Leadership skills are essential for anyone looking to progress beyond a certain level of seniority. And yet they are rarely taught. Being an effective leader isn’t just about the experience that this creates for your employees but also how easy you find it to move up the career ladder. Today, workplaces tend to be far more accountable and 360-degree appraisals are common. So, how do you know if you’re being an effective leader or not?

1. You focus on community and collaboration

Fostering a healthy sense of competition is essential in a team environment – but using divisiveness to motivate is not. Great leaders know that encouraging teamwork and collaboration will boost productivity while having favourites or picking on people will be very damaging, both to results and morale. If you’re able to treat everyone equally then you’re laying the foundations for the kind of teamwork that means those being managed by you will thrive.

2. Your management style is transparent

Employees want to feel included and they want to know what’s going on – even if that involves a negative outlook for the business. Being an effective leader means understanding how to effectively communicate both up and down the management chain.

A transparent approach ensures that your employees will always understand why decisions have been made or how issues identified are going to be resolved. This helps to build trust and ensures that employees feel valued, as well as generating engagement with the future of the business. If all you’re doing is telling people what to do without ever providing any explanation or asking for input then it will be very difficult to get people to buy in to you as a leader.

3. You know how to identify and nurture others’ strengths

We all have different talents and one of the key qualities of an effective leader is the ability to identify strengths in others. Being able to match employees to roles or tasks means that you’ll always be able to get the best from the people that you lead and no one will end up feeling stuck.

It’s also important to be able to nurture the skills that your team might still be developing and to help build confidence in new talents. Being able to get the most out of a team is a quality that not many managers develop so it can really set you apart as an effective leader.

4. You can get employees to engage

Understanding what motivates your team is a sign of an effective leader. Pay, benefits, accolades and recognition are all important but so too is being able to let people take responsibility. Knowing when to step back and allow individuals to take ownership is an instinctive quality that many effective leaders have. It’s this that will enable employees to truly engage.

Being an effective leader involves skills you can learn and instincts you can hone. If you recognise yourself in any of the above then you are already on the right path.