kimanzi,
      Glad you enjoyed the post. This is such a hard but essential aspect of leading. Thank you for reading and sharing.

  • http://www.thedeterminedchristian.com/ Susan

    This week I learned a valuable lesson about time management, communication and relation: Sometimes you have to separate yourself from all of it, and just breathe for a while (or reboot, if you are a computer geek). An uncheduled day of prayer and Scripture reading can re-focus priorities and shine new light on areas that need to be addressed. Thank you, Dan for encouraging me to do so. God bless you.

    • Anonymous

      Susan,
      Those days are so important. To take the time to disconnect from the world to connect with God. Thank you for adding to the discussion.

  • http://chrisvonada.com chris vonada

    I think it’s really important for leaders, like everyone, to stay balanced in life. Many natural leaders are very driven people… and being able to balance you life with faith, family and work is so very important to livng a satisfying and successful life.

    • Anonymous

      Chris,
      Having a balanced life is so essential.If we want to be effective and leave a lasting legacy then having a balanced life is a must. Thank you for adding a valuable point.

    • http://tcavey.blogspot.com/ TCAvey

      I agree. It can be easy to get caught up in leading/work/whatever and start to neglect other aspects of your life. It’s important to remember the proper order our priorities needs to be and not put our faith or families on the back burner.

      • Anonymous

        Having a balanced life is key to living a productive and purposeful life. I think a persons faith and family should be the top priority for anyone. Thanks for adding to the discussion.

  • http://twitter.com/Pogoski Huevos Rancheros

    It would be interesting to see how these three skills were developed and used by a handful of prominent leaders in history. Would be an interesting future post.

    • Anonymous

      What a great idea. I’ll have to start thinking about this idea even more. It would also be great to hear your thoughts about it on your blog.

      Thank you for reading and sharing.

  • Anonymous

    I realize a lot of “leadership guru’s” are kind of down on management, but this is a real aspect to many people’s work. As a second man in our organization at Camp CoBeAc, my vision and leadership must coincide with that of our director’s. That works fine with me, because his vision is HUGE!

    However, I also have the responsibility of managing my teams work flow to ensure everything gets accomplished. I understand that there can be a fine line between leadership and management, but in my opinion, if you have a staff, you have to do both.

    Good thought provoking post today, Dan!

    • Anonymous

      Matt,
      great points here. I think a balance of leadership and management skills are important. I’m glad you mentioned this skill because I missed the mark when I left it out. Thank you for taking time to add to the post.

  • http://dustinstout.com Dustin W. Stout

    Great points here Dan. I’m especially passionate about the “communication” part. It’s kinda what I do.

    The only things I would add would be “Decision Making” and “Vision”. I think it’s vital to be able to make proper decisions, and we all know that “without vision, the people perish”.

    • Anonymous

      Dustin,
      Glad you enjoyed the post. I believe no matter what you do it;s important to become a better communicator. Also what great additional points. Thank you for taking the time to read and comment.

  • http://www.lincolnparks.com Lincoln Parks

    Dan, I think all of these skills are essential to the Leader. Communication to me is key because you have to know how to communicate with different people on different levels. Awesome post.