Leadership skills on a resume: What’s all the fuss about?

If you are a job seeker researching resume writing tips, you would have come across several articles and blogs that emphasize the importance of highlighting leadership experience on your resume. Did you know that many employers value candidates who possess excellent leadership skills?

Leadership skills are a type of high-value transferable skills. Even if you’re not applying for a leadership role, these skills will help you stand out among your peers. Leadership skills help you become better at problem-solving, organizing, delegating, and motivating business teams. If you are applying for a leadership role, it is essential to display a good mix of leadership skills in your resume. These skills will help you put your best foot forward as a future manager.

One important type of leadership skills is communication skills. A good leader must be capable of communicating ideas smoothly among their team members. Also, professionals in leadership positions need to maintain open channels of communication between themselves and higher-level executives. Communication skills involve active listening as well as non-verbal communication. If you are applying for a leadership position, you should highlight these skills on your resume.

Organization is a type of leadership skill essential for those who apply for management roles. Every employee benefits from an organized leader. Organized workplaces are the result of a hardworking leader who admires efficiency. Organized leaders achieve more for their businesses. Your resume must mention your excellent organizational skills to win the attention of potential employers.

True leaders build lasting relationships with their teams. The ability to build effective relationships is a rare one. As a professional, you must build excellent relationships with your team, your supervisor, and higher leaders within your organization. These relationships will help your business achieve better intra-organizational cooperation. Showcase how your relationship-building skills have helped cross-functional teams deliver successful projects.

Leading a team involves a whole lot of conflict resolution. Managers, supervisors, and other business leaders have to resolve conflicts in the workplace multiple times. If you are applying for a position where you have to work with a large team, it is essential to highlight your conflict resolution skills on your resume. Show how you value maintaining an objective stance and resolving conflicts promptly. Good judgment, active listening, and fairness are a few more skills that you should bring out on your resume.

You cannot get every aspect of a project completed by yourself. Effective task delegation is a must-have skill for an inspiring leader. Highlight how you have used your ability to identify the strengths of individual team members to delegate tasks effectively on your resume. Effective delegation involves many things, such as planning and scheduling, clear communication, organization, as well as interpersonal skills.

Another thing that you will be doing a lot as a leader is solving problems. You will be resolving multiple types of problems in a leadership role. Therefore, it is a smart move to highlight your problem-solving skills on your resume. Enrich your work experience section with examples of how you have fixed simple scheduling issues to complex technical problems. Show potential employers the benefits/cost savings/profits you have achieved for the organization with your problem-solving skills.