Top 9 Team Leadership Skills All Leaders Need

Team leadership skills are commonly overlooked. Instead of looking obtainable, they’re usually looked at as natural gifts. 

However, this couldn’t be any more wrong. Great leaders don’t just become great leaders. It’s not a gift. It’s a skill that combines loads of different leadership qualities into one. 

As business coaches, we believe there are nine essential team leadership skills. 

Communication 

Communication is such an important skill for leaders. 

However, despite this, 91% of employees say their bosses lack good communication skills. 

The main reasons these bosses don’t have good communication skills are because: 

• They don’t recognise employee achievements 
• They don’t give clear directions
• They don’t have enough time to meet with their employees 
• They don’t talk to subordinates 
• They don’t give others credit 

Communication, if improved, can actually have a huge impact on a team. Research shows that 70% of the workforce would be more productive if leaders had more effective communication. 

Emotional Intelligence 

With emotional intelligence (EI), there are four components: 

1. Self-awareness 
2. Self-management 
3. Social awareness 
4. Relationship management

Each, when balanced, enables leaders to be aware of, control, and express their emotions to handle interpersonal relationships successfully. 

It’s such an important skill for leaders that 71% of employers say they value EI over intelligence quotient (IQ). 

Why? The main reason is that it’s a rare skill that has a huge impact on the workforce. 

Travis Bradberry, an expert in EI, suggests that only 36% of people have a good EI. However, despite there being so few people with this skill, it can result in better workplace productivity, lower turnover rates, and high levels of workplace satisfaction. 

Decision Making 

Most leaders (85%) suffer from something Oracle refers to as “decision distress”. 

Put simply, this is when leaders regret, question, or feel guilt about a decision they’ve made in the past.

This, in turn, correlates to poor decision-making. If the right decision were made, there wouldn’t be any distress about it. 

Good decisions, however, are what push the needle in business. They can have a dramatic income on results and are something all leaders must excel in. 

Delegation 

Proper use of delegation ensures that tasks are completed. It can also promote feedback-seeking behaviour, which is known to improve work quality and output. 

The delegation needs to be good, however. Poor delegation can actually have adverse effects. 

• Good Delegation: Getting a salesperson to catch up with customers they haven’t spoken to for 6 months. 
• Bad Delegation: Getting a salesperson to clean the office because there’s currently some downtime at work. 

The difference seems obvious, and it is. However, far too often, employees are given jobs unsuitable for their positions. Either jobs that are too easy or too difficult. 

The perfect balance is delegating jobs that require their experience or give them an opportunity to improve their skills. 

Motivating Others 

Regardless of how you look at it, motivation plays a huge role in everybody's lives—the leaders, owners, employees - everyone. 

Motivation is what gets people to work. It gets them to listen and to act on their jobs.

Alongside this, it’s contagious. If leaders are motivated, others around them get motivated. This, in turn, can improve all types of working metrics. 

And the thing about motivation is that it costs very, very little, but the rewards are huge. 

For instance, Northeastern University said that the number one way to motivate people is through recognition. 

It’s really that simple. And from this simple piece of motivation you can expect a 20% boost in workplace productivity. 

Conflict Resolution 

No matter what happens, it’s almost impossible not to have conflict in a world place. 

And it’s not always a bad thing. Sometimes it needs to happen. The way it’s resolved, however, is whether conflict is bad or not. 

Most of the time, employees don’t know how to solve conflict. In fact, 53% of employees handle “toxic” situations by just avoiding the people involved. 

Conflict is such an issue that American businesses lose $359 billion (around £268 billion) yearly on unsolved conflict. 

Good leaders need conflict resolution in their toolbox. It won’t only save their company money, but it’ll also improve collaboration, motivation, innovation, the list goes on. 

Adaptability 

Leaders should also feel comfortable with the uncomfortable, aka being very adaptable. 

The 2020 pandemic taught us a lot about adaptability. In a matter of months, everything shut down, most things moved online, employees went on furlough, goals changed, and everyone went into survival mode. Nobody could have predicted such change. 

The true leaders, those with true leadership skills, powered through it. Not only that, turned a downturn into an upturn, despite seeming impossible. 

This is the level of adaptability you need. No matter what’s thrown at you, you must plan and execute flawlessly, all whilst getting your team on board. 

Accountability 

Most people fail horribly with accountability. Research even shows that 84% of the workforce either avoids or fails to take accountability. 

However, it’s such an important characteristic for a leader. It can stop conflict, it can improve relationships, and it can improve future goals, plans, etc. 

It’s not only for the leader, either. The leader must create an accountable culture—a place where people feel safe to own up to their mistakes. 

Vision 

Having a vision and being able to propel that across a team is incredibly important. 

The only issue is that 93% of employees don’t even understand what they’re trying to accomplish. This is a huge issue. 

Simply put, if you don’t know where you’re going, or your employees don’t know where they’re going, you’re not going anywhere. 

You need a goal. A goal that everybody is fully committed to. If you fail at this, your team productivity, motivation, and achievements will decrease tenfold. 

How to Improve Team Leadership Skills

If you want to learn the team leadership skills above, here’s an action plan that you can use to get started today. 

Step 1: Identify Your Leadership Gaps

Before anything, you need to determine what leadership skills you’re missing. You can do this by following answering the self-assessment questions below: 

Step 2: Create a Personalised Development Plan

Once you’ve identified what leadership skills need improving, you need to plan how you’re going to improve them. 

You can read books, watch YouTube videos, etc. However, the number one way to improve these skills is through a business coach. 

These coaches know how to develop these skills. They also know how important these skills are for all leaders to learn. 

The nice thing about business coaches is their personalisation. You can meet them, tell them your unique story, and they can develop a bespoke plan to meet your goals. 

Step 3: Implement Continuous Improvement

Knowledge must be paired with action to make a real improvement. With the knowledge you learn about your missing skills, action them at work.

See the outcome of the results and adjust accordingly. This will allow you to try out your new skill set while seeing what works and doesn’t work for your specific workforce. 

The nine team leadership skills mentioned above are mandatory for anyone wanting to become a great leader. 

These skills, combined, can create an unstoppable force. A leader who can motivate, drive, and get a team from A to Z in multiple circumstances. 

If you want these leadership qualities, then join our free leadership webinar. In this webinar, we’ll go over how to be a great team leader so you can make a real impact in your business.