Ways To Show Leadership Skills On Your Resume
Today, companies know that soft skills are just as important as hard skills when it comes to improving the bottom line. And maybe the most important soft skill of all is leadership ability. However, leadership is something many people dont know how to effectively market on their resume. So below, we show you five concrete ways to get across your leadership skills on your CV.
1. Use specific leadership skills mentioned in the job listing.
Job listings often include the type of leadership required. If they do, then customize your resume for the position and mention those . This technique is far more effective than sending the same generic resume in response to each different listing.
2. Provide solid examples.
Anyone can say they have leadership skills, but few can prove it. Make sure to include on your resume specific examples of your leadership achievements to back up your abilities.
3. Use verbs related to soft skills.
One of the biggest mistakes made when writing resumes is avoiding the use of verbs. A quick way to remedy that is to use verbs associated with leadership skills. Verbs such as advocated, mentored, engaged, mobilized, campaigned, motivated, challenged, focused, championed, ignited, drove, influenced, spearheaded, steered, and empowered are great examples.
4. Use your leadership qualities to highlight other soft skills.
5. Use measurable, quantitative results.
Use The Star Technique
The STAR technique of answering questions is a popular approach that involves stating the situation, the task, the action you took, and the result you got.
The STAR approach will answer the question describe your leadership experience in detail. So how do you use this approach to explain your story?
- Situation: Start by explaining the circumstance in clear terms. Make sure to include details that will make the problem easy to understand.
- Task: After explaining the circumstances involved, you can then move forward to talk about the task at hand that needed a leader to step forward.
- Action: At this point, the interviewer knows the task at hand and has an idea of the kind of leadership required. This is where you state the action you took to tackle the problem. The action should showcase the leadership qualities and expectations required to solve that task.
- Result: The best way to prove that your action was successful is by showing results. Results are the ultimate proof that you are a true leader, and the qualities you exhibited are the required qualities to solve the problem. There are situations where the results are not immediately apparent. In these instances, you have to quantify the results so the interviewer can get a picture of what you achieved.
Showcase Your Ability To Be An Effective Team Member
Every leader is part of a team, so try to emphasize your interest in being a team player and supporting others in your role. The interviewer might look for potential warning signs in your answer that youre a leader who wants to take charge but struggles to execute plans or effectively utilize a team.
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Full Example Answers For What Are Your Leadership Experiences
Now that you know what to include in your answer, lets look at a few examples.
Ill give an example for a recent graduate without work experience, and then for somebody who has work experience already.
Example answer if you have no work experience:
I just finished my degree in Finance, and most of my classes during my final year involved teamwork. I try to step up as a leader whenever possible, because it allows me to develop skills in communication, delegation, and managing multiple tasks and deadlines. In a senior-level Accounting class, we were broken off into teams of four and had to complete a large project throughout the entire semester. My team ended up getting the highest grade in the class because I set a schedule early in the project and delegated tasks to people based on their strengths. I enjoy leading and delegating, and I hope to continue leading in my professional career now.
Example answer if you do *not* have work experience:
Professional Experience For Team Leader Resume
Now this section in your Team Leader resume requires a little extra attention and care.
If you are someone with 15 or 20 years of experience, dont try to cram up the entire section with in-depth details about your old experiences.
Focus on recent experiences and leadership roles that you may have taken up. The ideal resume is only a page long, except for people with 10+ years of experience.
Even if you have just a couple of years of experience, it is best to frame one-liners in bullet points format for a reader-friendly and clear presentation. Provide ample leadership examples here.
Wondering how to frame effective one-liners to showcase your Team Leadership skills? Here are some pointers to keep in mind:
- Begin your sentences with power verbs
- Try to provide a percentage rate or figures to amplify your achievements
- Always follow the approach of covering 4 important factors which will give the recruiter a general idea about:
For example, you can write Led the sales team during an annual big sales event to achieve 10% more than the target sale.
You can take a look at this sample for writing your professional experience in your Team Leader resume:
Hiration Pro Tip: Create impactful one-liner bullet points by highlighting key phrases or achievement figures.
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Identifying And Solving A Problem
This is similar to heading up a project. If you saw a problem at work and, instead of just telling management, decided to find a solution, youre stepping up as a leader.
Now, this doesnt mean management cant be involved. If you identified an issue, noted a potential solution, but needed permission to institute the change, thats fine. The trick is that you took the initiative, so it counts.
Include The Right Leadership Skills
Leadership is more than just managing a team . Leadership skills employers are looking for might include:
- Managing employees
- Conflict resolution
- Risk taking
The best way to know exactly what leadership skills a recruiter is looking for is to check the job description. For each duty mentioned in the job ad, include a bullet point on your resume that demonstrates that particular skill. For example:
If the job description says “creating a positive team culture.”Your accomplishment could say “spearheaded an employee engagement program, resulting in a 10% decrease in annual employee turnover.”If the job description says “setting clear goals.”Your accomplishment could say “conducted yearly performance reviews and established goals, increasing efficiency by 10%.”
Read more:How to tailor your resume to a job
Also Check: What To Write In The Objective Section Of Your Resume
Use Leadership Skills Mentioned In The Job Description
Do you use the same resume every time youre applying for a job? Generic resumes dont portray your skills as successfully as youd like. They fail to show what makes you the best candidate for a specific job. Instead of sending the same resume to every employer, optimize it to fit the specific responsibilities.
Companies provide detailed job descriptions whenever they need new employees. Read that description thoroughly and modify the resume in order to meet the criteria. Why is this important? Leadership isnt just about the way you act or things you write, its also about the way you organize your writing. Generic resumes and those that dont match criteria are a sign of poor organizational skills, which are important for good leadership.
Basically, simply by tailoring and organizing your resume you can help an employer or recruiter consider you as a person of action, someone whos efficient and gets the job done. You can also mention specific leadership skills from the job description and give examples to prove how you demonstrate them. This shows that you actually read the job post and found a way to present your skills to match their needs.
You can automate this process by scanning your resume with Jobscan.
Try it here:
Use The Right Keywords
Any of the keywords from the section above will work on your resume. But also be sure to scour the job description and add any keywords from it to your resume .
Knowing what words to use to show leadership should start from carefully reading the job description, said Frana. If you can identify words alluding to leadership like: lead, pioneer, direct, that will be a good starting point. Then, be sure to use those words as well as a variety of action verbs throughout your resume so as not to be redundant with the same verbs throughout.
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Best Objective Examples For Leadership Positions
Student Government And Organizations
Active involvement in student government suggests you care about making situations better, which is important in any business, says Yuri Khlystov, CEO at LaowaiCareer. He adds that just mentioning you were part of a student organization or government isnt enough on its own. I want to know what you did to make your college better, he says. The more specific, the better.
How to sell it:
Stories are powerful, Khlystov says. Paint a picture for your potential employer of a specific moment or project you took on. Try to be brief, but make sure you get some key facts across, he recommends. I want to know how your leadership has impacted those around you.
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How To Make A Great Leadership Resume Objective Statement
To make a great resume objective statement for a leadership role begins with learning about the job and what the recruiter/employer wants.
When hiring for a vacant leadership position, employers/recruiters usually publish the job requirements, which consists of a list of skills, experience, education, etc. that the successful candidate for the job must meet to be hired for the leadership job.
They also publish the job description, which highlights the duties and responsibilities of the leadership position that the person picked for the job will be expected to perform.
Your resume objective should highlight the major qualities, skills, experience, education, etc. that you have and that match what the employer/recruiter requires for the leadership position.
It should also reflect the fact that you have perfect knowledge of the duties of the leadership job that you will be expected to perform and that you have the competence to succeed in it.
Now, lets see some good examples of leadership resume objective statements to guide you in making yours:
Leadership Examples A Job Seeker Can Use In Their Job Interview
Alright, theres a good chance you still have questions about what great leadership examples look like. Luckily, we have some stellar leadership examples at the ready.
These effective leadership examples can help you understand what leading in the workplace actually involves. Then, you can reflect on your own experience, choosing moments that genuinely highlight you as a great leader.
So, here they are, 15 leadership examples that can send any job seeker in the right direction.
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Key Skills For Team Leader Resume
In order to speed up their recruitment process, 75% of recruiters use the Application Tracking System to scan through applications and pick out the most relevant resumes for the job.
If you want your resume to rank high on the ATS, this section is your answer.
Hence, it is important to use ATS-friendly keywords in your Team Leader resume that showcases your leadership qualities.
Focus on the keywords that are linked to the qualities and skills required to be a Team Leader. Refer to the following sample to get an idea of how you can give leadership skills examples:
As mentioned in the blog earlier, read and pick up words from the companys Team Leader job listing where they will have mentioned the exact leadership qualities they are looking for.
You have to meet their requirements to be hired. Therefore, figuring out these requirements and showcasing your leadership skills in a way that meets these conditions is the key here.
Here’s a list of leadership skills examples that most companies look for in a Team Leader.
| Project Management |
Consider adding these skills to your Team Leader resume if they are true to you.
Don’t Use Leadership Buzzwords
If you choose to include a resume summary or cover letter, leave out the buzzwords. No hiring manager will be impressed that youre a self-described visionary leader while its good to show confidence, excessive hubris is more likely to land you straight in the no pile. Instead, include accomplishments that demonstrate those skills in action and let the recruiter come to their own conclusions.
Dont use buzzwords or subjective self-evaluations in your resume summary or cover letter.
Theres also no point listing leadership as an important keyword while Applicant Tracking Systems do scan for keywords, they tend to search for hard skills only.
If you need help finding hard skills and keywords relevant to the leadership role youre applying for, use the tool below to get some good ones.
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Captaining A Sports Team
If youre a recent graduate, then school-based leadership experiences may be your go-to options. If you captained a sports team, then that might be a great option.
Sports team captains coordinate the efforts of the rest of the team, ensure morale stays high, and guide everyone to victory. If that isnt leadership, we dont know what is.
What Skills And Qualities Help You Highlight Your Team Leadership Skills
Similar to most soft skills, the best way to prove you have a certain skillset is to disintegrate it into its constituent parts and then provide examples for each of them. In this way, you are not only specific and detailed, but also show your definition and understanding of the skill.
You can usually tell someone is a good leader by exerting the following:
- Communication and listening — good communication skills are the platforms upon which we all build our lives, both professional and personal. Being able to listen actively, ask nonjudgmental questions, seek to understand, and speak with empathy are key if you want to be viewed as a true leader.
- Mediation and problem-solving — being in the position of the team leader, you often need to juggle different peoples interests. Being able to balance between various points of view and not take sides but rather try to listen and proactively offer solutions, are qualities that help build confidence and in your skills and persona, and a sense of openness in your team members.
- Consistency, discipline, and vision — consistency leads to trust which then leads to open sharing and being able to move forward and progress. Discipline is the fuel on the path of that progress and success. Vision is the goal at the end of the path, but also the reason for stepping on the road in the first place. Good leaders combine all of that
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Start With A Strong Action Verb
Always start with a relevant action verb remember, you want to keep the focus on what you actually did. Verbs like Led, Launched, Directed, and Spearheaded all paint a picture of a strong, proactive leader, which is what youre aiming for. Need help brainstorming? Our action verbs database has more examples you can plug straight into your resume.
Read more:Resume action verbs for 2022
Develop Leadership Skills In Your Free Time
You can develop skills outside of your job. You can start your own project, such as a website, or you can help a charity or join an organization. This is a great way to target the key skills which you think youre lacking. This type of experience looks particularly good on a student resume or an entry-level resume.
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Leadership Skills For A Resume: List Of Examples +guide
Good bosses are all different things but bossy. See the most important leadership skills examples that make a leader great.
Definition: Leadership skills are a set of qualities that every leader should possess in order to effectively lead groups of people and deliver projects. The degree to which a person should master them depends on their position, project type, and industry theyre working in.
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 results, company turnover, efficiency and employee satisfaction.
But in order to be a good manager, you have to possess certain qualities that will put you ahead of the pack.
- What are leadership skills and why its important to improve them.
- How to put leadership skills on a resume.
- Examples of good leadership skills.
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Summary
Xerme Inc., Orlando, FL
Foxiro, Orlando, FL
The University of Central Florida
2013
- Strong communication skills