We all know that leadership is a key skill for any organization, but it’s not always easy to find and groom talent in your organization. Most leaders don’t get the feedback they need to develop their skills and improve as a leader.
They’re too busy focusing on other tasks like managing projects or keeping up with the latest technology trends. The good news is there are ways you can capitalize on your strengths as a leader and improve your weaknesses through constructive feedback from colleagues and subordinates.
Enhance your leadership skills with HIGH5’s leadership strengths test. This tool helps you pinpoint your key strengths and areas for improvement, providing actionable insights for personal and professional growth. Ideal for busy leaders, the HIGH5 test enables you to strategically develop your leadership capabilities, ensuring you’re maximizing your potential effectively.
In this article, we’ll discuss how you can start getting better at leadership by capitalizing on your strengths.
What Are Leadership Strengths?
Some of the most common strengths that leaders have include:
- being a good listener
- delegating tasks effectively
- communicating clearly to get an idea across
- taking initiative when needed
- always striving for improvement
The following is a list of some more specific leadership qualities that can make someone a great leader:
- having high emotional intelligence (EQ)
- being passionate about their work or project(s)
- understanding people’s needs
- maintaining clear communication with others
If there is one thing all these qualities share, it would be the ability to inspire others. Identifying your leadership strengths could start with introspection or feedback from peers. For a more structured approach, consider utilizing the HIGH5 strengths test.
It offers a detailed analysis that can complement your self-assessment and feedback from your team, providing a comprehensive view of your leadership capabilities.
All Great Leaders Have High EQ
I’m sure you’ve heard the cliché line, “Leadership is not a position.” But what does that mean? It means that leadership is an attitude.
You can be president of your own company and still have low EQ (emotional quotient). You can be a first-grade teacher but have no empathy for your students. Leadership skills are vital to any successful organization, and emotional intelligence is one of the most important aspects. So how do you know if you possess high or low EQ?
High EQ leaders typically exhibit behaviors such as being diplomatic, understanding others’ emotions, and maintaining strong relationships with those they lead while also having good self-management skills.
Low EQ leaders often lack these key components which means they struggle when it comes to making decisions, managing conflict when it arises, and building trust.
The key to effective leadership is identifying the areas in which you need improvement and implementing a growth plan.
The best way to do this is by getting constructive feedback from your team on what they see as your strengths and weaknesses so that you can work towards bettering yourself in those areas.
You might be surprised at how accurate their assessments are.
It’s not always easy to admit that there are skills or abilities we lack but being honest with ourselves will only help us grow into more successful leaders who have emotional intelligence and high EQ.
Passion for Their Work
Leaders should be passionate about their work or project(s) and understand people’s needs.
Passion is key to success, so a leader needs to be passionate about their work or project(s).
It can also help you understand what people need to succeed.
- Effective leaders are the ones who have passion and understanding of others’ needs.
- When someone lacks interest or enthusiasm towards something they do, this will reflect on them as an individual and the company as well.
- The best way to get better at anything is through practice; if you want your employees to improve then provide constructive feedback that will lead them down a path of continuous growth.
Maintain Clear Communication
Communication is the key to success in any leadership position.
We all have our strengths and weaknesses, but we must be able to maintain a clear line of communication with team members if we want them to succeed as well.
The work environment is always changing and so are the leadership skills needed to succeed.
Leadership skills such as clear communication, motivation, negotiation, and planning will help you in any work environment.
But what if you have a skill that does not seem to be working for you? What should you do then?
Clear communication is key to ensuring that everyone has the same understanding of what needs to happen next.
This not only helps keep projects on track but also ensures that people are as motivated and productive in their work.
One way you can get better at clear communication is by practicing communicating with your team members about a topic they find interesting.
Whether you are trying to convince your team that a new project is worth pursuing or not, or whether it’s deciding where to go for your next team building, practice will help hone the way you communicate about what needs to happen next and why it’s important for everyone involved in the work.
Planning also helps with clear communication because it ensures that people know when they should start working on tasks and how long things might take – both of which can affect decisions at any point in time during a project.
Effective leaders schedule their days to best use their strengths while taking advantage of opportunities for improvement without putting themselves under too much stress.
Leadership Strengths List – 30 Examples
List of leadership strengths:
- Innovative
- Integrity
- Active listening
- Honesty
- Visionary
- Self-confidence
- Delegation
- Strong communicator
- Problem-solving skills
- Decision-making skill
- Inquisitiveness
- Fair Attitude
- Humility
- Self-motivated
- Self-discipline
- Care for others
- Passion
- Emotional intelligence
- Accountability
- Resilience
- Tech-savvy
- Supportive
- Learning Agility
- Empathy
- Empowerment
- Social skills
- Reasonable
- Ability to teach
- Ability to inspire
- Turning vision into reality
Pro Tip From HIGH5
When examining the list of leadership strengths, think about how they match up with your personal traits. Using a thorough assessment like the HIGH5 test can offer deeper insight, guiding you to concentrate on enhancing the strengths that come most naturally to you. This targeted approach ensures you develop your leadership skills in the most effective and authentic way possible.
How Do You Build Key Leadership Strengths?
Leadership is a complex and nuanced topic. Leaders can have strengths in areas such as communication, creativity, relationships, visioning, or strategy.
Some leaders are strong in all of these areas, while others excel at one or two specific skills.
Regardless of your leadership strengths, you can work to improve on the areas where you’re weakest by following some simple steps outlined below:
- Ask for feedback from your team members about how you lead them to better understand their needs and what they enjoy about working with you
- Learn more about yourself through self-reflection exercises such as writing down three things that make you feel proud and reviewing those notes every month to see if there’s any change over time.
- Understand what motivates each team member and create a shared leadership vision that will work for everyone.
- Encourage team members to help you learn how to be better at the things they are strong in by letting them teach you when necessary
- Make sure your feedback is constructive, clear, and specific so as not to offend anyone.
Don’t forget: leaders can make mistakes too. If something goes wrong on your watch, you must know what steps to take next – which could include acknowledging responsibility, taking corrective action, or seeking out training if need be.
Effective leaders do more than just avoid making mistakes; they also find creative ways around obstacles and solve problems before they become unmanageable.
The first step is identifying what you want to do better or where you feel like there is room for improvement in your current leadership style.
Next, develop strategies on how to address this weakness so it becomes a strength instead of an obstacle.
One way to turn your weakness into a strength is by learning from others who have had success with the skill that you are trying to work on.
Learn from their failures as well as their successes and try out different approaches until you find one that works best for you.
A good place to start is by reaching out to people who have been successful in that area and asking them for constructive feedback.
When you receive the feedback, consider it when making changes so they are more tailored towards your style of leadership.
For example, if someone told you that you were not using enough encouragement during team meetings and instead relying too much on negative reinforcement, try adding a few compliments or positive comments here and there along with some encouragement.
If this doesn’t feel natural at first then make an effort to practice this skill until it does because it will certainly help improve your weakness. In addition to learning from other’s successes, be sure that you also use yourself as a resource.
Reflect upon instances where you may have been in a leadership position and ask yourself what went well. Try to pinpoint the strengths you exhibited during those moments so that you can build upon them.
Building on your leadership strengths requires understanding them deeply. Tools like the HIGH5 test not only identify your strengths but also suggest practical ways to develop them further. Incorporating these insights into your growth plan can lead to more effective leadership strategies.
What are Leadership Weaknesses?
Leadership weaknesses are not something you should be ashamed about. It’s important to know what your leadership weaknesses are to work on them and improve them.
What does this mean? Well, the next time you’re feeling frustrated with yourself for being weak at a certain skill set, don’t give up. Instead of focusing on what went wrong or how hard it will be to fix the problem (which is usually counterproductive), take a step back and think about where you can find help.
You might also want to ask friends who have different strengths than yours for advice – they may be able to point out things that wouldn’t have occurred to you otherwise. In addition, try looking into strategies like delegation or mentoring to free up your time and energy for working on the skills that are holding you back.
It’s also important to note that being a good leader doesn’t mean having all of the answers, but rather knowing when it’s necessary to ask for help or consult with others. The most successful people in any field understand this – their ambition is matched by an equal amount of humility.
They’re willing to try new things and take risks to be better at what they do best, but not so much that they compromise who they are as a person.
Pro Tip From HIGH5
Understanding your weaknesses is just as important as knowing your strengths.
10 Examples of Leadership Weaknesses (and How To Fix Them)
The following is a list of some leadership weaknesses to be aware of:
- Too much emphasis on being liked
- Lack of emotional intelligence
- Inability to delegate
- Constant blaming
- Not listening to the people that matter
- Disrespectful attitude
- Poor communication
- Over-reliance on formal authority
- Underdeveloped people skills
- A lack of empathy
Let’s take a look at some of the most common leadership weaknesses (in-depth) and how to fix them.
Too Much Emphasis on Being Liked
If you are too focused on being liked, it will be difficult to make tough decisions or put yourself in positions where colleagues may not like what you do.
The leader must have a healthy balance of “being liked” and “doing their job”.
The best thing for the leader to do when faced with this leadership weakness would be to honestly assess how they can improve on either end of the spectrum.
They should also consider adding feedback mechanisms into place so staff members know their opinions matter and help them solve problems without fear of retaliation.
Lack of Emotional Intelligence
Lack of emotional intelligence is a common leadership weakness.
A leader who lacks emotional intelligence is not able to understand the emotions of others and can be insensitive or unaware of their feelings.
The best way for a person with this leadership strength to improve would be to work on it by adopting an attitude that demonstrates understanding, empathy, and sensitivity (i.e., “I want you to feel heard”).
They should also work at identifying when they are feeling upset so they do not take out frustrations on someone else through yelling or other behaviors that could lead to conflict in the team environment.
Additionally, leaders may find helpful resources such as books written about how people think differently because different cultures have differing views on what is considered persuasive.
Effective leaders are skilled at managing their emotions and those of others, paying attention to feedback from team members so that they can acknowledge and correct any mistakes or misunderstandings.
To improve this leadership strength a leader might work on setting clear expectations for themselves as well as the people who report to them to avoid confusion about goals.
They should also take care not to over-promise since if something gets delayed it could lead other team members to feel like they no longer have faith in you.
Inability to Delegate
Having an inability to delegate means that as a leader, you will have a hard time trusting others to do your job.
People who have this problem may find that their meetings are too long because they want to share all of the information themselves, or they might be tempted to micromanage to ensure everything goes smoothly.
To improve, you should learn how and when it’s appropriate for someone else on your team to take over certain tasks so that you can focus on key priorities instead.
You will also need to resist the temptation of doing things yourself since if something does go wrong, people will feel like it was due to a lack of trust.
Constant Blaming
Leaders who are constantly blaming others are unlikely to be constructive in their feedback or get the help they need.
To improve, you should adopt a mindset of “I’m responsible” and use that as an opportunity for self-awareness (i.e., “What did I do wrong here?”).
This will allow you to avoid blaming others when things don’t go according to plan – an approach that can lead to resentment on your team.
Instead, just think about yourself instead of always looking outwards – this is key if you want people to have faith in your leadership abilities and trustworthiness.
If it’s clear that there was someone else involved who made a mistake first, though, figure out how best to deal with them before placing blame elsewhere.
Not Listening to the People That Matter
Addressing leadership weaknesses is a critical step towards becoming a more effective leader. The HIGH5 test can help by offering a perspective on your strengths that counterbalance these weaknesses, guiding targeted improvements.
Not listening to those around you is one of the bad leadership traits that fuel resentment amongst your team members.
This can often lead to people feeling unappreciated and undervalued, which is when they start becoming disengaged with their work and stop taking initiative or caring about the quality of their contributions.
The result? They’re not doing anything productive for you anymore, which in turn hurts your company’s bottom line.
If you want your staff to be engaged with what they do inside and outside of the office – if at all possible – it’s important that you listen on both fronts: within the organization as well as externally (to customers).
It will make them feel appreciated by coming up with solutions together, instead of only telling them what needs to be done without engaging their input.
To get better at listening to your staff, you should be :
- Listening regularly (e.g., daily, weekly)
- Making sure to be receptive and not defensive while listening to what they have to say
- Allow your staff member the time and space needed for their input without interrupting them or jumping in too soon with constructive feedback of your own around their thoughts.
For example, you can use open questions like: “What do you think?” or “Is that part true?” You should also avoid using phrases such as “you always/never…” which are attacks disguised as statements.
Leadership Strengths & Weaknesses FAQ
How do you write leadership strengths?
You can discover your leadership strengths and keep track of them by asking others around you. See what your team believes your top skills are. Consider asking a mentor about their views on your strengths and weaknesses.
Alternatively, you could take a leadership skill assessment that clearly articulates your strengths. Then, write them down in an online document and see how your skills change over time. Track them by consistently retaking the test and writing down the different results.
Pro Tip From HIGH5
Continuous improvement is key in leadership. Reassessing your strengths and weaknesses periodically with reliable tools like HIGH5 ensures you’re always moving forward and adapting your leadership style to meet new challenges.
What are the strengths and weaknesses of leadership?
Leadership strengths are the qualities that help you lead a team. They propel your team to success, whatever that may look like for you. For instance, they could help you understand your team better, focus more, or achieve mode goals.
Leadership weaknesses are qualities that hold you and your team back from achieving your goals. They may make you less productive, more burnt out, or less committed, for example.
Conclusion
You’ve heard it before, but leadership is the key to any organization’s success.
And if you’re a leader who doesn’t get feedback on your skills, that can be an issue since most leaders don’t have time to focus their energy elsewhere and on things like training or development.
But there are ways for you to capitalize and improve as a leader by getting constructive feedback from colleagues and subordinates alike.
