Leadership skills: here are 8 leadership skills you can develop now.

1. 1. Share your ideas with others.
      It takes time and patience to share ideas and train team members.  Leaders who invest this time to show team members shortcuts and special skills increase the success of the individual members of the team and the success of the entire team.
   2. Delegate responsibility.
      Caught in the daily cycle of handling routine responsibilities, managers can procrastinate working with team members to take on additional responsibility.  However, as team members take on new responsibility, they increase their abilities to move up on the company and take on greater roles.  Delegating responsibility is the first step in succession planning and in increasing employee value.
   3. Become a big picture person.
      Good leaders know that a minor slight or small loss today has no significance in the big picture.  In my relationships, I can remember that no one is perfect.  I can view people for their overall value and not their occasional shortcomings.  I don’t need to pole vault over cracks in the cement.  I can keep things in perspective relative to the big picture.
   4. Improve your communication skills.
      Everyone can work on this basic skill every day.  For me, the single best way to improve this skill is to become a sponge and not a waterspout.  I can read more than I write.  I can listen more than I speak.  When I read and listen to effective communicators, I pick up good communication skills from the imprinting that takes places.  I have found that when I read great stylists like Faulkner and Hemingway, I have to resist writing in the same rhythm, sentence structure, and style they use.  I also ask for feedback from well-read and well-spoken people.  Discussing what I am writing with these people gives me ideas for polishing my skills.  I remember that a local newscaster from Houston told me how they had listened to diction tapes to overcome their southern drawl.

1. Allow others to take go center stage.
   I can encourage others to take the lead.  It never ceases to amaze me to see how another person’s face can light up when I ask them lead to a meeting.  Many wallflowers are quietly waiting to receive recognition.
2. Give credit to other people.
   Saying, “Thank you” is easy to do.  People appreciate it when I say, “You did a good job.”  It is important to pass the credit on to the correct person when someone recognizes me for the work other people have done.  Giving credit to the correct person quickly is easy and helps keep relationships solid.
3. Show concern for people who are struggling.  I once became impatient with a secretary who was hesitant about helping me schedule a flight.  When I pressed her on the matter, she confessed that she had never scheduled a flight.  She had never been on an airplane.  The fact was awkward for her.  She was so bright and capable in so many ways.  I apologized for my impatience.  I explained the simple process to her.  She booked the flights.  A little bit of patience from me helped us both move on to the important things we needed to do that day.
4. Practice what you preach.
   Boy does that sound preachy when it comes from someone else.  It is very easy for me to criticize other people for their shortcomings and ignore my own.  For the people around me to respect me, I can’t say one thing and do another.