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5 Ways to Improve Your Leadership Abilities and Advance Your Career

Companies are looking for leaders at all levels: enhance your leadership skills!

Leadership skills can play a large role in an individual’s professional development at every level. While technical abilities and a college degree can help you at the beginning, the acceleration of your career trajectory ultimately requires soft and critical thinking skills, strong communication, an open mind, and lots of internal motivation. By honing and developing your leadership skills, you can more effectively demonstrate your value to your organization.

Here are five key areas that can help in the development of your leadership skills.

1. Research Your Industry

It’s important to stay up to date about what’s happening in your industry. Reference business papers, magazines, news, and blogs to help you become an “expert” in your chosen field and propel your career forward. The ability to talk about recent trends and findings in your social network and with your colleagues shows that you’re passionate about what you do and possess valuable subject matter expertise. It can also help build your knowledge on industry-related topics, improve your professional reputation, and make you a go-to source in your office.

2. Think Strategically

It’s essential for you to review your organization’s mission, goals, and strategic long-term plan. This will be critical in aligning your leadership strategies accordingly. A good employee with a true executive presence can accurately assess their company’s business model and growth strategy. Understanding where your company is headed may also help in generating creative ideas to help reach their goals and achieve optimal success. By focusing on your company’s overall objectives, your efforts will not go unnoticed. Company leaders will be keen on your dedication and enthusiasm to advancing the state of the organization.

3. Listen, Listen, Listen

To cultivate optimal leadership skills, individuals need to enhance their ability to communicate with their teams, their bosses, and their clients. The key to being a sound communicator is having the ability to listen to what others are saying. Receiving feedback from others and processing it internally is critical to solving problems. But more importantly, showing a willingness to listen to others—particularly your teammates and direct reports—makes them feel heard, which will attribute to a more positive and engaging business culture.

4. Ask for Feedback

Asking your superiors for feedback can provide excellent insight on how to improve your career. While some of it might be critical, a performance evaluation can help you understand your manager’s point of view, which gives you a chance to understand your areas of improvement. Moreover, this will enable you to create a strategic action plan—one that further advances the quality of your work.

5. Organize Your Work

Do you find yourself generating dozens of creative ideas, but find it difficult to curate them in one place? It’s important to organize your work to retain and revisit it at the appropriate time in the future. In addition to keeping ideas in order, creating a neat workspace can help your overall job performance. When seeking a promotion or looking to shift into a new role, a cluttered and disorganized desk can make you feel less confident and may give others the impression that you are unable to manage multiple tasks at a time.

Summary

Very few people are natural-born leaders. Without these innate tendencies, it takes time and the right mindset to become a truly exceptional leader. The five areas outlined above are only a few of the many skills that most great leaders possess. Showing a willingness to continuously improve and refine your abilities will only benefit the long-term development of your professional career. With a can-do attitude and a strong desire to learn from the people around you, you can master your leadership skills and elevate your performance to benefit the good of your organization.