Leadership Skills for a Resume: List of Examples +Guide

Did you know that at a certain point, the great Google stopped believing in the power of hierarchy in the company? To confirm this, they conducted a study to prove that managers have no influence on the performance of teams and that all companies should have a flat structure.

As you may imagine, the results showed the opposite. It turned out that managers are not a necessary evil, but a key factor that affects the team's and company's results. But in order to be a good manager, you have to possess certain qualities that will put you ahead of the pack.

In this article: 

• What are leadership skills and why it’s important to improve them.
• How to put leadership skills on a resume.
• Examples of good leadership skills.

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When applying for jobs, you’ll have to write a resume with the perfect skills section. In the below guides, you will find everything there is to know about different types of skills:

• Computer Skills
• Technical Skills
• IT Skills
• Marketing Skills
• Conflict Resolution Skills
• Critical Thinking Skills
• Communication Skills
• Conceptual Skills
• Time Management Skills
• Creative Thinking Skills

 

Leadership Skills Resume Example 

1. What Are Leadership Skills?

People who hold positions of authority take a huge responsibility, not only for themselves, but also for the functioning of the entire organization. Some of them are born leaders. Others need to learn how to become a leader by developing key leadership skills and behaviors. Let’s all thank Henri Fayol, who was the first to say that you can learn to be a leader, while his predecessors claimed that it was an innate skill. 

What are leadership skills?

Leadership skills are competencies you use when managing other people to reach a shared goal. They include abilities such as inspiring others, delegating duties, giving feedback, and making decisions. You should demonstrate strong leadership skills to succeed in managerial positions.

Managers, leaders, executives, directors, and supervisors work with people. And by “people” we don’t only mean their subordinates, but also other managers, suppliers, clients, and customers. 

Thanks to this complicated web of relationships and the cooperation between these people, leaders are able to efficiently plan the long-term goals of a company and the path to achieve them. 

When applying for your next job, especially if you’re writing a resume for a manager position, make sure to include leadership skills to show you have what it takes to land the role you're after.

So read on to find out what good things to put on your resume in the skills section.

2. Leadership Skills—Examples for Your Resume

Different leaders have different managing styles, which makes it difficult to clearly define what set of traits a perfect leader should have. 

Above all, a leadership position requires the ability to manage a team. Delegating specific tasks to individual employees allows the team to work more efficiently and decrease the number of delays in achieving company goals.

A good manager/leader should also know their employees well and be able to successfully motivate them to ensure a high level of performance. 

He or she should always provide support and guidance, but also be demanding and, most importantly, consistent.

Here are the supervisor resume skills that you should include in your application:

Leadership Skills List

• Patience
• Empathy
• Active listening
• Confidence
• Decision-making
• Ability to motivate others
• Reliability
• Agility
• Goal-orientation
• Consistency
• Organization
• Project management
• Dependability
• Creativity
• Emotional and cultural intelligence
• Negotiation
• Presentation / public speaking
• Reading body language
• Nonverbal communication
• Positivity
• Ability to give and receive feedback
• Trustworthiness
• Conflict management
• Delegating
• Time management
• Self-Awareness
• Relationship building
• Team building
• Honesty
• Adaptability
• Flexibility
• Risk-taking
• Mentoring

Now, let’s move to learning how to put these skills on a resume:

3. Top Leadership Skills to Put on Your Resume

Are you organized, responsible, and have an entrepreneurial spirit? Unfortunately, that might not be enough in order to be a good leader. Check what skills to put on your resume when applying for a managerial position:

1. Confidence

A good manager should without a doubt be confident and bold. Someone who’s responsible for the mistakes, failures and successes of a team must not be afraid to express their opinion. A great manager needs to be aware of their own worth and know what they’re capable of—they have to be aware of both their strengths and their weaknesses. 

2. Empathy

Empathy is a person's intuitive ability to put themselves in other people's shoes. It is an important quality that allows you to feel and identify the feelings and desires of others. Being able to understand people through empathy is a critical component of company success, and it’s obviously a great quality of leaders. It allows them to exert a positive influence on their employees, while mobilizing them towards a common and non-personal goal. 

3. Adaptability

In today’s world, the ability to adapt to change can make a huge difference. A great leader will be constantly looking for things that can be changed and seeking innovative ideas that will bring benefits to the organization. Ultimately, adaptability is necessary to meet the needs of the business and customers and to evolve in a dynamic environment that requires someone who knows how to lead teams.

4. Clear Communication

Integrity is one of the top attributes of a great leader. That’s why authoritative people, more than anyone, must be able to communicate with transparency and sincerity in all situations. They must know how to encourage all members of the organization to be proactive, influence them, and solve problems, without disguising reality. 

5. Planning

Whether you manage projects, people, or both, being able to have a certain vision and to plan strategies is essential. Any good manager must therefore know how to organize the tasks and goals of his/her employees in order to achieve the set objectives while respecting the deadlines, budgets, and human resources available.

6. Decision-making

“I don't know” or “I can't decide that” are terrible answers if you’re in a management position, where decisions have to be made on a daily basis in order to set the direction, implement plans and achieve company goals. 

7. Conflict Resolution

Disputes in the team, angry customers, problems between colleagues—conflicts are part of professional life. Leaders don't just have to deal with them, they also have to actively contribute to solving them. Oftentimes, managers have to take on the role of a mediator and try to clarify the situation to make it positive for everyone involved.

8. Self-reflection

Everyone has strengths and weaknesses, including superiors. The more consciously and openly you deal with your own abilities, the more successful you will be as a leader.

9. Responsibility 

Leadership skills include taking responsibility for your team. And that doesn't just mean taking responsibility for mistakes made by your team members. It also means making uncomfortable decisions and being aware of the consequences of your actions.

10. Mentoring 

Mentoring skills enable the transfer of knowledge and expertise. Experienced professionals can guide newcomers, ensuring the continuity of industry-specific wisdom. A culture of mentorship can positively influence workplace culture. It promotes collaboration, teamwork, and a willingness to help colleagues. Mentoring skills benefit mentors as well. They gain satisfaction from seeing their mentees succeed and often experience personal and professional growth through the mentorship process.

4. How to Put Leadership Skills on a Resume

Writing a resume is a process that requires attention and focus. The contents of the document are the most important—the candidate should present themselves as a competent person in order to grab the attention of the hiring manager.

So it's worth highlighting the skills on your resume that are particularly likely to catch the recruiter's eye and increase your chances of landing an interview.

1. Start With a Resume Summary or Objective

The first part of your resume, the professional profile, is a summary of your work experience, skills, and achievements (or goals if you’rewriting a resume objective) and should look something like this:

Leadership Skills in a Resume Summary

Results-driven content manager with strategic and tactical leadership experience and over 7 years of developing strategies for content delivery and launching and managing multiple blogs and websites. Responsible for developing and managing the on-line content for a global, $2 million soft beverage company. Increased average overall organic traffic by 240%, lead generation by 100%, and SERP rank by 78%.

This candidate’s professional summary clearly demonstrates leadership and project management skills that will drive impact.

2. Write an Impressive Work History Section

Your resume’s work experience section is one of the most important bits. Use this section to prove you can use your leadership skills to achieve success. Here’s how to do it:

• Instead of listing your responsibilities, prove how well you did them by using numbers to quantify your accomplishments.
• Start each sentence with a resume action word to amplify your leadership skills.

Let’s look at an example:

Resume Job Description With Good Leadership Skills

Content Marketing Manager

Xerme Inc., Orlando, FL

July 2018–Sept 2021

• Created web content strategies and online marketing copy for various clients, while ensuring consistency with brand voice.

• Hired, trained, managed and motivated a team of 10 content writers.

• Responsible for reviewing, editing and approving all content prior to publishing.

• Grew consumer market by 20% through online marketing.

• Helped increase revenue by 500% over four years.

Expert Hint: Make sure to always use resume keywords to make your job application ATS-friendly. Targeting your resume is a simple technique to create an ATS resume and improve your chances of getting the job. 

3. Leverage Your Education to Showcase Your Leadership Skills

Your education section should especially be in the foreground if you’re writing an entry-level resume.

If you don’t have enough professional experience, put this part right after your objective and expand it as much as possible in order to use your academic experience to show off leadership skills and your other strengths that are relevant to the job opening.

Here’s a great example of a resume with no experience:

Leadership Skills in an Education Section

BA in Digital Marketing

The University of Central Florida 

2013

GPA: 3.8

• Extracurricular activities: Student council president (2011), captain of the cheerleading team (2010–2013)

Expert Hint: Extracurricular activities in high school and college are great opportunities to build and develop leadership skills, which are highly desirable in the workplace.

4. Make Your Skills Section Stand Out

Hiring managers don’t read resumes, they skim through them. And right after looking at your work experience section, their eyes will go straight to the skills list. Why?

Because it’s a great way to get the recruiter interested in what you have to offer.

So don’t just throw in random skills in there. Read the job ad carefully once again and cherry-pick the qualifications that are the most important to the employer. If they correspond to your competences, make sure to use them.

Leadership Skills in the Resume Skills Section

Hard Skills

• HTML

• SEO

• WordPress

• MailChimp, SalesForce

• Google Analytics

 Soft Skills

• Project management

• Mentoring

• Problem-solving

• Goal-oriented

• Strong communication skills (verbal and non-verbal)

Expert Hint: Many colleges look for leadership skills or leadership potential in college applicants. So, even if you’re not yet on a professional development path and writing a college application resume, include several leadership skills to up your chances of getting in.

5. Include Bonus Sections to Stand Out

If you want to really increase your chances of getting hired, make sure to include one or two additional resume sections. This is one of the best ways to stand out from the crowd. 

Highlight some other activities that will prove that you have excellent leadership and interpersonal skills: volunteer work, languages, certifications, associations, attended conferences, etc.

Leadership Skills in the Additional Sections

Certifications

• Berkeley Digital Marketing Boot Camp
• Project Management Professional (PMP) Certification

Languages

• Spanish (full professional proficiency)

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5. How to Develop Leadership Skills

Not everyone is a born leader, because leadership is not so much talent as hard work, the right tools, and self-awareness. Fortunately, this means you can improve leadership skills by following these simple steps:

1. Be Proactive

Passive, uninvolved people will have a lot of difficulty in finding themselves in the role of a leader. If you want to take a managerial position in the future, set new goals and challenges for yourself in everyday life and do your best to achieve them.

2. Open Your Mind

Being a good leader means having an open mind and knowing there is always something new to learn. So read books, take classes, watch tutorials, travel, meet new people, and expand your network. You never know when it might be helpful.

3. Know When to Be More Demanding

Question everything, especially when you feel something is inconsistent with your values ​​or beliefs. Being overly modest may prevent you from standing out on the job market as a manager.

4. Be Assertive

Nowadays, individualism and knowing when to say "No" is a skill that we should foster to protect our most valuable asset: a reliable and healthy workforce. At the same time, setting adequate boundaries and taking care of yourself (and others) is necessary to survive in a demanding world. 

5. Make Your Own Decisions

Decision-making and taking responsibility for specific actions is the best way to improve your leadership skills. Expand your comfort zone and work on your self-esteem. A leader should always be confident and fearless.

6. Discipline Yourself

If you want to discipline others, you have to start with yourself first. Good leaders are aware of their weaknesses and work on improving them. If you want to be an effective manager, you must be consistent and authentic in your actions.

7. Inspire Others

Being a leader means you are part of a team, and you should be able to motivate and inspire those you work with in order to collaborate with them in the best possible way. 

8. Resolve Conflicts

Instead of ignoring your personal conflicts and hoping they will go away, try to understand where these problems are coming from and find a solution that benefits everyone. 

9. Take on More Projects

A great way to develop your leadership skills is to take on more responsibility, without taking on more than you can handle. Getting out of your comfort zone is the only way you are going to learn something new, and doing so allows you to stand out as someone who takes the initiative.

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Key Points

Leadership skills is a complex concept. A good leader needs a whole range of different abilities and attributes that go far beyond just managing a team and maintaining status quo. Some people are born leaders, while others have to grow into the new role first. In order to get the job you’re going for, whether it’s a managerial position or not, include leadership skills on your resume to let employers know what you're capable of.

About ResumeLab’s Editorial Process

At ResumeLab, quality is at the crux of our values, supporting our commitment to delivering top-notch career resources. The editorial team of career experts carefully reviews every article in accordance with editorial guidelines, ensuring the high quality and reliability of our content. We actively conduct original research, shedding light on the job market's intricacies and earning recognition from numerous influential news outlets. Our dedication to delivering expert career advice attracts millions of readers to our blog each year.