The most important influential leadership skills for 2023

Posted on Jul 02, 2023 at 10:07 PM

Influential leadership plays a crucial role in the success of today's companies and institutions. It serves as the foundation for positive change and development processes. 

An influential leader acts as a driving force, motivating employees, leading them, and enhancing their skills to achieve sustainable development within organizations.

Importance of Influential Leadership

Influential leadership holds significant benefits that contribute to the success of organisations and companies. The following are the key advantages:

• Developing and Stimulating Strong and Coherent Task Forces: Influential leadership fosters the creation of robust and cohesive teams. It ensures that employees work together towards common goals, leveraging their collective skills and talents.
  
  
• Communicating Vision and Objectives: Influential leaders effectively communicate their vision and objectives to their staff. This clear communication enhances understanding, alignment, and motivation among team members.
  
  
• Enhancing Innovation and Out-of-the-Box Thinking: Influential leadership encourages employees to think innovatively and fosters an environment that nurtures creativity. This mindset allows organizations to find unique solutions and stay ahead in a competitive landscape.
  
  
• Attracting and Developing Talent: Influential leaders are adept at attracting and nurturing talent within their organisations. Their reputation and leadership style creates an environment that talented individuals seek to be a part of, leading to a pool of skilled professionals within the organization.
  
  
• Establishing Trust: Influential leaders prioritize building trust with their employees. They create an atmosphere of openness, transparency, and mutual respect. Such an environment fosters strong relationships and promotes collaboration.
  
  
• Distinguishing Management from Leadership: Influential leaders educate their staff about the fundamental differences between management and leadership. They emphasize the importance of guiding and inspiring individuals towards achieving organizational objectives rather than merely managing tasks.

The Most Important Influential Leadership Skills

To become an influential leader, it is crucial to develop a wide range of management and leadership skills. The following essential skills are highly sought-after within enterprises and companies:

• Building Relationships:

Influential and successful leadership requires establishing a robust relationship system with the staff. Just as building customer relationships is crucial for providing excellent customer service, creating a strong and cohesive team is essential for achieving significant goals.

Influential leaders understand that fostering strong relationships with employees positively impacts their psychology at work and saves time in the long run. Reports indicate that good professional relationships with influential leaders reduce absenteeism by approximately 35% and increase employee productivity by up to 20%.

Building relationships go hand in hand with other leadership and management skills, such as emotional intelligence, effective communication, collaboration, active listening, and problem-solving.

• Staff development and motivation:

Alongside relationship building, encouraging and motivating staff is a critical skill for influential leaders. Motivation is one of the most effective ways to enhance the awareness, performance, and effectiveness of all employees.

Recent studies show that job seekers prioritize management psychology and a supportive work environment over financial matters. They express a strong desire to improve and develop their skills. It is the role of influential and effective leadership to assist employees in identifying the best training courses for their growth, such as short management training courses in Dubai.

Research conducted on 1,000 U.S. employees reveals that the best practices to increase participation and productivity are motivational and morale-boosting initiatives, which can lead to up to a 32% increase in productivity.

To quote the famous author Dale Carnegie from his book "How to Win Friends and Influence People": "When dealing with people, let's remember that we don't deal with logical creatures, we deal with emotional creatures."

• Creativity and flexibility:

Influential leaders often face complex problems that require creative decision-making and out-of-the-box solutions. While creativity and innovation have an inherent aspect, several techniques can be developed to enhance creative thinking. These techniques include encouraging employee ideas, collaborating on innovative solutions, and developing critical thinking skills to explore unconventional approaches.

Furthermore, influential leaders embrace agility and flexibility in their work approach. They accept and manage change effectively, which can lead to unexpected and positive solutions for the organization.

For instance, Meta Global's success can be attributed to the out-of-the-box thinking and influential leadership of its effective leader, Mark Zuckerberg. His flexibility in accepting new ideas and strategies has propelled the company forward.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many companies experienced financial crises and some even went bankrupt due to the lack of leaders with the ability to set flexible policies and influence employees to find innovative solutions.

• Decision-making skill:

An influential and effective leader must possess strong decision-making skills. Their decisions have far-reaching consequences that affect not only themselves but also the entire company and its personnel. Therefore, it is crucial to possess the ability to make sound and decisive choices.

Decision-making is an integral part of influential leadership and management. Whether the decisions are small or large, influential leaders must consider the potential impact and be prepared to defend their choices. Consulting with staff and seeking advice from trusted colleagues is useful when the outcomes of decisions are not favourable. Achieving a balance and establishing a decision-making process are essential elements of effective leadership.

• Reliability:

An effective leader is someone others can rely on. Being a reliable person entails tracking and following the progress of tasks and plans, fulfilling promises and commitments, and maintaining the quality of interactions with employees, clients, and other stakeholders.

The first skill mentioned in this article, "Building Relationships," contributes to the development of influential leaders who are trusted within their teams. These leaders can effectively solve problems or difficulties while fulfilling their obligations and delivering projects on time.

Additional leadership skills that complement reliability include setting Smart Goals, taking initiative in an influential and effective manner, and planning work effectively for everyone involved.

In conclusion, 

Recognising the importance of influential leadership and effective management is crucial for resolving internal matters and driving the success of companies. Developing the necessary skills to become an influential leader requires continuous study, understanding, and practical application.

While it is impossible to cover the entire concept of influential leadership in one or two articles, this discussion provides insights into the significance of influential leadership, its benefits, and the most sought-after skills for aspiring leaders.

Remember, influential leadership is a journey that demands ongoing self-improvement and a commitment to becoming an influential force within organisations.