21 Soft Skills for Leadership Success

Successful leadership relies on a variety of soft skills. Effective leaders apply these skills to interact with and inspire their teams openly and honestly. As you develop in your career, it's important to develop your soft skills so you can increase your opportunities for advancement into leadership roles.

In this article, we discuss several essential soft skills for leadership that are important to develop in your career.

Read more: Leadership Skills: Definitions and Examples

Why are soft skills for leadership important?

Soft skills are important for leadership because skills like effective communication with team members, making decisions about processes and maintaining an organized team are essential to productivity and performance. Successful leadership commonly encompasses strong soft skills that enable leaders to motivate and inspire their teams. Additionally, the ability to lead successfully often depends on a leader's ability to strategize, listen to feedback and incorporate their team's ideas and contributions.

Related: 15 Leadership Qualities That Make a Great Leader

Essential soft skills for effective leadership

The following soft skills are important for successful leadership:

• Communication skills

• Interpersonal skills

• Teamwork skills

• Motivational skills

• Analytical skills

• Problem-solving skills

• Decision-making skills

• Conflict resolution

• Empathy

• Compassion

• Confidence

• Integrity

• Honesty

• Mentoring skills

• Willingness to learn

• Delegating tasks

• Organizational skills

• Creativity

• Strategic planning

• Emotional intelligence

• Adaptability

Communication skills

Leadership relies on effective communication. Successful leaders are often active listeners who are open to feedback and acceptance of their team's perspectives. To demonstrate communication skills effectively in a leadership role means having the ability to apply discussion techniques, interpret non-verbal cues and correspond with others in writing.

Interpersonal skills

The ability to navigate social interactions with colleagues is an important aspect of leadership. Interpersonal skills allow leaders to gauge others' emotions and respond to interactions based on their awareness of their team's thoughts, ideas and feelings.

Teamwork skills

Every successful leader knows how to work as a team with their colleagues. Collaborating and sharing ideas, contributing to a common cause and helping teammates achieve success are common teamwork skills that effective leadership depends on.

Motivational skills

Motivating and inspiring others are key indicators of strong leadership. Leading a group or team of coworkers means motivating them and providing inspiration. Leaders who are passionate and share that passion with their teams have a higher chance of maintaining employee morale, increasing productivity and improving performance.

Analytical skills

Leading a team requires the ability to analyze and evaluate processes and operations. Leaders rely on their analytical skills to make decisions, weigh options and predict the outcomes of projects or tasks they are responsible for.

Problem-solving skills

Being able to develop creative solutions to solve workplace problems is another highly desirable trait that successful leadership can require. Finding ways to mitigate risks, reduce logistical issues and implement strategies that meet business objectives are several key factors that effective problem-solving encompasses.

Decision-making skills

Considering all perspectives, comparing advantages and disadvantages and projecting outcomes of making choices are fundamental to effective decision-making. Additionally, the ability to decisively act during times of conflict is another trait of effective leadership.

Conflict resolution

Leaders need to be able to resolve issues in the workplace. This means developing conflict resolution techniques like remaining impartial, meeting with the team for a feedback session and actively listening to all individuals' points of view. Being able to calm heightened emotions and maintain harmony in the workplace is extremely valuable.

Empathy

The ability to empathize and understand others is a trait skilled leaders rely on to lead teams and direct processes. Being able to approach coworkers with kindness and acceptance can inspire and foster positive work relationships. Additionally, empathy in leadership shows vulnerability, which makes leaders approachable and more relatable to their teammates.

Compassion

Working with a team requires patience, acceptance and sometimes tolerance. Great leaders understand employees make mistakes and make room to accommodate their team's growth and development. Leaders who strive to prioritize their team's needs often demonstrate high levels of compassion and caring.

Confidence

Good leaders are assertive and it shows. Confidence in leadership encompasses the ability to admit mistakes and improve, act as a role model for teammates and be aware of strengths and weaknesses. Confidence in leadership means being open to improvement and understanding the value you provide.

Read more: Soft Skills: Definitions and Examples

Integrity

Leadership requires consistency in actions, values, principles, expectations and methods. Leaders who consistently act with integrity commit to behaving ethically and morally. Integrity in leadership means doing the right thing, no matter the circumstances, and great leaders know this.

Honesty

Integrity and honesty are staples of great leadership. Leaders who are open and transparent in their communications with staff commonly have more positive work relationships because they inspire greater trust. Leaders who remain honest in their leadership style acknowledge the value of their team, and this also helps build trust.

Mentoring skills

Whether training new employees or helping teams implement improvement plans, successful leaders are adept mentors. They lead their teams and support their growth and development in the workplace and find ways to accommodate learning.

Willingness to learn

Leadership means being open to learning, along with teaching and directing. Leaders who commit to learning new skills, develop their knowledge and learn from their mistakes.

Delegating tasks

Allocating tasks, defining project parameters and directing a team to work together to meet objectives is something most leaders do every day in their roles. Additionally, delegating tasks efficiently can mean knowing which team members can handle especially challenging tasks and which team members benefit more from smaller tasks. The ability to evaluate and pair talent with tasks accordingly is what can make leaders efficient in their jobs.

Organizational skills

Documents, files, charts, tools, resources and various other tangible aspects of leading a team require organizational methods to avoid confusion and misunderstandings between team members. Highly effective leadership depends on the ability to implement organizational structure, outline procedures and maintain consistent workflow in the office.

Creativity

Creative leaders use innovative strategies and approaches for completing projects, organizing teams and developing solutions. Leaders who can think strategically and apply imaginative concepts and ideas to achieve business objectives do so efficiently. Business growth often depends on leaders' creativity and imaginative designs to implement strategies that help their organizations achieve goals.

Strategic planning

Strategic planning relies on analysis and evaluation, creating solutions and projecting outcomes to develop plans for business processes. These business processes are what move a business toward its goals. Strategic planning encompasses a mix of analytical, evaluative and critical thinking skills to integrate business strategies.

Emotional intelligence

Self-awareness, mindfulness and intrapersonal skills are key traits of emotional intelligence. Leadership depends on the ability to evaluate your own emotions before confronting situations, identify environmental stimulants that trigger negative emotions and resolve internal conflicts before interacting with others.

Adaptability

The ability to be flexible in your role and adapt to changes in the workplace are skills that are critical for growth and development as a leader. Effective leaders adapt to transitions by finding ways to cope with new situations, support teammates in times of change and initiate team collaboration to ensure their teams have input during any changes in processes or operations.