Good Leadership Skills

Tools Of The Trade

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Ethan Lin is the founder of www.leadershipgeeks.com and www.personality-central.com.sg. He has a passion to empower and develop people. Professionally, he is a corporate trainer focusing on sales training, leadership development and team building with his company Personality Central.

This section on Good Leadership Skills is about the required skills of a leader and how to acquire them.

Skills can be nurtured. They are mastered through practice and continual application. The same is true for leadership.

Some argue that leadership traits are inborn. What they’re really saying is that personality traits are inborn – some personalities (like extroverts) tend to be better leaders while others (like introverts) tend to be better followers.

Nothing can be further from the truth. Leadership is both an art and a skill that can be mastered.

A pilot requires excellent psycho-motor skills and flying skills to fly an aircraft.
A pilot requires excellent psycho-motor skills and flying skills to fly an aircraft.

Did the pilot become a master from the time he was born? Of course not – He took years to hone those skills.

An athlete practices 6-8 hours daily for years in order to compete at the highest level.
An athlete practices 6-8 hours daily for years in order to compete at the highest level.

People revel in the glory of victory but they do not see the honing and developing of skills through diligent hard work.

Becoming a leader is no exception. To become an outstanding leader takes constant application and practice.

Do you want to become the best? Then practice!

“Give Me Six Hours to Chop Down a Tree and I Will Spend the First Four Sharpening the Axe.” – Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln is talking about the multiplier effect of honing your skills. Everyone thinks about working harder – that becoming a leader means working harder than everyone else.

But you spend time honing your leadership skills, you’ll find that your efforts will have a multiplier effect. Your words are going to yield you manifold benefits; your actions are going to reap you manifold rewards.

If you spend years honing your speaking skills, you'll find that one speech from you can impact hundreds, even thousands!
If you spend years honing your speaking skills, you’ll find that one speech from you can impact hundreds, even thousands!

But what’s the reality? Most leaders find it hard to even motivate their staff strength of 5.

So which is more profitable? – Spending 10 hours a week trying to motivate your staff with a poor speaking skills or spending 1 hour a week impacting your staff with excellent speaking skills?

The is the Multiplier Effect of Mastered Skills.

Honing these skills are essential for a leader, for your time is limited. It seems like a tremendous investment of time and energy to build up these skills, but they do reap great reward.

In this section, I’ll be talking about several essential skillsets you must obtain to become an effective leader.

More Articles

Time Management: Five simple steps for ultimate time management

Writing Skills: Influencing with the written word

Interview Skills: The essential components of an interview process

Public Speaking Skills: Managing the fear of speaking

Assertiveness Skills: Learning to speak your mind

Networking Skills: Building your people network

Organization Skills: Getting Your Life in Order

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