13 Soft Skills Every Leader Need To Possess

Irfan Ak
4 min readJun 12, 2017

The most effective leaders have not only grasped technical skills, they’ve also understood soft skills.

Commonly known as people or interpersonal skills, soft skills like negotiating, building morale, and maintaining relationships are key to a leader’s success.

According to Resourceful Manager, a website dedicated to helping managers become more effective at their jobs, “Technical aptitude and business savvy aren’t worth much if leaders don’t have the people skills to execute them.”

1) Listening

The best communicators are not only skilled with their thoughts but in fact, they are good listeners too. If you don’t listen well how can you talk well? The core of good communication is to listen with patience and think before you speak. We often regard loud voice with more control which is wrong. In reality, control is all about listening. Control is about controlling the flow communication resides in listening well.

2) Nonverbal Communication

A person’s body language can often be more important than what he or she is actually saying. As an Entrepreneur, you need to learn how to read body language in order to succeed. A classic piece of research, while sometimes contested, posits that the words we choose have just a 7% impact on the listener’s interpretation, while body language has a 55% impact.

Maintain eye contact while speaking to show respect and sincerity, hold good posture to project confidence, avoid gestures that are distracting or convey disinterest such as crossed arms or fidgeting with clothing/jewelry, and make sure facial expressions align with the message being communicated.

3) The Art Of Delivering Bad News

No one wants to the bearer of bad news, but any leader knows for a fact that it is all part of the job. The ability to deliver the bad news tactfully is what sets a good leader from a bad one.

4) Learn How To Say ‘No’

Any leader knows for the fact that the more you say ‘Yes’ to anything that is unimportant, the more you need to say ‘No’ to everything that is important.

5) Find Right Way To Criticize

For leaders overseeing employees who may not be performing at the optimum level, giving criticism is extremely important in maintaining high standards and producing work that meets those standards.

6) Dealing With Difficult Employees

Every office has difficult employees who affect the whole team. Leader’s job is to work in harmony with everyone. Leaders must know how to deal with these employees, especially because others will judge the leader based on how he or she handles the situation.

7) Change Management

People respond to change in many different ways. In professional settings, employees will often look to their leaders during times of change for reassurance, guidance, and a sense of stability.

8) Handling Resistance

Leaders will always face resistance, and the way they handle opposition determines a great deal about how they are perceived. In business and in personal life there will be a lot of instances for leaders to resist the change. Future of a great leader will depend upon how sensibly he responded in a critical situation and made its way to a decent end.

9) Handling The Complaints

Leaders are constantly receiving complaints from employees. Strong leadership skills mean handling these complaints with tact and fairness. Being true is one of the most important traits of a good leader. Working towards the resolution is one giant step that leaders need to focus on.

See the more Soft Skills Here at Original Post

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Irfan Ak

Irfan Ak is a tech savvy, digital content marketing expert & a blogger on various websites. He has worked with several brands and created value for them.