Written by: Roselyn Mathew / Communication Coaching / November 24, 2021 / 8 minutes read

Leadership skills have a great impact in a person’s personal as well as professional life.  Leadership can be defined as a kind of action or many actions that leads other individuals or a team to success. This helps people with different skills and ideas to put forth their abilities to work for a common goal or achievement. It is important to have these skills when we look from a company’s perspective as well as from an individual’s perspective. From a company’s perspective the team leader must have the adequate leadership skills in order to see that the teams stay on track and meet goals, which helps the company run smoothly and make good profits. From the individual’s perspective, it is important to display these skills in order to get a promotion as a supervisor or manager. Apart from having increased chances for a higher position, the person will also be respected and will be able to maintain good relationships in their workplace which in turn increases job satisfaction. They also play a crucial role in forming and maintaining personal relationships.

In order to be a good leader, a person must possess both hard skills and soft skills. Hard skills are work related knowledge in order to carry out a given task. Soft skills consist of many interpersonal attributes that are required in the workplace, out of which interpersonal communication skills are the most important. Adequate communication skills are indispensable to achieve a good leadership.

Communication skills do not only mean indulging in general conversation. It includes a lot of factors like empathy, open mindedness, respect, non verbal communication, listening, confidence, clarity and concision. A good leader must be able to communicate their goals and intentions clearly and must be open to all suggestions or ideas of others. The individual must be able to convince others by persuasive communication if their suggestions or ideas are not enough or contradict with the desired outcome or goal. Active listening, respect and empathy also play a key role in a good communication as it makes the other person feel valued and creates a more positive outcome in a discussion. The person must additionally create an executive presence among others and must be able to prove that they are reliable and will be able to carry out tasks in a more confident way, without being overly anxious or impatient. It is extremely important that a leader must be able to gain everyone’s trust and be unbiased in all situations. 

Some leaders assume that they are expected to never make mistakes and must be fully perfect in everything they do so that others would look up to them even more. This is a false notion and could even result in a conflict and negativity if the leader does not accept their mistakes. It is always important to be more open and transparent and to admit one’s mistake. A successful leader will not only admit their mistakes, but will also find out ways to avoid similar mistakes in future and let others know about it. This would actually result in gaining more respect from others and would lead others to accept constructive criticism in a positive manner.   

Non verbal communication is also as important as verbal communication. Many studies have confirmed that 70-93% of all communication is non-verbal. Non verbal communication includes facial expressions, eye contact, tone of voice, gestures, posture and appearance. Inappropriate non verbal communication will make a person appear to be disinterested, rude or unconfident. Therefore, it is very important to play close attention to non verbal cues while communicating with others in order to avoid negativity and conflicts. 

A major challenge that many leaders face is public speaking, which means speaking to a live audience. Most of my clients admit that they can have a good interaction with others on a one- on- basis but are unable to give a presentation or speak in a team meeting. It is important to note that a person must display confidence when they make a presentation or discuss about a topic in a meeting. Even though a person has a good knowledge of the topic and is confident, they might appear to be unconfident or unsure about the subject that they are discussing. The reasons include inappropriate eye contact, facial expression, tone of voice, using a lot of fillers, unconfident posture and gestures. Many of these are displayed unconsciously by the speaker. Even though they seem to be inconspicuous, they do create a major impact among the audience. Hence, it is important that the speaker must analyze their public speaking and must correct all these factors so that they appear more confident and create a positive impact among the audience. It might not be easy initially and would require practice and specific focus on these features individually but over time it gradually becomes easier and instinctive. 

Some people are natural born leaders and can effortlessly lead a group by having a winning charisma over others. Some others struggle in leading a team and many times are unable to achieve the desired outcome even though they work hard and have skilled team members. Anyone with sufficient hard skills can become a leader with proper training and guidance. Speech Language Pathologists are well trained to assess and improve interpersonal communication skills.

To speak with one of the speech-language pathologists or a psychotherapist at Well Said: Toronto Speech Therapy, schedule an initial consultation by clicking the link below or calling (647) 795-5277.