Leadership Skills For Your Resume (Definition + Examples)

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Table of contents

What are leadership skills and why do they matter on a resume?
50+ Leadership skills examples to include on your resume
How to list leadership skills on your resume
How to improve your leadership skills
More skills resources
Key takeaways

Leadership is a pivotal skill set in any career, essential for steering projects to success and inspiring teams. But what exactly does effective leadership look like in the workplace?

Being a great leader involves developing a robust toolkit of skills that not only help you guide your team toward achieving goals but also equip you to handle unexpected challenges and opportunities.

The goal of this guide is to help you show your strengths on your resume and develop your leadership skills. Resume writing can be intimidating as it is, so we’ve put together this handy guide with practical examples to help you enhance your resume, boost your leadership prowess and progress in your career.

Explore the following:

An overview of leadership skills, emphasizing their significance in professional growth and team success.
Practical leadership examples that you can adapt for your resume to showcase your ability to lead and influence effectively.
Advice on optimizing your resume to reflect your leadership qualities.
Strategies to strengthen your leadership skills for better team management and decision-making.
Essential insights to keep in mind as you internalize and apply key leadership concepts.

Looking to present your leadership skills in the best light? Our AI Resume Builder is here to assist. It provides job-specific professional content suggestions, effortless formatting and elegant templates, all designed to help you quickly craft a resume that highlights your leadership strengths.

What are leadership skills and why do they matter on a resume?

It’s not hard to envision a strong leader in your mind, but understanding what it actually takes to be one is trickier. Leadership skills include a wide range of abilities that enable you to guide and inspire others. It sounds simple, but there are many skills that fall under this umbrella.

This definition of leadership skills goes beyond just barking orders or setting lofty team goals. Leadership intertwines with essential soft skills like communication, empathy and decision-making.

These interpersonal skills allow you to manage teams, influence colleagues and navigate complex challenges, ensuring your team can achieve impressive outcomes without getting bogged down by inefficiencies.

Leadership skills not only enable you to execute significant projects but also demonstrate to employers your capability to handle major responsibilities, lead diverse teams and achieve results under pressure. A great leader is also a great “do-er.” The ability to lead well proves that you have the operational know-how and drive to get things done.

That’s why an impactful resume should highlight your leadership skills along with your technical expertise. If you’re unsure about which leadership skills to include on your resume, don’t worry! We’re here to guide you toward choosing the right leadership skill resume phrases to make your talents shine.

50+ Leadership skills examples to include on your resume

Many different skills work together to make a great leader. To help you get a feel for how each skill contributes to your leadership abilities, we’ve divided them into three main skill categories.

Strategic thinking skills

Even if your leadership role isn’t business-focused, strategic decisions will always be a significant aspect of leadership. Whether it’s allocating budgets or coming up with novel solutions to challenges, a creative problem-solver makes for a strong leader.

Examples of strategic thinking skills to use on your resume:

Strategic planning
Risk management
Budgeting
Decision-making
Problem-solving
Innovation
Market insight
Competitive analysis
Goal-setting
Financial acumen
Business forecasting
Change management
Resource allocation
Crisis handling

People skills

Like it or not, a great leader has to be great with people. While not every leader is a social butterfly, every great leader knows how to communicate and collaborate with their team to bring out the latent potential in each member so that they can accomplish things that they could never pull off on their own. Under the guidance of a people-oriented leader, a team can become much greater than the sum of its parts.

Examples of people-focused skills for a leadership skills resume:

Team-building
Communication
Conflict resolution
Delegating
Empathy
Incentivizing
Collaboration
Open-mindedness
Motivational speaking
Cultural sensitivity
Performance evaluating
Giving thoughtful feedback
Inclusivity
Mentoring
Succession planning
Coaching

Personal soft skills

And finally, a strong leader can’t just talk the talk. You also have to develop your personal soft skills. These are personality traits, values and abilities you can develop to become a better leader. Accountability, integrity and honesty are all essentials for an inspiring leader who earns their team’s respect and trust.

Personal soft skills to develop for your resume:

Integrity
Resilience
Respect
Self-awareness
Stress management
Continuous learning
Adaptability
Proactive thinking
Creativity
Honesty
Patience
Time management
Assertiveness
Self-motivation
Accountability
Transparency
Ethical leadership
Active listening
Critical-thinking
Confidence
Discipline

How to list leadership skills on your resume

Now that you know which leadership skills to feature on your resume to highlight your effectiveness, it’s time to learn how to show these professional skills on your resume to present yourself as a capable and impactful leader to future employers.

Step 1

Start by examining the job listing

To tailor your resume to the specific role you’re targeting, customize it based on the job listing. This approach allows you to demonstrate how well your personal skills and experiences align with the needs of the role and helps you navigate through applicant tracking systems (ATS).

Pay close attention to keywords used by the employer to describe the skills and responsibilities expected of the ideal candidate. These keywords inform you of the right leadership skills to list on your resume, as well as the appropriate technical skills and experiences to position yourself as the ideal fit.

For example, consider this job listing for a sales director position:

Our ideal candidate for the role of Sales Director is someone with:

Five to seven years of experience building relationships with clients and managing key sales accounts.
A creative mindset and the ability to solve problems on the fly.
An interest in mentoring junior sales staff and modeling the drive and integrity expected of a senior sales position.
Excellent communication and interpersonal skills.

The bolded phrases are keywords that you should consider emphasizing on a resume targeted for this role.

Pro Tip

Leadership skills might appear in various forms in job listings. Even if your role does not directly involve traditional leadership tasks like public speaking or direct management, highlighting your ability to build strong relationships and drive your team toward success will help present you as a capable, reliable and enthusiastic candidate.

Step 2

Feature leadership skills in your skills section

The skills section of your resume is an obvious place to list some of your leadership skills. While you’ll want to highlight hard skills specific to your field, such as technical expertise or specialized methodologies, don’t overlook broader leadership skills. These soft skills are also crucial and provide balance to your resume.

Step 3

Integrate leadership skills throughout your resume

But don’t stop at the skills section! The rest of your resume is ripe with opportunities to showcase your leadership abilities. The work history section is particularly valuable for demonstrating how you’ve applied these skills to achieve tangible results. Describe instances where your leadership has directly contributed to your team’s success.

Consider this example:

Sales Director
XYZ Enterprises, Anytown, USA
January 2021 – August 2024

Managed 44 major sales accounts over three years, maintaining strong relationships with the purchaser in charge of each account and regularly assessing their supply needs.
Implemented a mentorship program for junior sales and supporting staff that improved team engagement and performance by 25%.
Led team meetings and strategized sales targets, setting ambitious goals, incentivizing team members and resulting in a 15% increase in revenue.
Facilitated communication between departments, improving coordination.

Your resume profile also offers a prime opportunity to mention a few of the most pivotal leadership skills you regularly utilize.

Pro Tip

If you’re new to the workforce, consider a functional resume format that focuses on your leadership skills and other competencies, allowing your resume to convey proficiency even without extensive work experience.

Step 4

Don’t forget to include leadership skills in your cover letter

Your cover letter is crucial for informing potential employers about your enthusiasm for the role and your commitment to contributing effectively. It’s also an excellent place to elaborate on your leadership skills.

For help writing a strong cover letter rich in leadership skills, explore our library of cover letter examples. Our Cover Letter Builder can also help you build an effective cover letter quickly and with confidence.

How to improve your leadership skills

Improving your leadership skills can be a structured strategy you work through, or it can be as simple as examining your personal and professional weaknesses and taking small steps to improve them every day. In either case, developing as a leader makes you a stronger candidate no matter your field.

Improve your leadership skills by:

Working on communication

Communicating well is a key aspect of leadership and it is often one of the hardest things to develop. Park University recommends focusing on active listening as you work on improving your communication skills. Listening well to others will help you become an open-minded leader who helps your team members achieve their potential. To develop active listening skills, try to be disciplined when others speak to you. Don’t let your thoughts wander. Instead, give your undivided attention to the speaker.

Focusing on following

It might seem counterintuitive, but a truly excellent leader must be an excellent follower too. Being a leader isn’t about making sure that you shine individually, it’s about supporting, motivating and uplifting your team. To become a better leader, Research.com suggests focusing on being a better team player. This will make you a stronger leader in the long run.

Taking on more responsibility

With any skill, the best way to really improve is through practice. But how do you practice leadership? One way to get more leadership experience under your belt is to seek out new opportunities for more responsibility. Be a go-getter and show that you can handle responsibility and soon you’ll find that others rely on you more and that you have a much easier time with essential leadership tasks.

Learning from the experts

Thanks to the internet, resources to help develop your professional skills are abundant. Try taking a structured approach to developing your leadership skills with courses like those available on Udemy or Coursera. To keep your leadership skills sharp, stay on top of the latest research and insights from top leadership books, blogs and podcasts.

More skills resources

Looking for help understanding, improving or showcasing a different career skill on your resume? Check out our other skills guides for assistance.

Now, let’s explore some key takeaways to help you remember what’s important!

Key takeaways

Demonstrate leadership skills on your resume

Leadership skills show potential employers that you can make strategic decisions, solve problems, build relationships and motivate others to achieve great things. Showcase your leadership abilities by featuring these skills in your skills section and throughout your resume.
Emphasize strategic thinking

A leader has to make big decisions. Make your resume stand out by showing employers your strategic abilities and focusing on your creative problem-solving chops.
Highlight people skills

Leadership is all about people. Make a strong leadership skills resume by emphasizing how well you communicate, build relationships, empathize and mentor others to achieve their full potential.
Show off personal soft skills

Personal development is a key aspect of leadership. Show potential employers that you have the integrity, honesty and accountability that a great leader must have in order to thrive in a leadership role.
Improve your leadership skills

Whether you take a structured approach to becoming a better leader or you simply focus on small improvements that you can make every day, developing leadership skills will help you become a better communicator, collaborator and candidate.

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Hailey Brophy is an experienced writer with a diverse career in digital publication. She is passionate about using her unique skills and experiences to help job seekers find the information that they need to succeed.