How To List Your Leadership Skills on a Resume

Leadership Skills

As you go through the process of writing a resume, one of the things you’ll likely run into is the fact that there are many, many types of skills out there. Not everyone will be good at every type of skill (that’s one of the reasons teams are built of a variety of people with different skill sets). However, if you’re interested in leadership development, you’ll need to show leadership qualities, and that means thinking about leadership skills. Here’s what you need to know about what these types of skills say about your ability to be an effective leader.

What Are Leadership Skills?

“Leadership skills” are an umbrella term describing skills that great managers often have. When a company or organization says they’re looking for someone with great leadership skills, it means they want someone who can assume a supervisory role and create a great team around them. They need someone who can create a work environment where teamwork and a positive attitude are rewarded and deadlines are met on a regular basis.

The Most Important Leadership Skills and Adjacent Skills

One of the most important things to learn about leadership skills is that it’s truly an umbrella term. There are a variety of leadership traits, and your skill set is going to need to be quite broad if you’re going to be a strong leader. Here are a few key leadership skills you might want to work on if you’re trying to be a successful leader:

• Effective communication skills
• Decision-making
• Emotional intelligence
• Problem-solving
• Time management
• Active listening
• Management skills
• Mentoring
• Adaptability
• Interpersonal skills
• Project management
• Self-awareness
• Strategic thinking
• Team-building skills
• Brainstorming
• Employee engagement skills
• Ability to receive feedback
• Strong work ethic

If you see many of these skills in yourself, you may have strong leadership potential. It’s good to note that these are mostly soft skills. Soft skills are some of the most important skills you need to be a great leader. Effective leadership is largely about relating to your team members, and that’s what the best leaders know how to do.