You’re on the job hunt, trying to figure out the best way to highlight your leadership skills on your resume. While showcasing your talents on a single page can be challenging, we’ve got you covered. Check out our insights below, and get ready to wow your next employer.
If adding leadership skills to your resume sounds overwhelming, we recommend working with a resume writing professional. Check out our guide to the best resume writing services to learn more.
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Why Should You List Leadership Skills Your Resume
Listing leadership skills on a resume is crucial because it showcases your ability to manage, guide, and inspire others, qualities highly valued in many roles and industries.
Leadership skills demonstrate your potential to take initiative, make strategic decisions, and positively influence a team towards achieving common goals. These skills are not only pertinent for managerial or supervisory positions but are also increasingly important in collaborative and dynamic work environments.
By highlighting your leadership abilities, you signal to potential employers that you are capable of handling responsibilities, driving positive changes, and fostering a productive and harmonious workplace. This can set you apart from other candidates, showing that you possess both the technical skills required for the job and the interpersonal skills needed to lead and motivate others.
Top 10 Leadership Skills To Include On Your Resume
People Management
You need to be able to manage people, which includes hiring, training, and effectively utilizing your team. In addition, you must be a master at motivating others and delegating the right tasks to the right employees.
Project Management
You must also be able to take a project from idea to completion by managing the people and resources you have. Project management includes subskills like time management, prioritization, negotiation, collaboration, and more.
Decision Making
You have to be decisive to keep your team and organization moving forward. You must be comfortable making difficult choices where you sometimes have limited information.
Flexibility
You have to be able to adapt to ever-changing circumstances on the fly. Flexibility and creative thinking are must-haves to adjust without missing a beat.
Business Acumen
You must have a deep understanding of the business. This knowledge will help you make critical decisions and lead your team.
Problem Solving
You need to be able to identify and solve problems quickly, often with limited resources. That way, your team experiences minimal disruption to their productivity.
Communication
You must be able to convey your point clearly, both verbally and in writing. Strong communication skills will help you foster trust, negotiate, persuade, collaborate, inform, and motivate.
Integrity
You must have a strong moral compass to be an effective leader. You should strive to lead with transparency, integrity, and honesty.
Responsibility
You need to assume total responsibility for your team's performance and accept blame when you make a mistake. Doing so will foster trust and build credibility with your employees.
Positive Attitude
You must maintain a positive attitude — even during a crisis. If you keep a smile on your face, your team members will likely follow suit, resulting in better morale and productivity.
If you want to improve your leadership skills, check out out guide to effective leadership skills and the best leadership training options.
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How To Include Leadership Skills On Your Resume
You should include your leadership skills in your cover letter and on your resume. In your cover letter, you can highlight your abilities by sharing a relevant and powerful (yet brief) anecdote about how your leadership benefitted your employer.
On your resume, you should weave in your leadership skills throughout the descriptions of each role you’ve had. Follow these rules of thumb when crafting your descriptions:
- Stick to the skills mentioned in the job advertisement. There’s no need to stuff your resume with leadership buzzwords.
- Quantify your achievements to demonstrate the positive impact you’ve had during your career.
- Be truthful about your accomplishments. Exaggeration or fabrication will eventually haunt you — and could cost you your job and reputation within the industry.
Here are a few examples of statements you can use on your resume to demonstrate your leadership capabilities effectively:
- Implemented a new recognition and rewards program, resulting in a 20% decrease in employee turnover.
- Found and resolved a production bottleneck, increasing plant output by 15% each day.
- Trained a team of 100 employees on quality standards, decreasing product defects by 30%.
- Negotiated a new deal with a major vendor, saving the organization $150,000 per year.
Here’s the formula you can tweak for your situation: what you did (the leadership skill you showed) + what results you got (the benefit to the company).
Why Do Employers Care About Leadership Skills?
Employers care about leadership skills because they need to develop and maintain a pipeline of talent that can step into leadership roles when they become vacant. In addition, they know that employees with these skills go the extra mile, champion change, and drive productivity — regardless of the position they hold in the company. Having a roster full of workers with these capabilities ensures a bright future for their organization.
How To Build Leadership Skills
If your leadership skills are lacking (or non-existent), don’t worry! You can build them by following these tips:
- Broaden the scope of your current role by spearheading a project that would help your employer. You could also ask your supervisor for more responsibility.
- Get a mentor who can show you the ropes of leadership.
- Ask your manager and team members for feedback on how you can become a better leader.
- Practice a specific leadership skill, like communication, and track your progress.
- Invest in yourself by reading books, attending seminars, or taking courses on leadership.
You won’t turn into the world’s best leader overnight. But, if you consistently work at it, you will see improvement sooner than you think! You can also explore options for leadership training.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are major leadership skills?
Major leadership skills include but aren’t limited to flexibility, creativity, communication, delegation, persuasion, motivation, responsibility, business acumen, people management, and project management.
How can you be an effective leader?
You can be an effective leader by listening to your team, leading by example, acting with integrity, developing your people, and being brave and decisive during times of crisis.
What is a good example of leadership?
Good examples of leadership include but aren’t limited to being the captain of a team sport, spearheading a school or work project, and managing a fundraising event.
How do you prove leadership skills?
You can prove your leadership skills by setting and following a good example, demonstrating expertise, taking on significant responsibility, adapting to change, caring for your team members, and facing challenges directly.
The Bottom Line
Now that you know how to put leadership skills on your resume, it’s time to give that document an overhaul! But, if rewriting your resume seems like an impossible task, check out our top choices for the best resume writing service for assistance. Then, head over to ZipRecruiter to start looking for your next opportunity. You got this!
