a good conclusion for leader

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In summation, the role of leadership and management can work in different capacities, yet be the same when developing an organization. Leadership is nothing if it doesn’t build a systems’ based management structure, and management would have no support without the work of leadership as the backbone of ideals.

A review of this chapter’s major conclusions, include:

• Being ethically sound and sacrificing comforts for goals and objectives (classical ideals) make leaders strive for innovation and the improvement of society (contemporary ideals).
• Developing and systematically organizing hiring philosophies, institutional policies, budgeting processes, rewards, and decision-making styles are effective measures for managing organizations into the future.
• Leadership and management are both the same and different.
• Using the iceberg analogy and the five disciplines, leadership and management are both independent and dependent from each other, especially when achieving goals in a learning organization.

To offer parting words after this journey, it is important to understand that whatever leadership or management style chosen, it has to relate to inherent beliefs. Essentially, the iceberg below the surface is not just made in one day, it is shaped and cultivated throughout life through natural and social occurrences, assumptions, and inherent beliefs. It is very important for leaders to find their own icebergs and self-reflect on what their beliefs mean to their leadership styles and how they develop their management strategies. As prospective leaders and managers in society, it is highly important to locate and cultivate a personal leadership style to become successful in a future society.

Leadership and Management in Learning Organizations Copyright © by Clayton Smith; Carson Babich; and Mark Lubrick is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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1.7 Conclusion

In this chapter we have reviewed the most influential leadership theories. Trait approaches identify the characteristics required to be perceived as a leader and to be successful in the role. Intelligence, extraversion, conscientiousness, openness to experience, and integrity seem to be leadership traits. Behavioral approaches identify the types of behaviors leaders demonstrate. Both trait and behavioral approaches suffered from a failure to pay attention to the context in which leadership occurs, which led to the development of contingency approaches. Recently, ethics became an explicit focus of leadership theories such as servant leadership and authentic leadership. It seems that being conscious of one’s style and making sure that leaders demonstrate the behaviors that address employee, organizational, and stakeholder needs are important and require flexibility on the part of leaders.

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The Characteristics of a Good Leader

Leadership Essay

27 August, 2020

12 minutes read

Author:  Richard Pircher

As a college student, you must write essays on a regular basis since the latter is one of the most common types of home assignments. All this means is that in order to get good grades and be successful with writing the papers, you need to have a sound understanding of the structure. Additionally, what you should never neglect is the variety of essay types. Indeed, your essay will significantly differ from one type to another: description essay will most likely have a structure that is slightly different from an argumentative one.

What you may have already encountered in your academic life is the work on a leadership essay. Although it sounds pretty complicated and vague, it is mostly possible to master an essay on leadership. Below is a guide for you to get an insight into this particular essay type.

What is a good leadership essay?

A good leadership essay is the one in which the essay writer has fully covered the topic of leadership and understood its core ideas. More specifically, to end up with a flawless leadership essay, you will need to indicate what makes a person a good leader. For achieving the latter, you will most likely need to conduct research and trace how a particular person reaches his or her goals. In other words, the task is to discover which actions the person undertakes, what their followers say about him or her, and how the person organizes the work. So, a leadership essay implies providing real-life success examples and further revealing them.

Above all, a good leadership essay is the one that follows a precise, clear, comprehensive structure. Structuring your essay about leadership in the most coherent way leads to a win-win situation: you have fewer troubles and barriers to writing a brilliant essay, and your teacher is able to comprehend the essay easily. This guide is what you will need to refer to to get an insight into how the flawless structure for a leadership essay looks like and how it will let you take a benefit.

How to write a Leadership essay?

To write a leadership essay that stands out, you first need to brainstorm all the ideas that you have and come up with a topic for your essay. If you are struggling with this step, you may think of some of the most influential people, read about them, and find out what makes them unique. Or, you can pick any topic which is mentioned at the end of this article. After you have chosen an issue, it is time to structure your essay appropriately.

As you already know, an essay constitutes three essential sections: introduction, main body, and conclusion. Below is the more detailed description of each of the parts.

Introduction

Of course, your leadership essay introduction will always vary depending on the topic of the essay. However, you can always begin by stating your vision of leadership regardless of the topic. Additionally, to motivate the reader and instantly catch his or her attention, you may use a quote of a famous leader, or simply a quote which you find relevant to the topic. Be aware that you should avoid outlining the essence and the role of the leadership in your introduction; leave it for the body paragraphs.

What you may also do in your leadership essay is ask a question, which will most likely intrigue the leader. Or it will at least give your reader an overview of what you will dwell on  in your essay.

Body Paragraphs

You will need to divide the main body into 3-5 paragraphs to make the structure more comprehensive. What you have to do at this point  is  give your reader a sound understanding of your ideas. Therefore, try to fit each idea in a single body paragraph so that you do not confuse your reader. Do not hesitate to indicate your examples to strengthen your arguments. For instance, you may explain a fact that makes a particular person you are writing about a real leader.

Also, always stick to your thesis statement and don’t forget that the body paragraphs should reveal the parts of your thesis statement.

As you may already know, you need to restate your opinion and briefly summarize all the points from the main body in conclusion. For instance, if you wrote your essay on qualities of an effective leader, state the most fundamental qualities and indicate why they matter the most. Besides, try not to copy what you have already written in the body – it is better to restate your opinion using different words. And, of course, beware adding any new and extra information; indicate only those points that you have already outlined in the text. Finally, keep in mind that it is always favorable to keep your concluding remarks short.

Leadership Essay Examples

Writing a leadership essay requires some research and time. In case you feel the necessity to go through an essay example, below is a leadership essay sample you can refer to.

Is leadership an inborn or an acquired feature?

Is everyone capable of becoming a leader, or is this ability innate? A lot of researchers have been struggling to answer this question. One assumption about leadership implies that the leader is the person who possesses particular characteristics. Another assumption claims that leaders are capable of acquiring specific features over their life span. As the evidence shows, leaders own many features that distinguish them among others and make more and more people become their followers. These might be cognitive abilities, psychological traits, professional qualities, and a lot more, and all of them will be either acquired or innate. Based on the importance of leadership qualities, such as commitment, stress resistance, and the ability to make quality decisions, it is reasonable to claim that leaders are made, not born. 

One can deem commitment as one of the top fundamental qualities of the leader. In essence, such a feature indicates that a person is passionate about the common goal, strives to be a team player, and makes every effort to reach a shared goal. As the history shows, none of the successful companies was uncoordinated by an influential, committed leader: Apple, Amazon, Microsoft – all of these companies are examples of dominant teams led by a dedicated leader. A committed leader also inspires his or her team to achieve common goals and put more effort into the shared activity. Besides, commitment is unlikely to be an innate feature; it instead comes with experience. This is so, since commitment implies dedicating oneself to the shared task, and one can reach it only via learning and continuous self-improvement.

Stress resistance is another incredibly important feature that every good leader should possess. This is because only a stress-resistant leader has sufficient capabilities to overcome any complexity and not let the anxiety and stress prevent him or her from making proper decisions. Besides, such a leader will most likely have a positive influence on the team, as long as leading by example will motivate the team members to attain the same emotional stability. What is so far familiar about stress resistance as an effective leader’s feature is that it can be either innate or attained. However, although some researchers admit that emotional stability is something one is born with, it is not entirely true; many people still put a great effort into self-improvement, changing the attitude to unfortunate situations, and so on. Therefore, being resistant to stress can be mostly attributed to a personality.

An ability to make high-quality decisions most likely determines the chances for an enterprise’s success. In particular, such quality is incredibly fundamental for a company of any size and professional orientation. Additionally, it is one of the top tasks of a good leader to make final decisions. What he or she should do implies brainstorming, discussing various opinions in the group, making forecasts, analyzing all the pros and cons. However, the leader is the one to make a final decision. Thereby, he is in charge of researching the market, discovering all the hidden truths, and analyzing the organization’s potential and capabilities to result in the most effective decision. As it flows logically from the latter, an ability to make sound quality decisions is purely a professional quality. This leads to the conclusion that one has to work hard to become a genuine leader and master the skill of making effective decisions. 

Overall, the leader may possess a multitude of different skills and master them perfectly. However, what has so far become transparent is that any leader, regardless of which team he leads, must possess three essential qualities. These qualities are commitment to the common goal, ability to handle and resist stress, and, finally, an ability to make effective decisions. All of the three qualities are most likely to be acquired over a lifetime. The statement below leads to the conclusion that even though some qualities can be innate, most are not the ones that leaders are born with. Hence, this answers an essential question: leadership feature is acquired, and not necessarily inborn.  

20 leadership essay topics

When coming up with your next leadership essay topic, it is imperative to brainstorm ideas and think of what leadership might be related to. If you are struggling with a topic of the importance of leadership essay or any relevant type of essay, you may quickly take a look at some of the possible topics we prepared for you:

• What are the main qualities of the leader?
• Successful Time Management as a feature of an effective leader
• The role that rhetoric plays in leadership
• The most exceptional leader in the history of the 20-th century
• The role of female leadership
• What are the challenges of the leader of the 21-st century?
• How college helps students develop leadership skills?
• Qualities of the leader that motivate people to follow them 
• Top things to avoid doing to become a team leader
• Examples of effective and ineffective leadership in the history
• Top techniques for developing leadership skills
• The interconnection of creativity and leadership 
• Is a university’s role fundamental in developing leadership skills?
• Dictatorship as an anti-example of leadership
• Liberal vs Authoritative leadership: which one works better?
• The influence of the leader’s role model on the followers’ mindset
• Main difficulties that the new leader may face in a new team
• Leadership of today vs leadership of the past: what has changed?
• Reasons why I want to become a member if the leadership program
• The role of cognitive abilities for the leader 

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How to Write Leadership Essay in College

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If there is one skill that is revered across educational institutions and organizations, it is leadership.

Being the boss or in a position of power is not enough to make you a good leader. Effective leadership comes from the impact you have on people, the respect you garner, and how you manage to walk the talk.

Owing how important the role leadership plays in our personal and professional life, it’s no surprise that students are asked to write leadership essays in college.

The purpose of this assignment is to get them to understand the concept of leadership, reflect on their own experiences, or even assess the leadership style of a prominent leader. Apart from writing skills, this assignment also puts students’ critical thinking skills to the test.

This article will tell you what goes into a good leadership outline, along with 12 practical essay writing tips.

12 Tips on How to Write a Good Leadership Essays

If you think you can go ahead and write an essay on your favorite leader, you are mistaken - grade 5 is long gone.

Leadership essay writing is a lot more layered. It requires you to demonstrate your understanding of the concept excitingly and back it up with solid examples and research.

Don’t panic. Here are 12 tips to help you write powerful and effective leadership essays.

Brainstorm interesting topic ideas

If you are fortunate, you will be given a specific leadership essay topic to write on, but most of the time, students are given the flexibility to come up with a topic of their choice.

Leadership essays need to be personal. By the end of it, the reader needs to understand your leadership abilities. Now you can throw light on that aspect of yourself by recounting your leadership experiences, relating it to the leadership style of a prominent leader, or even comparing two leaders. Regardless of your chosen topic, it’s important to connect it back to yourself.

So, start with enlisting potential topic ideas that would help you throw light on your leadership abilities. Don’t rush through this step - take your time to pick a suitable topic.

Think out-of-the-box

Surprise your audience by thinking of innovative topics and ideas for your leadership essay.

Plain and dull essays are predictable and can get boring after being overused by multiple students for their multiple essays. Your professors can also feel that you are trying to play it safe by not thinking outside the box and giving you an average grade for your essay.

Extraordinary and new ideas get the attention they deserve, and your readers are more likely to find them interesting and get hooked on your essay right at the beginning.

Hook the reader

The introductory paragraph is a crucial one as it lays the foundation for the rest of the essay. Does your introduction entice the reader to know more, or does it induce yawns? It all depends on how you choose to begin your essay.

It’s essential to start with a bang and write an interesting hook from the first sentence. A good hook is written in 1 - 2 sentences and manages to get the reader interested. You can start with a funny experience, raise a startling question, or state an interesting fact - there are various ways to begin your leadership essay and capture the reader’s attention.

Use active voice

“I performed the task with great precision” vs. “The task was performed with great precision” - what is more impactful in the context of leadership essays? The former one.

Unlike an essay or any other academic paper, leadership essays are meant to be personal. They are supposed to be about you. As you share your perspective or experiences, you should use an active voice to make a more significant impact and ensure your message reaches the reader.

Follow the format

Adhere to your academic institution's standards for formatting and styling your leadership essay because, first and foremost, your professors would want to see that you have tackled how to format your essay.

Secondly, it is always good practice to format your essays for an excellent structure and a good presentation of the content in the essay. Some institutions are very strict about their formatting standards and can choose to cancel or give unsatisfactory grades to students who do not follow their specific formatting guidelines.

Avoid cliches

Generally, in leadership essays, cliches are most commonly used to describe the person in the essay at large. Avoiding these set cliches will do you and your essay good.

Cliches like “leaves no stones unturned,” “ahead of the curve,” etc., have been used so much by students that they have become weak, lost their meaning, and have minimal effect on the essays.

Your professors are looking for originality and creativity, whereas an essay full of cliches will appear lazy and uncreative.

Select good references

Leadership holds a variety of sub-topics that addresses the quality of leadership, the style and attitudes that leaders have, historical references of the lifework of distinguished leaders, or how certain leaders influenced events.

That’s why researching is key for a thorough leadership essay. With credible sources and references to take inspiration and quotes from, your leadership essay will gain authority and stature. Each method, skill, or event can be further detailed through helpful resources such as Google Scholar, JSTOR, etc.

Ask questions

Ask yourself questions while re-reading your essay to identify any missing pieces you may have overlooked.

Asking questions also address your essay's efficiency and will help you figure out what your readers could ask while reading your essay. You can then confront each of these questions and create a more precise understanding for your readers.

Share anecdotes

Another element that can really strengthen your leadership essay and take it from good to great is anecdotes.

Yes, don’t shy away from sharing anecdotes and personal experiences related to leadership. It adds credibility to your writing and justifies the points you have made. It can be humorous or life-changing, but sharing anecdotes helps keep readers invested and adds immense value to the essay.

Here’s a helpful video by Matthew Singleton on how you can use anecdotes while writing essays

Focus on key qualities

We know how effective leadership constitutes certain key traits and qualities such as empathy, collaboration, good listener, visionary, ownership, decision-making capabilities, delegation, communicator, and more.

Your essay needs to reflect some of these traits. Instead of choosing to enlist all these traits and not focussing on either of them well, it’s important to first choose which are the traits you want to explore in your essay and then work towards highlighting them while writing.

Get feedback

It is always better to have more than one pair of eyes to read and evaluate your essay. Getting feedback on your writing is crucial for the betterment of your essay, as the limitations and problems that you may not have realized while writing your essay can be identified by a fresh set of eyes or a new perspective.

These errors or misses can be rectified, resulting in a quality, no-error leadership essay.

Edit and proofread

A leadership essay requires attention to detail, a set organized structure, and a logical flow of sentences. Editing your essay and proofreading it will overcome any misses that may come your way.

As you proofread, you can double-check the leader’s name and designation, dates, sources, factual, spelling, and grammatical mistakes, punctuation errors, out-of-place references, and transition flows.

So, now you know that leadership essays are not as ‘vanilla’ as they sound. They need to be descriptive and logical while capturing your leadership abilities.

If you don’t have the time to write a compelling leadership essay or doubt your writing skills, don’t worry. We at Writers Per Hour are pleased to write an essay for you that will get you noticed.

From choosing a suitable topic to outlining and writing a thoughtful leadership essay from scratch, our writing experts promise to deliver precisely what you need - high-quality essays that meet your budget and deadlines.

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Anyone Can Learn to Be a Better Leader

• Monique Valcour

You just have to put in the work.

Occupying a leadership position is not the same thing as leading. To lead, you must be able to connect, motivate, and inspire a sense of ownership of shared objectives. Heightening your capacity to lead others requires being able to see how you think and act, and how your behavior affects others. Leading well requires a continuous journey of personal development. Yet people in leadership roles often eschew the long and challenging work of deepening self-insight in favor of chasing after management “tools”— preferably the “quick ’n’ easy” kind, such as personality type assessments that reduce employees to a few simplistic behavioral tendencies. Tools can be handy aids to good leadership. But none of them can take the place of fearless introspection, feedback seeking, and committed efforts to behavioral change for greater effectiveness and increased positive impact on others.

When you’re an individual contributor, your ability to use your technical expertise to deliver results is paramount. Once you’ve advanced into a leadership role, however, the toolkit that you relied on to deliver individual results rarely equips you to succeed through others. Beware of falling into the logical trap of “if I can do this work well, I should be able to lead a team of people who do this work.” This would be true if leading others were akin to operating a more powerful version of the same machinery you operated previously. But it’s not; machinery doesn’t perform better or worse based on what it thinks about you and how you make it feel, while humans do .

• MV Monique Valcour is an executive coach, keynote speaker, and management professor. She helps clients create and sustain fulfilling and high-performance jobs, careers, workplaces, and lives. moniquevalcour

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6 Characteristics of an Effective Leader

• 04 Oct 2018

Although there isn’t a single right way to effectively lead a team, there are several characteristics common among successful leaders and managers you should consider when developing your leadership skills .

Incorporating these abilities into your professional development can enable you to make difficult decisions, align your organization on common goals, and lead your team to success.

Why Effective Leadership Is Important in Business

Ineffective leadership can cost companies more than just morale. According to research from Gallup , 24 percent of employees are actively disengaged as a result of poor management, leading to teams that are less productive, less profitable, and more likely to cause turnover. And that turnover adds up quick: translating into nearly two times the annual salary of every employee who quits.

That’s why effective leadership skills are important. In order to retain employees, satisfy customers, and improve company productivity, you need people who can effectively communicate the company’s vision, guide teams, and influence change.

If you aspire to be that person, here's how you can become a more effective leader.

Access your free e-book today.

Characteristics of an Effective Leader

1. ability to influence others.

“[Leadership] is all about influencing people,” said Kirstin Lynde, founder of leadership development firm Catalyze Associates, in a Facebook Live interview .

Early in your career, you might exercise authority by being the go-to person on a certain subject within your organization, or by actively listening and building consensus among your team. As you advance, you may exert influence by knowing how to articulate the direction you think the company should head in next.

According to the online course Power and Influence for Positive Impact , influence is “the ability to produce effects on other people’s behavior.” Influencing others requires building a strong sense of trust with your colleagues.

“This means [you] need to understand the types of resources people value when it comes to achieving safety and self-esteem,” says Harvard Business School Professor Julie Battilana in her course Power and Influence for Positive Impact .

Focus on understanding their motivations and encourage them to share their opinions. You can use that knowledge to make change and show their voice matters.

2. Transparency—to an Extent

Part of building trust is being transparent. The more open you are about the organization’s goals and challenges, the easier it is for employees to understand their role and how they can individually contribute to the company’s overall success. That sense of value and purpose translates into higher levels of employee engagement .

“To get people on board, they need to grasp what you’re conveying so they’re excited to join you in turning that direction into a reality,” says HBS Professor Anthony Mayo in the online course Organizational Leadership . “Your communication should meet people where they are, give them a sense of where the organization is going, and then give them a roadmap for how they can bridge the gap from where the organization is now to where you want to take it.”

While transparency is often intended to promote collaboration, knowledge sharing, and accountability, too much of it can have the opposite effect, according to Ethan Bernstein, an associate professor of organizational behavior at HBS.

“Wide-open workspaces and copious real-time data on how individuals spend their time can leave employees feeling exposed and vulnerable,” writes Bernstein in the Harvard Business Review . “Being observed changes their conduct. They start going to great lengths to keep what they’re doing under wraps, even if they have nothing bad to hide.”

Bernstein encourages balancing transparency with privacy and setting different types of boundaries to still foster experimentation and collaboration.

3. Encourage Risk-Taking and Innovation

Experimentation is critical to establishing and maintaining your company’s competitive advantage. Great leaders recognize this and encourage risk-taking and innovation within their organization.

“You can’t wave a wand, dictate to people that they need to be more creative, and wake up the next day to find people taking risks and trying new things,” Mayo says in Organizational Leadership .

Instead, leaders must actively foster a culture of innovation by supporting experimentation, challenging unwritten rules, and embracing mistakes. These steps, backed by data, can yield innovations that wouldn’t have otherwise surfaced.

By creating a culture that embraces failure and experimentation, employees are more emboldened to test theories or propose new ideas, because they see that creativity is valued. For example, Google’s innovation lab, X, offered bonuses to each team member who worked on a project the company ultimately decided to kill as soon as evidence suggested it wouldn’t scale, in an effort to “make it safe to fail.”

After all, big breakthroughs don’t happen when companies play it safe; experimentation is needed to reach lofty business goals. If well-intentioned, failures often become valuable lessons.

Related: How to Be an Effective Leader at Any Stage of Your Career

4. Integrity and Accountability

One of the most important aspects of leadership is demonstrating integrity. In a survey by consulting firm Robert Half , 75 percent of employees ranked “integrity” as the most important attribute of a leader. In a separate survey by Sunnie Giles , creator of Quantum Leadership, 67 percent of respondents ranked “high moral standards” as the most important leadership competency. Yet, it can be easy for leaders to deprioritize integrity when faced with organizational power. The ability to balance power and accountability can set successful leaders apart from ineffective ones.

“It’s precisely these two levers—sharing power and accountability—that enable workplaces and societies to keep power in check,” Battilana says in Power and Influence for Positive Impact .

Employees want to know that their manager will advocate for them, treat them fairly, and, ultimately, do what’s right for the business. As a leader, it’s important to not only avoid the consolidation of power but also any decision-making that could negatively affect others. Doing so can foster trust within your team and model behavior for others in the organization. The culmination of these factors can help you build a successful team.

5. Act Decisively

In today’s fast-changing, complex business environment, effective leaders need to make strategic decisions quickly—even before any definitive information is available.

Once you make a choice, stick with it, unless there’s a compelling reason to shift focus. Your goal is to move the organization forward, but that won’t happen if you can’t make a decision without wavering.

While timely decision-making is essential for any effective leader, it’s important to remember that decision-making is a process.

“The majority of people think about making decisions as an event,” says HBS Professor Len Schlesinger in the online course Management Essentials . “It’s very rare to find a single point in time where a ‘decision of significance’ is made and things go forward from there. What we’re really talking about is a process. The role of the manager in overseeing that process is straightforward, yet, at the same time, extraordinarily complex.”

By acting decisively, continuously evaluating, and pivoting when necessary, you can lead your organization through the ever-changing business landscape.

6. Demonstrate Resilience

Every decision you make won’t result in success. There will be times when you’re met with failure; it’s your job as a leader to exercise resiliency.

Consider the example of Antarctic explorer Ernest Schackleton presented in HBS Online’s sample business lesson on resilient leadership , led by HBS Professor Nancy Koehn.

When Shackleton’s ship, the Endurance, was trapped and crushed by icebergs, the original mission—traversing Antarctica—suddenly became irrelevant. The new mission was to get his team of 28 men home alive. To do so, he needed to quickly lead his team through crisis.

The lesson outlines three key components of Shackleton’s approach that all leaders can learn from when facing major challenges:

• Continuously assess and reassess your leadership approach
• Commit to your primary objective while exercising flexibility
• Maintain belief in the team’s mission by managing collective and individual energies

Effective leaders don’t avoid hard truths or difficult challenges. Instead, they take responsibility for their decisions, maintain optimism, and focus on charting a new course of action. They also help others cope with organizational change and address issues quickly, so that problems don’t fester and escalate.

Assessing Your Strengths

Becoming an effective leader doesn’t happen overnight. It’s an iterative process and requires you to assess your strengths and evaluate who you are as a communicator and collaborator.

“In many cases, it’s your strong performance as an individual contributor that lays the foundation for your leadership roles,” says Mayo in the course Leadership Principles . “But what got you there won’t get you to the next level. As you shift from doing the work yourself to creating the conditions in which others excel, your identity is less about your individual accomplishments and tasks and more about the collective work of the group.”

With that shift in mind, you can take action to develop your leadership style and become the type of leader your organization needs.

Do you want to enhance your leadership skills? Download our free leadership e-book and explore our flowchart to see which online leadership and management course can help you become a more effective leader and unleash the potential in yourself and others.

This post was updated on February 17, 2023. It was originally published on October 4, 2018.

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So much is at stake in writing a conclusion. This is, after all, your last chance to persuade your readers to your point of view, to impress yourself upon them as a writer and thinker. And the impression you create in your conclusion will shape the impression that stays with your readers after they've finished the essay.

The end of an essay should therefore convey a sense of completeness and closure as well as a sense of the lingering possibilities of the topic, its larger meaning, its implications: the final paragraph should close the discussion without closing it off.

To establish a sense of closure, you might do one or more of the following:

• Conclude by linking the last paragraph to the first, perhaps by reiterating a word or phrase you used at the beginning.
• Conclude with a sentence composed mainly of one-syllable words. Simple language can help create an effect of understated drama.
• Conclude with a sentence that's compound or parallel in structure; such sentences can establish a sense of balance or order that may feel just right at the end of a complex discussion.

To close the discussion without closing it off, you might do one or more of the following:

• Conclude with a quotation from or reference to a primary or secondary source, one that amplifies your main point or puts it in a different perspective. A quotation from, say, the novel or poem you're writing about can add texture and specificity to your discussion; a critic or scholar can help confirm or complicate your final point. For example, you might conclude an essay on the idea of home in James Joyce's short story collection,  Dubliners , with information about Joyce's own complex feelings towards Dublin, his home. Or you might end with a biographer's statement about Joyce's attitude toward Dublin, which could illuminate his characters' responses to the city. Just be cautious, especially about using secondary material: make sure that you get the last word.
• Conclude by setting your discussion into a different, perhaps larger, context. For example, you might end an essay on nineteenth-century muckraking journalism by linking it to a current news magazine program like  60 Minutes .
• Conclude by redefining one of the key terms of your argument. For example, an essay on Marx's treatment of the conflict between wage labor and capital might begin with Marx's claim that the "capitalist economy is . . . a gigantic enterprise of dehumanization "; the essay might end by suggesting that Marxist analysis is itself dehumanizing because it construes everything in economic -- rather than moral or ethical-- terms.
• Conclude by considering the implications of your argument (or analysis or discussion). What does your argument imply, or involve, or suggest? For example, an essay on the novel  Ambiguous Adventure , by the Senegalese writer Cheikh Hamidou Kane, might open with the idea that the protagonist's development suggests Kane's belief in the need to integrate Western materialism and Sufi spirituality in modern Senegal. The conclusion might make the new but related point that the novel on the whole suggests that such an integration is (or isn't) possible.

Finally, some advice on how not to end an essay:

• Don't simply summarize your essay. A brief summary of your argument may be useful, especially if your essay is long--more than ten pages or so. But shorter essays tend not to require a restatement of your main ideas.
• Avoid phrases like "in conclusion," "to conclude," "in summary," and "to sum up." These phrases can be useful--even welcome--in oral presentations. But readers can see, by the tell-tale compression of the pages, when an essay is about to end. You'll irritate your audience if you belabor the obvious.
• Resist the urge to apologize. If you've immersed yourself in your subject, you now know a good deal more about it than you can possibly include in a five- or ten- or 20-page essay. As a result, by the time you've finished writing, you may be having some doubts about what you've produced. (And if you haven't immersed yourself in your subject, you may be feeling even more doubtful about your essay as you approach the conclusion.) Repress those doubts. Don't undercut your authority by saying things like, "this is just one approach to the subject; there may be other, better approaches. . ."

Copyright 1998, Pat Bellanca, for the Writing Center at Harvard University

BUS603: Managing People

Leadership Priciples

Through reading this chapter, you will notice that there is not one specific leadership style, principle or theory. Great leaders can follow a shared leadership style, a meta leadership style or even a transformational leadership style and be equally effective. As each style might seem different, they all have a base definition of the core relationship of leader to follower. The only way this relationship stays healthy and effective is through communication that not only works top down (leader to follower) but should also work from bottom up (follower to leader). This transparency of communication leads to the ability to adjust tactics, strategies and styles.

As I have led multiple teams now in my decade long career, I have learned that the only true way to create a great base of followers is to be authentic, transparent and ethical. In my career, I have also implemented different versions of these different leadership styles with great effect. As previously mentioned, sometimes taking on a manager type of approach is useful, so to is the correct usage of these leadership styles. For example, in my organization I have been a part of teams that had leaders that were transformational to get a sustainable business model fleshed out, and then the leader switched the style to more of a shared leader to get buy-in from other areas, finally creating an environment where meta leaders in the organization can broaden the interest and collaboration across the organization.

What is leadership?

All leaders, to a certain degree, do the same thing. Whether you’re talking about an executive, manager, sports coach, or schoolteacher, leadership is about guiding and impacting outcomes, enabling groups of people to work together to accomplish what they couldn’t do working individually. In this sense, leadership is something you do, not something you are. Some people in formal leadership positions are poor leaders, and many people exercising leadership have no formal authority. It is their actions, not their words, that inspire trust and energy.

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Aaron De Smet is a senior partner in McKinsey’s New Jersey office, Carolyn Dewar is a senior partner in the Bay Area office, Scott Keller is a senior partner in the Southern California office, and Vik Malhotra and Ramesh Srinivasan are senior partners in the New York office.

What’s more, leadership is not something people are born with—it is a skill you can learn. At the core are mindsets, which are expressed through observable behaviors , which then lead to measurable outcomes. Is a leader communicating effectively or engaging others by being a good listener? Focusing on behaviors lets us be more objective when assessing leadership effectiveness. The key to unlocking shifts in behavior is focusing on mindsets, becoming more conscious about our thoughts and beliefs, and showing up with integrity as our full authentic selves.

There are many contexts and ways in which leadership is exercised. But, according to McKinsey analysis of academic literature as well as a survey of nearly 200,000 people in 81 organizations all over the world, there are four types of behavior that account for 89 percent of leadership effectiveness :

• being supportive
• operating with a strong results orientation
• seeking different perspectives
• solving problems effectively

Effective leaders know that what works in one situation will not necessarily work every time. Leadership strategies must reflect each organization’s context and stage of evolution. One important lens is organizational health, a holistic set of factors that enable organizations to grow and succeed over time. A situational approach  enables leaders to focus on the behaviors that are most relevant as an organization becomes healthier.

Senior leaders must develop a broad range of skills to guide organizations. Ten timeless topics are important for leading nearly any organization, from attracting and retaining talent  to making culture a competitive advantage. A 2017 McKinsey book, Leading Organizations: Ten Timeless Truths (Bloomsbury, 2017), goes deep on each aspect.

How is leadership evolving?

In the past, leadership was called “management,” with an emphasis on providing technical expertise and direction. The context was the traditional industrial economy command-and-control organization, where leaders focused exclusively on maximizing value for shareholders. In these organizations, leaders had three roles: planners (who develop strategy, then translate that strategy into concrete steps), directors (who assign responsibilities), or controllers (who ensure people do what they’ve been assigned and plans are adhered to).

What are the limits of traditional management styles?

Traditional management was revolutionary in its day and enormously effective in building large-scale global enterprises that have materially improved lives over the past 200 years. However, with the advent of the 21st century, this approach is reaching its limits.

For one thing, this approach doesn’t guarantee happy or loyal managers or workers. Indeed, a large portion of American workers—56 percent— claim their boss is mildly or highly toxic , while 75 percent say dealing with their manager is the most stressful part of their workday.

For 21st-century organizations operating in today’s complex business environment, a fundamentally new and more effective approach to leadership is emerging. Leaders today are beginning to focus on building agile, human-centered, and digitally enabled organizations able to thrive in today’s unprecedented environment and meet the needs of a broader range of stakeholders (customers, employees, suppliers, and communities, in addition to investors).

What is the emerging new approach to leadership?

This new approach to leadership is sometimes described as “ servant leadership .” While there has been some criticism of the nomenclature, the idea itself is simple: rather than being a manager directing and controlling people, a more effective approach is for leaders to be in service of the people they lead. The focus is on how leaders can make the lives of their team members easier—physically, cognitively, and emotionally. Research suggests this mentality can enhance both team performance and satisfaction.

In this new approach, leaders practice empathy, compassion, vulnerability, gratitude, self-awareness, and self-care. They provide appreciation and support, creating psychological safety so their employees are able to collaborate, innovate, and raise issues as appropriate. This includes celebrating achieving the small steps on the way to reaching big goals and enhancing people’s well-being through better human connections. These conditions have been shown to allow for a team’s best performance.

More broadly, developing this new approach to leadership can be expressed as making five key shifts that include, build on, and extend beyond traditional approaches:

• beyond executive to visionary, shaping a clear purpose that resonates with and generates holistic impact for all stakeholders
• beyond planner to architect, reimagining industries and innovating business systems that are able to create new levels of value
• beyond director to catalyst, engaging people to collaborate in open, empowered networks
• beyond controller to coach, enabling the organization to constantly evolve through rapid learning, and enabling colleagues to build new mindsets, knowledge, and skills
• beyond boss to human, showing up as one’s whole, authentic self

Together, these shifts can help a leader expand their repertoire and create a new level of value for an organization’s stakeholders. The last shift is the most important, as it is based on developing a new level of consciousness and awareness of our inner state. Leaders who look inward  and take a journey of genuine self-discovery make profound shifts in themselves and their lives; this means they are better able to benefit their organization. That involves developing “profile awareness” (a combination of a person’s habits of thought, emotions, hopes, and behavior in different circumstances) and “state awareness” (the recognition of what’s driving a person to take action). Combining individual, inward-looking work with outward-facing actions can help create lasting change.

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Leaders must learn to make these five shifts at three levels : transforming and evolving personal mindsets and behaviors; transforming teams to work in new ways; and transforming the broader organization by building new levels of agility, human-centeredness, and value creation into the entire enterprise’s design and culture.

An example from the COVID-19 era offers a useful illustration of this new approach to leadership. In pursuit of a vaccine breakthrough, at the start of the pandemic Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel increased the frequency of executive meetings  from once a month to twice a week. The company implemented a decentralized model enabling teams to work independently and deliver on the bold goal of providing 100 million doses of vaccines in 12 months. “The pace was unprecedented,” Bancel said.

What is the impact of this new approach to leadership?

This new approach to leadership is far more effective. While the dynamics are complex, countless studies show empirical links among effective leadership, employee satisfaction, customer loyalty, and profitability.

How can leaders empower employees?

Empowering employees , surprisingly enough, might mean taking a more hands-on leadership approach. Organizations whose leaders successfully empower others through coaching are nearly four times more likely to make swift, good decisions and outperform other companies . But this type of coaching isn’t always natural for those with a more controlling or autocratic style.

Here are five tips to get started  if you’re a leader looking to empower others:

• Provide clear rules, for example, by providing guardrails for what success looks like and communicating who makes which decisions. Clarity and boundary structures like role remits and responsibilities help to contain any anxiety associated with work and help teams stay focused on their primary tasks.
• Establish clear roles, say, by assigning one person the authority to make certain decisions.
• Avoid being a complicit manager—for instance, if you’ve delegated a decision to a team, don’t step in and solve the problem for them.
• Address culture and skills, for instance, by helping employees learn how to have difficult conversations.
• Begin soliciting personal feedback from others, at all levels of your organization, on how you are experienced as a leader.

How can leaders communicate effectively?

Good, clear communication is a leadership hallmark. Fundamental tools of effective communication  include:

• defining and pointing to long-term goals
• listening to and understanding stakeholders
• creating openings for dialogue
• communicating proactively

And in times of uncertainty, these things are important for crisis communicators :

• give people what they need, when they need it
• communicate clearly, simply, and frequently
• choose candor over charisma
• revitalize a spirit of resilience
• distill meaning from chaos
• support people, teams, and organizations to build the capability for self-sufficiency

Learn more about our People & Organizational Performance Practice .

Is leadership different in a hybrid workplace?

A leader’s role may look slightly different in remote or hybrid workplace settings . Rather than walking around a physical site, these leaders might instead model what hybrid looks like, or orchestrate work based on tasks, interactions, or purpose. Being communicative and radiating positivity  can go a long way. Leaders need to find other ways to be present and accessible, for example, via virtual drop-in sessions, regular company podcasts, or virtual townhalls. Leaders in these settings may also need to find new ways to get authentic feedback. These tactics can include pulse surveys or learning to ask thoughtful follow-up questions that reveal useful management insights.

Additional considerations, such as making sure that in-person work and togetherness has a purpose, are important. Keeping an eye on inclusivity in hybrid work  is also crucial. Listening to what employees want, with an eye to their lived experience, will be vital to leaders in these settings. And a focus on output, outcomes, results, and impact—rather than arbitrary norms about time spent in offices— may be a necessary adaptation in the hybrid era .

How should CEOs lead in this new world?

Just as for leadership more broadly, today’s environment requires CEOs to lead very differently. Recent research indicates that one-third to one-half of new CEOs fail within 18 months.

What helps top performers thrive today? To find out, McKinsey led a research effort to identify the CEOs who achieved breakaway success. We examined 20 years’ worth of data on 7,800 CEOs—from 3,500 public companies across 70 countries and 24 industries. The result is the McKinsey book CEO Excellence: The Six Mindsets That Distinguish the Best Leaders from the Rest (Scribner, March 2022). Watch an interview with the authors for more on what separates the best CEOs from the rest .

Getting perspective on leadership from CEOs themselves is enlightening—and illustrates the nuanced ways in which the new approach to leadership described above can be implemented in practice. Here are a few quotes drawn from McKinsey’s interviews with these top-level leaders :

• “I think the fundamental role of a leader is to look for ways to shape the decades ahead, not just react to the present, and to help others accept the discomfort of disruptions to the status quo.” — Indra Nooyi , former chairman and CEO of PepsiCo
• “The single most important thing I have to do as CEO is ensure that our brand continues to be relevant.” — Chris Kempczinski , CEO of McDonald’s
• “Leaders of other enterprises often define themselves as captains of the ship, but I think I’m more the ship’s architect or designer. That’s different from a captain’s role, in which the route is often fixed and the destination defined.” — Zhang Ruimin , CEO of Haier
• “I think my leadership style [can be called] ‘collaborative command.’ You bring different opinions into the room, you allow for a really great debate, but you understand that, at the end of the day, a decision has to be made quickly.” — Adena Friedman , CEO of Nasdaq
• “We need an urgent refoundation of business and capitalism around purpose and humanity. To find new ways for all of us to lead so that we can create a better future, a more sustainable future.” — Hubert Joly , former chairman and CEO of Best Buy

What is leadership development?

Leaders aren’t born; they learn to lead over time. Neuroplasticity refers to the power of the brain to form new pathways and connections through exposure to novel, unfamiliar experiences. This allows adults to adapt, grow, and learn new practices throughout our lifetimes.

When it comes to leadership within organizations, this is often referred to as leadership development. Programs, books, and courses on leadership development abound, but results vary.

Leadership development efforts fail for a variety of reasons. Some overlook context; in those cases, asking a simple question (something like “What, precisely, is this program for?”) can help. Others separate reflections on leadership from real work, or they shortchange the role of adjusting leaders’ mindsets, feelings, assumptions, and beliefs, or they fail to measure results.

So what’s needed for successful leadership development? Generally, developing leaders is about creating contexts where there is sufficient psychological safety in combination with enough novelty and unfamiliarity to cultivate new leadership practices in response to stimuli. Leadership programs that successfully cultivate leaders are also built around “placescapes”—these are novel experiences, like exploring wilderness trails, practicing performing arts, or writing poetry.

When crafting a leadership development program, there are six ingredients to incorporate  that lead to true organizational impact:

• Set up for success:
• Focus your leadership transformation on driving strategic objectives and initiatives.
• Commit the people and resources needed.
• Be clear about focus:
• Engage a critical mass of leaders to reach a tipping point for sustained impact.
• Zero in on the leadership shifts that drive the greatest value.
• Execute well:
• Architect experiential journeys to maximize shifts in mindsets, capabilities, and practices.
• Measure for holistic impact.

A well-designed and executed leadership development program can help organizations build leaders’ capabilities broadly, at scale. And these programs can be built around coaching, mentoring, and having people try to solve challenging problems—learning skills by applying them in real time to real work.

What are mentorship, sponsorship, and apprenticeship?

Mentorship, sponsorship, and apprenticeship can also be part of leadership development efforts. What are they? Mentorship refers to trusted counselors offering guidance and support on various professional issues, such as career progression. Sponsorship is used to describe senior leaders who create opportunities to help junior colleagues succeed. These roles are typically held by more senior colleagues, whereas apprenticeship could be more distributed. Apprenticeship  describes the way any colleague with domain expertise might teach others, model behaviors, or transfer skills. These approaches can be useful not only for developing leaders but also for helping your company upskill or reskill employees quickly and at scale.

For more in-depth exploration of these topics, see McKinsey’s insights on People & Organizational Performance . Learn more about McKinsey’s Leadership & Management  work—and check out job opportunities if you’re interested in working at McKinsey.

Articles referenced include:

• “ Author Talks: What separates the best CEOs from the rest? ,” December 15, 2021, Carolyn Dewar , Scott Keller , and Vik Malhotra
• “ From the great attrition to the great adaptation ,” November 3, 2021, Aaron De Smet  and Bill Schaninger
• “ The boss factor: Making the world a better place through workplace relationships ,” September 22, 2020, Tera Allas  and Bill Schaninger
• " Leading agile transformation: The new capabilities leaders need to build 21st century organizations ," October 1, 2018, Aaron De Smet , Michael Lurie , and Andrew St. George
• " Leading Organizations: Ten Timeless Truths ," 2017, Scott Keller  and Mary Meaney
• “ Leadership in context ,” January 1, 2016, Michael Bazigos, Chris Gagnon, and Bill Schaninger
• “ Decoding leadership: What really matters ,” January 1, 2015, Claudio Feser, Fernanda Mayol, and Ramesh Srinivasan

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CEO Excellence

8 Key Leadership Skills (And How to Develop Them)

• The Speaker Lab
• May 13, 2024

Table of Contents

Ever wondered what separates okay leaders from truly great ones? It’s not about charismatic speeches or being the smartest person in the room; it’s all about honing those crucial leadership skills . Whether you’re stepping into your first management role or looking to polish your executive presence, understanding and developing these abilities is key. In this article, we’ll dive into practical advice that will set you apart as a leader.

What Are Leadership Skills?

Having top-notch leadership skills is what really makes the difference between those who are just good and those who truly stand out as great. These qualities are the backbone of any great leader, sparking inspiration and guiding their team to triumph. But what exactly are these elusive skills?

Leadership skills encompass a wide range of competencies, from communication and problem-solving to emotional intelligence and strategic thinking. These are the talents that empower a leader to paint a vivid picture of the future, get their team excited and on board with it, and navigate through all the highs and lows on the journey there.

However, leadership skills aren’t just for those in formal leadership roles. Whether you’re a manager, entrepreneur, or individual contributor, developing your leadership skills can help you be more effective in your work and advance your career.

Importance of Leadership Skills

So why are leadership skills so important? First up, they’re the powerhouse behind getting those results we all want. A leader with strong skills can motivate their team to perform at their best, make smart decisions, and navigate obstacles with agility.

Of course, the perks of having leadership skills stretch way further than just ticking tasks off your list. Leaders with strong skills also tend to have more engaged, satisfied teams. When a leader can communicate effectively, build trust, and empower their team members, it creates a positive work environment where people feel valued and motivated to do their best work.

Types of Leadership Skills

So what are the key leadership skills every leader needs in their toolkit? While the specific skills may vary depending on the context and industry, there are 8 core competencies that are essential for any effective leader:

• Communication skills
• Interpersonal skills
• Problem-solving skills
• Decision-making skills
• Strategic thinking skills
• Time management skills
• Change management skills
• Conflict management skills

We’ll dive deeper into each of these skills in the next section. But the key takeaway is that leadership skills are a critical component of success—both for individual leaders and the teams and organizations they lead.

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8 Top Leadership Skills Every Leader Needs

Alright, so we know that leadership skills are important. But what are the specific skills that every leader needs to have in their toolkit? Let’s break it down.

Communication Skills

First up: communication skills. As a leader, you need to be able to clearly articulate your vision, give feedback, and listen to your team. This includes both verbal communication (like presentations and one-on-one conversations) and written communication (like emails and reports).

Of course, communication isn’t just about talking. It’s also about listening—really listening—to what your team members have to say. In fact, active listening is a key leadership skill that involves fully focusing on the speaker, asking clarifying questions, and providing thoughtful responses.

Interpersonal Skills

Next up: interpersonal skills. As a leader, you need to be able to build strong relationships with your team members, stakeholders, and customers. This involves skills like empathy, collaboration, and conflict resolution.

Interpersonal skills are especially important when it comes to managing and motivating your team. By building trust, fostering open communication, and showing genuine care for your team members, you can create a positive work environment where people feel valued and engaged.

Problem-Solving Skills

As a leader, you’ll inevitably face challenges and obstacles. That’s where problem-solving skills come in. You need to be able to analyze complex situations, think critically about potential solutions, and make decisions that move your team forward.

Problem-solving often involves skills like critical thinking (the ability to objectively analyze and evaluate information) and creativity (the ability to think outside the box and generate innovative ideas). It also requires a willingness to take calculated risks and learn from failures.

Decision-Making Skills

Making decisions that’s another key leadership skill. As a leader, you’ll often need to make tough calls with limited information and time. This requires the ability to gather and analyze data, weigh pros and cons, and ultimately make a choice that aligns with your team’s goals and values.

Making smart choices also means you’ve got to be quick on your feet and let your team in on the game plan without any mumbling or fumbling. Laying out the reasons behind your choices and staying open to any feedback or questions can make a world of difference.

Strategic Thinking Skills

To be an effective leader, you need to be able to think strategically about the big picture. This is all about dreaming big, looking ahead to see what hurdles and chances might pop up down the road, and coming up with a solid game plan to turn your dreams into reality.

Strategic thinking skills include the ability to analyze market trends, assess your team’s strengths and weaknesses, and make data-driven decisions. It also requires a willingness to adapt and pivot when necessary.

Time Management Skills

As a leader, you’ll often have a lot on your plate. That’s where time management skills come in. You need to be able to prioritize tasks, delegate responsibilities, and manage your own workload effectively. In addition, effective time management involves setting clear goals, creating realistic schedules, and minimizing distractions. It also requires the ability to say no to non-essential tasks and focus on the activities that will have the greatest impact.

Change Management Skills

In today’s fast-paced business environment, change is a constant. As a leader, you need to be able to navigate and drive change within your team and organization. That means honing skills like making conversation, empathy, and resilience.

In addition, effective change management requires a clear vision for the future, a plan for getting there, and the ability to inspire and motivate your team through the transition. Being open to feedback and willing to tweak your strategy as needed is also part of the mix.

Conflict Management Skills

Finally, let’s talk about conflict management skills. As a leader, you’ll inevitably face disagreements and tensions within your team. Your ability to navigate and resolve these conflicts can make or break your team’s success. Effective conflict management involves active listening, empathy, and a willingness to find common ground. It also requires the ability to stay calm under pressure and facilitate productive conversations that lead to resolution.

Developing these key leadership skills takes time and practice. But by focusing on these core competencies, you can become a more effective, inspiring, and successful leader no matter what challenges come your way.

How to Develop Leadership Skills

Developing leadership skills is a journey, not a destination. It takes time, effort, and a willingness to learn and grow. The good news is, with the right mindset and approach, anyone can develop these skills. So, where do you start? Let’s dive in and explore some practical ways to build your leadership skills.

Identify Your Strengths and Weaknesses

The first step in developing your leadership skills is to take a good, hard look at yourself. What are your strengths? What areas do you need to work on? This self-awareness is crucial for personal growth and development.

There are many tools and assessments available to help you identify your strengths and weaknesses, such as the SWOT analysis or the CliftonStrengths assessment . Use these insights to create a plan for skills development and focus on areas where you can make the most impact.

Seek Mentorship

One of the best ways to develop your leadership skills is to learn from those who have been there before. Hunt down mentors who are ready to guide you, offer their wisdom, and share the lessons from their own journeys.

A good mentor (or leadership coach ) can help you navigate challenges, provide valuable feedback, and support you in your growth. Don’t be afraid to reach out to leaders you admire and ask for their guidance. Generally, folks are pretty eager to pass on what they know and give a leg up to those climbing the ladder of success right behind them.

Take on More Responsibility

To grow as a leader, you need to step outside your comfort zone and take on new challenges. Look for opportunities to lead projects, teams, or initiatives at work or in your community. Taking on more responsibility not only helps you develop your skills, but it also demonstrates your leadership potential to others. Don’t wait for someone to hand you a leadership role—seek out opportunities to lead and make a difference.

Practice Active Listening

Effective communication is a key leadership skill, and active listening is a critical component. When you listen actively, you give your full attention to the speaker and seek to understand their perspective.

To practice active listening, put away distractions, ask clarifying questions, and repeat back what you’ve heard. This helps build trust and shows that you value the opinions and ideas of others. As a leader, it’s important to listen more than you speak and create a culture of open communication.

Develop Emotional Intelligence

Emotional intelligence (EQ) is the ability to understand and manage your own emotions, as well as the emotions of others. It’s a critical skill for leaders, as it helps you build strong relationships, communicate effectively, and navigate complex situations.

If you’re on a mission to boost your EQ, start with getting to know yourself better, learning how to walk in someone else’s shoes, and keeping those impulses in check. In addition, pay special attention to your own emotions and how they impact your behavior. Seek to understand the perspectives and feelings of others. Finally, learn to manage your reactions and respond in a calm, measured way.

Set Goals and Achieve Them

As a leader, it’s important to have a clear vision and set goals for yourself and your team. Setting goals helps you stay focused, motivated, and accountable.

When setting goals, make sure they are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound ( SMART ). Break big goals down into smaller, actionable steps and celebrate progress along the way. By achieving your goals, you demonstrate your ability to lead and inspire others to do the same.

Learn to Delegate

One of the biggest challenges for new leaders is learning to delegate effectively. It can be tempting to try to do everything yourself, but this approach is not sustainable or effective in the long run.

To delegate successfully, start by identifying tasks that can be delegated and match them with the right team members. Provide clear instructions and expectations, but also give your team the autonomy to solve problems and make decisions on their own. Trust your team to do their best work and provide support and feedback along the way.

Embrace Continuous Learning

Finally, to be an effective leader, you must embrace continuous learning. The world is constantly changing, and leaders need to stay up-to-date with new ideas, technologies, and best practices. Make learning a priority by setting aside time for reading, attending workshops or conferences, and seeking out new experiences. Encourage your team to do the same and create a culture of learning and growth. Keep learning and honing your skills, because the more you know and can do, the better you’ll navigate through all of life’s twists and turns.

Leadership Skills in the Workplace

Now that we’ve explored some practical ways to develop your leadership skills, let’s take a closer look at how these skills play out in the workplace. Whether you’re a seasoned executive or a new manager, these skills are essential for success.

Effective Communication

Clear communication is the foundation of effective leadership. As a leader, it’s your job to paint a picture of where you’re headed, what you aim to achieve, and the standards you expect—doing so in a way that lights a fire under your team and gets them pumped to be on this journey with you.

To communicate effectively, start by understanding your audience and tailoring your message to their needs and preferences. Use simple, clear language and avoid jargon or technical terms that may be confusing. Be open and transparent, and encourage two-way communication by asking for feedback and listening actively.

Building Trust and Relationships

Building trust and strong relationships is another key leadership skill in the workplace. When your team trusts you, they are more likely to be engaged, motivated, and willing to go the extra mile.

To build trust, be consistent in your words and actions. Follow through on your commitments and keep your promises. Be honest and transparent, even when the news is not good. Additionally, show genuine care and concern for your team members as individuals, not just as employees.

Team Management

Effective team management is a critical leadership skill that involves setting goals, delegating tasks, and providing support and feedback to your team. Kicking off with a strong start means making sure everyone on your team knows what’s expected of them and the goals they’re aiming for. Communicate regularly and provide ongoing feedback and coaching. Encourage collaboration and teamwork, and create a positive team culture that values diversity, inclusion, and respect.

Employee Development

As a leader, one of your most important responsibilities is to support the growth and development of your team members. This involves providing opportunities for learning, skill-building, and career advancement. To support employee development, start by understanding the strengths, interests, and goals of each team member. Provide training and development opportunities that align with these goals, and offer regular feedback and coaching to help them improve and grow. Encourage a growth mindset and celebrate successes along the way.

Performance Management

Performance management is another key leadership skill that involves setting goals, monitoring progress, and providing feedback and support to help your team members succeed. To manage performance effectively, start by setting clear, measurable goals that align with the overall goals of the organization. Provide regular feedback and coaching, and use data and metrics to track progress and identify areas for improvement. Always play fair and stay true to your principles, while also making it a point to spot and celebrate those who really step up their game.

Giving Constructive Feedback

Giving feedback is a critical leadership skill that can be challenging, but is essential for growth and development. When done well, feedback can help your team members improve their performance and reach their full potential. To give constructive feedback, start by being specific and focusing on behaviors, not personality traits. Use a positive, supportive tone and provide examples to illustrate your points. Encourage a two-way dialogue and listen actively to your team member’s perspective. And always follow up to ensure that the feedback is being implemented and having the desired impact.

Motivating and Inspiring Others

Motivating others is a key leadership skill that involves inspiring your team to do their best work and achieve their goals. When your team is motivated and engaged, they are more productive, creative, and committed to success. To motivate your team, start by understanding what drives and inspires each individual. Provide meaningful work that aligns with their strengths and interests. Recognize and reward high performance, and celebrate successes along the way. Finally, lead by example, demonstrating the behaviors and attitudes you want to see in your team.

Fostering Collaboration and Teamwork

Last but not least, fostering collaboration and teamwork is a critical leadership skill that involves creating a positive team culture and encouraging open communication and cooperation. To foster collaboration, start by setting a clear vision and goals for the team. Encourage open communication and idea-sharing, and create opportunities for team members to work together and learn from each other. Celebrate team successes and recognize individual contributions. And don’t forget to model collaboration yourself, working closely with other leaders and teams across the organization.

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Showcasing Your Leadership Skills

You’ve put in the hard work to develop your leadership skills. You’ve taken on extra responsibilities at work, volunteered for projects outside your comfort zone, and sought out mentors to guide you along the way. But now what? How do you make sure all that effort pays off and gets noticed by the right people? Below are some key areas where you can really let your leadership abilities shine.

In Your Resume

Your resume is often the first impression a potential employer will have of you, so it’s crucial to highlight your leadership experience here. Don’t just list your job titles and responsibilities, though. Instead, focus on specific achievements that demonstrate your leadership skills in action.

For example, instead of saying “Managed a team of 5 people,” try something like “Led a cross-functional team of 5 to successfully complete a high-profile project 2 weeks ahead of schedule, resulting in a 20% increase in client satisfaction scores.” Quantifying your accomplishments with hard numbers will really make them pop.

During Job Interviews

Job interviews are your chance to really sell yourself as a leader. Come prepared with specific examples of times when you’ve demonstrated key leadership skills like communication, problem-solving, and decision-making. And don’t be afraid to show a little personality. Leaders are often charismatic and engaging, so let your enthusiasm for the role and the company shine through. Asking thoughtful questions about the position and the team you’d be leading also shows that you’re thinking ahead and already envisioning yourself in a leadership role.

In Your Current Role

Even if you’re not currently in a formal leadership position, there are still plenty of ways to demonstrate your leadership potential in your day-to-day work. Look for opportunities to take initiative and go above and beyond your basic job duties.

For example, you could volunteer to lead a project team, mentor a junior colleague, or propose a new process improvement idea to your manager. Showing that you’re proactive and always looking for ways to add value will definitely get you noticed as someone with leadership potential.

Through Volunteer Work

Volunteering is a fantastic way to develop and showcase your leadership skills outside of the workplace. Look for opportunities to take on leadership roles within organizations you’re passionate about, whether that’s serving on the board of a local nonprofit or organizing a fundraising event for a cause you care about.

Not only will this give you valuable experience leading teams and projects, but it also shows that you’re committed to making a difference in your community. Having that kind of awareness about society and the bigger picture really sets apart leaders who know what they’re doing.

By Taking Initiative

One of the most important things leaders do is take initiative. They don’t wait around for someone else to tell them what to do—they see a problem or opportunity and take action to address it.

Look for ways to proactively contribute to your team and organization, even if it’s outside your formal job description. For example, you could offer to take on a stretch assignment, suggest a new tool or process that could improve efficiency, or even just consistently share relevant articles and insights with your colleagues. If you’re the type of person who’s always a couple of steps ahead, constantly brainstorming ways to bring more to the table, then congrats—you’ve got all the makings of a natural leader.

By Mentoring Others

One of the most rewarding ways to showcase your leadership skills is by mentoring others . Passing on what you know to the newer folks on your team doesn’t just help them level up; it shines a spotlight on your own chops as a leader, too.

Look for opportunities to informally mentor within your team or department, or consider signing up for a formal mentorship program if your company offers one. You could also seek out mentorship opportunities outside of work, such as through professional associations or alumni networks.

Through Continuous Learning and Development

Finally, remember that showcasing your leadership skills isn’t a one-time thing—it’s an ongoing process of continuous learning and development. The best leaders are always looking for ways to grow and improve, both personally and professionally.

Keep growing by diving into workshops and conferences, flipping through books and articles on leadership, and chasing after new challenges that throw you out of your comfort zone. And don’t forget to share what you’re learning with others. After all, teaching and mentoring are powerful ways to reinforce your own skills while also developing the next generation of leaders.

Becoming a better leader isn’t something you can just tick off your to-do list. It’s more about growing bit by bit, taking a hard look at yourself, and putting what you’ve learned into action. From embracing effective communication to fostering teamwork, every step taken is a leap towards becoming the leader others look up to. Remember, strong leadership isn’t just beneficial for career advancement—it enriches lives by inspiring and motivating others. So keep pushing forward, because bettering your leadership skills makes you not only a better leader but also a better individual.

• Last Updated: May 9, 2024

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Your Leadership Story by Tim Tobin

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L eadership is a gift—a gift that requires you to set a direction; motivate, inspire, and develop others; and deliver results that matter. It is also a journey. It is about your experiences and the influence you have on others. Leadership is certainly about the work that gets done, but it is much more about how the work gets done and the relationships along the way.

A great story can motivate and inspire others. It can impart a message. Think about how your leadership story imparts a message, inspires, or motivates. Remember, your leadership story lives in the hearts and minds of others, and you are constantly onstage as a leader. Sometimes you can rehearse or plan ahead. Other times, improvisation is needed. Those around you will have ...

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Ultimate Guide to Leadership Development

Your Opportunity to Deliver Breakthrough Moments

So what happens when you get leadership development right? What happens when you meet leaders in the moment and deliver the development they need?

When you do it right, you can create breakthrough moments .

Breakthrough moments deliver the insights your leaders will remember and carry with them for the rest of their careers. These moments happen when people feel a connection to their role as leaders. They see how what they learned was directly related to their job. And they see how their behavior positively impacts others and the organization as a whole.

As learning professionals, these are the moments we should strive to create. From moments of challenge, aim to create breakthrough moments that will stay with leaders the rest of their careers.

DDI By Your Side

At DDI we believe that better leaders can have profound and positive impacts across all areas of life, including business, community, and home. We also recognize that ­­­behind every leader is a person doing their best in an environment of changing expectations and uncertainty.

We bring this perspective to every leader we help, in every leadership moment. And we are here for you, helping you to deliver success in every part of your leadership development programs.

For every critical moment of leadership, DDI is ready to be by your side.

Want to learn more about how we can help? Explore DDI Leadership Development subscriptions .

Or if you’d like to chat about our solutions (or think we missed any topics in this guide!), contact us at [email protected] .

20 Qualities of a Good Leader: Lead With Impact

Leadership is just like an ingredient in the recipe for success, whether in business, politics, or any other aspect of life. Great leaders possess an uncommon set of qualities that inspire, motivate, and guide their teams toward achieving common goals. In this blog post, we’ll explore the 20 qualities of a good leader that are essential for effective leadership.  

These qualities can be grouped into several categories, including personal qualities, communication skills, vision and goal setting, team building, decision-making, leading by example, empowering others, conflict resolution, emotional intelligence, adaptability, accountability, empathy, patience, courage, humility, innovation, consistency, and time management.

Top 20 Qualities of a Good Leader

Table of Contents

Personal Qualities

Good leaders are known for their unwavering commitment to honesty and ethics. They lead by example, and their integrity is a beacon for their team.

• Self-Confidence

Confidence instills trust in others. Leaders must believe in themselves and their abilities to inspire confidence in their team.

Empathetic leaders understand the feelings and perspectives of their team members. They build stronger connections by showing they care.

Resilience enables leaders to bounce back from setbacks and persevere in the face of adversity, setting an example for their team.

• Adaptability

Leaders who embrace change and adapt quickly are better equipped to navigate evolving landscapes and guide their teams through uncertainty.

Communication Skills

• Effective Listening

Leaders actively listen to their team members, fostering open communication and making people feel heard and valued.

• Clear and Concise Communication

Leaders communicate ideas and instructions clearly, avoiding confusion and ensuring everyone is on the same page.

• Openness to Feedback

Leaders encourage feedback from their team and are open to constructive criticism, using it to improve their leadership.

• Empowering Others through Communication

Effective leaders empower their team by providing information, resources, and clear goals, enabling them to make informed decisions.

• Conflict Resolution

Leaders are skilled at addressing conflicts constructively, finding common ground, and maintaining a harmonious work environment.

Vision and Goal Setting

• Visionary Thinking

Great leaders have a clear vision for the future and can articulate it in a compelling way that inspires others to follow.

• Setting Clear Goals

Leaders set specific, achievable, and measurable goals that give their team direction and purpose.

• Inspiring a Shared Vision

They inspire others to share and work toward their vision, fostering a sense of collective purpose.

• Strategic Planning

Leaders develop well-thought-out plans to achieve their goals, guiding their team in the right direction.

• Execution of Plans

The ability to turn plans into action is crucial for leaders to achieve results.

Team Building

• Building Trust

Leaders build trust by being reliable, consistent, and keeping their promises.

Effective leaders delegate tasks to team members based on their strengths and skills, promoting efficiency and growth.

• Fostering Collaboration

They create an environment where teamwork and collaboration are encouraged, leading to greater creativity and innovation.

• Recognizing and Nurturing Talent

Leaders identify and nurture the talents of their team members, helping them reach their full potential.

• Motivating the Team

Leaders motivate their team by recognizing achievements, providing positive reinforcement, and setting high standards.

Other 20 Qualities Of A Good Leader

• Optimism: Good leaders maintain a positive outlook, even in challenging situations, inspiring hope and confidence in their team.
• Inclusivity: Inclusive leaders embrace diversity and ensure that every team member feels valued and included, regardless of differences.
• Crisis Management: Effective leaders remain calm under pressure and make well-informed decisions during crises, providing stability and guidance.
• Strategic Networking: Leaders build valuable relationships within and outside their organization, leveraging these connections for mutual benefit.
• Financial Acumen: Understanding financial matters helps leaders make informed decisions and allocate resources effectively.
• Ethical Decision-Making: Good leaders prioritize ethical considerations when making decisions, ensuring actions align with moral values.
• Mentorship: Leaders often mentor and develop the skills of their team members, fostering growth and succession planning.
• Global Awareness: In a globalized world, leaders with global awareness understand diverse cultures and markets, making informed international decisions.
• Environmental Responsibility: Responsible leaders consider the environmental impact of their decisions, working toward sustainable practices.
• Transparency: Transparency in communication and decision-making builds trust and fosters an open and honest work environment.
• Negotiation Skills: Leaders are adept negotiators, finding win-win solutions in various situations and conflicts.
• Servant Leadership: It prioritises the needs of their team members, focusing on their growth and well-being.
• Technological Proficiency: Staying technologically savvy allows leaders to adapt to evolving tools and trends in their industry.
• Time Flexibility: Flexibility with time management enables leaders to prioritize tasks effectively and adapt to changing demands.
• Interpersonal Skills: Building strong relationships with team members and stakeholders is vital for effective leadership.
• Steadfastness: Leaders remain committed to their long-term vision, even in the face of short-term challenges.
• Attention to Detail: Paying attention to small details ensures thoroughness in planning and execution.
• Conflict Prevention: Leaders proactively identify and address potential conflicts, maintaining a harmonious work environment.
• Continuous Learning: Leaders are lifelong learners, staying updated on industry trends and evolving leadership practices.

Tips To Develop Good Qualities Of A Leader

• Self-Reflection: Start by assessing your strengths and weaknesses as a leader. Understand where you excel and where you can improve. Honest self-reflection is the first step to growth.
• Set Clear Goals: Define your leadership goals and what you want to achieve as a leader. Having a clear direction will help you focus your efforts.
• Continuous Learning: Stay informed about industry trends, leadership theories, and best practices. Attend workshops, seminars, and read books on leadership.
• Seek Feedback: Encourage team members to provide candid and open feedback to you. You can pinpoint your areas for growth with the use of constructive criticism.
• Lead by Example: Be a role model for the qualities you want to develop in yourself and your team. Actions often speak louder than words.
• Effective Communication: Work on your communication skills, both verbal and non-verbal. Listening actively and articulating ideas clearly are essential.
• Empathy: Practice putting yourself in others’ shoes and understanding their perspectives and emotions. Empathy builds trust and rapport.
• Adaptability: Embrace change and view challenges as opportunities for growth. Flexibility in your approach can be a valuable asset.
• Delegate Responsibility: Trust your team members to handle tasks and responsibilities. Delegation empowers others and allows you to focus on higher-level tasks.
• Conflict Resolution: Learn effective conflict resolution strategies. Address conflicts promptly and constructively to maintain a positive work environment.
• Emotional Intelligence: Develop your emotional intelligence by recognizing and managing your emotions and understanding the emotions of others.
• Lead with Purpose: Connect your actions and decisions to a broader purpose or vision. A sense of purpose can inspire and motivate your team.
• Stay Accountable: Hold yourself and be accountable for your actions and decisions. Take responsibility for both successes and failures.
• Practice Patience: Cultivate patience in dealing with team members, challenges, and setbacks. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither is leadership.
• Courage: Have the courage to make difficult decisions and stand up for what you believe is right, even when it’s challenging.
• Humility: Acknowledge your limitations and be open to learning from others. Humble leaders are approachable and relatable.
• Promote Innovation: Encourage creative thinking and experimentation within your team. Innovation often leads to growth and improvement.
• Be Consistent: Maintain consistency in your actions, decisions, and values. Consistency builds trust and reliability.
• Time Management: Improve your time management skills to prioritize tasks effectively and maximize productivity.
• Celebrate Success: Acknowledge and celebrate the achievements of your team. Recognition boosts morale and motivation.
• Lead with Integrity: Always act ethically and with integrity. Your actions should align with your values and principles.
• Seek Mentorship: Find a mentor or role model who can provide guidance and support as you develop your leadership qualities.
• Practice Resilience: Develop the ability to bounce back from setbacks and stay committed to your goals.

Comparison of Different Leadership Styles

In the ever-evolving landscape of leadership, possessing these 20 qualities is instrumental in becoming an effective leader. Whether you’re leading a team in a corporate setting, guiding a community organization, or even managing a family, these qualities will help you navigate challenges, inspire others, and achieve success. 

Remember that leadership is a journey of continuous self-improvement, and by developing these qualities, you can become the kind of leader who not only reaches their goals but also helps others reach theirs. So, embrace these 20 qualities of a good leader, lead by example, and make a positive impact on the world around you through your leadership.

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Home — Essay Samples — Business — Leadership — The Qualities Of A Good Leader

The Qualities of a Good Leader

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Published: Mar 13, 2024

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Table of contents

Effective communication, strong decision-making skills, inspiration and motivation, adaptability.

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• International

Middle East turmoil

Trump's hush money trial

Singapore Airlines flight

Iran's President Raisi killed in helicopter crash

By Kathleen Magramo, Deva Lee, Rhea Mogul, Jerome Taylor, Antoinette Radford and Rob Picheta, CNN

Our live coverage has ended

Our live coverage has ended. Read more about the death of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi here .

Global leaders send condolences following Raisi's death

Reaction to the death of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi continued to filter through on Monday.

• Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman told Iran, "we send your country our deepest condolences and sincere sympathy" following the crash, which killed Raisi along with eight others. "May God have mercy on them," the crown prince added.
• Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said, "I remember Mr. Raisi with respect and gratitude. As Türkiye, we will stand by our neighbor Iran in these difficult and sad times, as we have done many times."
• Kuwait’s Emir Sheikh Mishal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah sent "a cable of condolences" after the crash, "wishing them [families of the deceased] and the Iranian people and solace."
• NATO spokesperson Farah Dakhlallah said in a brief statement that the Western military alliance sends its "condolences to the people of Iran for the death of President Raisi, Foreign Minister Amir-Abdollahian, and others who perished in the helicopter crash."
• Chinese leader Xi Jinping said, "his unfortunate death is a huge loss to the Iranian people and also makes the Chinese people lose a good friend," according to Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin. "The Chinese government and the Chinese people cherish the traditional friendship between China and Iran very much, and believe that with the joint efforts of both sides, the comprehensive strategic partnership between China and Iran will continue to consolidate and develop."

Read more on the international reaction here.

Iran's army chief orders investigation into cause of helicopter crash

From CNN’s Mostafa Salem in Abu Dhabi  

Iran’s chief of staff of the Armed Forces, Mohammad Bagheri, has ordered an investigation into the cause of the helicopter crash that killed President Ebrahim Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, Tasnim news agency said. 

A high-ranking delegation, headed by a military commander and including technical experts, will go to the crash site in Eastern Azerbaijan, Tasnim said.

The helicopter crashed in a remote mountainous region in northwestern Iran on Sunday, killing Raisi, his foreign minister and seven others.

Upcoming election could be "watershed moment" for Iran, analyst says

From CNN's Rob Picheta

The upcoming, early election to replace Ebrahim Raisi as president could be a "watershed moment for Iran" if the country's supreme leader allows a range of candidates to stand, a Middle East expert has told CNN.

"I would argue that the most consequential immediate impact of his death is who will come in his wake," Mohammad Ali Shabani, the editor of Amwaj.media, told CNN's Becky Anderson Monday.

"That election can be a watershed moment for Iran," he said.

Shabani conceded that Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei "is more inclined towards conservative rule than to open up the political space."

But he said Khamenei "has always emphasized voter turnout as a litmus test of the legitimacy of the system."

Raisi became president of Iran in June 2021 after winning a historically uncompetitive presidential election. Many reform-minded Iranians had refused to take part in an election widely seen as a foregone conclusion, and turnout slumped below 50%.

Khamenei "has now... a golden opportunity to, in a face-saving way, reverse course" by allowing competitive elections and encouraging turnout, Shabani said.

Body of President Raisi to be moved to city of Mashhad on Tuesday

From CNN’s Adam Pourahmadi

The body of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and the other victims of Sunday's helicopter crash will be transferred on Tuesday from Tabriz to the northeastern city of Mashhad, where Raisi was born, according to Fars news. 

A large public ceremony is scheduled to take place at a prayer hall in Tabriz at 4 p.m. local time on Monday, Fars news reported. 

At 9 a.m. local time on Tuesday, a large procession will accompany the bodies of Raisi and the other victims from Tabriz Martyr's Square to the city's airport. From there, the bodies will be moved to Mashhad, according to Fars. 

Raisi was born in Mashhad in 1960. He ran the powerful charity known as Astan-e Quds-e Razavi, which manages the huge Imam Reza shrine, a major Islamic holy site in the city.

Iran's president has died. Here's what we know about what comes next

From CNN Staff

Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi was confirmed dead by state media on Monday morning, after a helicopter he was traveling in alongside Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, and seven others crashed in foggy conditions in the country's remote northwest on Sunday.

Here's what to know now:

Acting president: In the wake of Raisi's death, Vice President Mohammad Mokhber has been appointed as acting president.

Acting foreign minister: Ali Bagheri Kani, who has led Iranian delegations through indirect negotiations with the United States over nuclear issues and prisoner exchanges, has been appointed acting foreign minister after the death of  Amir-Abdollahian , state news agency IRNA reported.

New elections : The Iranian constitution mandates that the three heads of the branches of government, including the vice president, speaker of the parliament, and head of the judiciary, must arrange for an election and elect a new leader within 50 days of assuming the role of acting President. Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in a message to state news agencies that Mokhber was responsible for organizing  elections for a new president within that time.

Public mourning: Ayatollah Khamenei has announced five days of public mourning after the crash, and expressed his condolences. All cultural and arts activities have been canceled in Iran for the next seven days.

Global reaction: The loss of Raisi — a conservative hardliner and protege of Ayatollah Khamenei — is expected to sow further uncertainty in a country already buckling under significant economic and political strain, with tensions with nearby Israel at a dangerous high. His death has already triggered international reaction with Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, India and the UAE leader expressing their condolences for his death. Lebanon has declared three days of mourning .

Militias respond : Iran-backed militant groups Hamas, the Houthis, and Hezbollah have sent condolences to Tehran over the death of Raisi. 

Iran cancels all cultural and arts activities for seven days

From Negar Mahmoodi

All cultural and arts activities in Iran will be suspended for seven days following the death of President Ebrahim Raisi, the Ministry of Culture announced on Monday.

Raisi died in a helicopter crash at age 63.

The country’s foreign minister and seven others were also killed after the crash in a remote, mountainous area of Iran’s northwest.

Iran's acting president holds "extraordinary meeting" with heads of legislative and judiciary branches 

From Alireza Hajihosseini

Iran's acting president Mohammad Mokhber held an "extraordinary meeting" on Monday with the heads of the legislative and judicial branches following the announcement of President Ebrahim Raisi's death, according to Iranian state media. 

Mokhber spoke with Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and Hujjat al-Islam Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Eje'i, the head of Iran's Judiciary, according to Iran's semi-official Tasnim News. 

The three expressed their condolences and reaffirmed the three branches of government will continue its duties to the nation "without any interruption," Tasnim reported.  

Iran appoints top negotiator Ali Bagheri Kani as acting foreign minister, state media reports

From CNN’s Mostafa Salem

Ali Bagheri Kani, who has led Iranian delegations through indirect negotiations with the United States over nuclear issues and prisoner exchanges, has been appointed acting foreign minister after the death of Hossein Amir-Abdollahian , state news agency IRNA reported.

Amir-Abdollahian was among the nine people killed in a helicopter crash in Iran's remote northwestern mountainous region on Sunday, along with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi.

“Following the martyrdom of Hussein Amir Abdollahian, the Foreign Minister of our country, with the approval of the Cabinet Board, Ali Bagheri, the Deputy Foreign Minister of Foreign Affairs, was appointed as the acting minister of the ministry,” state news agency IRNA said.

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“Lovely Runner” Continues Its Reign as TV-OTT Drama Topicality Survey Leader for Third Straight Week

I n the latest TV-OTT drama topicality survey results for the third week of May, released by Good Data Corporation, the tvN drama “Lovely Runner” has clinched the top spot yet again, marking a three-week streak at number one.

Despite a plateau in its rising popularity, “Lovely Runner” remains dominant across four major topicality indicators: news coverage, VON (Voice Of Netizen), video content, and social media buzz.

Following behind, the JTBC series “The Atypical Family” has secured the second spot on the chart, experiencing a notable 12.8% boost in its topicality from the prior week.

Claiming the third position is Netflix’s fresh offering “The 8 Show,” which has earned the second-highest ranking in the VON category. It has elicited mixed and layered reviews from netizens.

Meanwhile, tvN’s “The Midnight Romance in Hagwon” and MBC’s “Chief Detective 1958” have bagged fourth and fifth places, respectively, both recording a topicality surge from last week. Particularly, “Chief Detective 1958” wrapped up with a significant 19.5% rise in these metrics.

Sixth place was taken by Disney+ series “Uncle Samsik,” with JTBC’s “Frankly Speaking” and KBS2’s “Beauty and Mr. Romantic” ranking seventh and eighth, respectively. “The Escape of the Seven: Resurrection” recorded a 52.3% jump in topicality, securing the ninth spot, while ENA’s “Crash” rounded out the top ten.

In the sphere of drama cast topicality, Byeon Woo-seok and Kim Hye-yoon from “Lovely Runner” have impressively held onto the top two positions for three weeks running. Close on their heels are Chun Woo-hee from “The Atypical Family”, Jung Ryeo-won from “The Midnight Romance in Hagwon” and Jang Ki-yong, also from “The Atypical Family” claiming spots three to five.

Rankings six to ten feature Wi Ha-joon of “The Midnight Romance in Hagwon”, Song Geon-hee from “Lovely Runner”, Go Kyung-pyo of “Frankly Speaking”, Lee Je-hoon from “Chief Detective 1958,” and Song Kang-ho from “Uncle Samsik.”

FAQs about TV-OTT Drama Topicality Rankings

What does tv-ott drama topicality measure.

TV-OTT drama topicality assesses the popularity and audience engagement of television shows based on news coverage, netizen discussions, video content, and social media activity.

How often are the TV-OTT drama topicality rankings updated?

The rankings are updated on a weekly basis, reflecting the dynamic nature of drama viewership and public interest.

Can international dramas rank in the TV-OTT drama topicality survey?

While the survey primarily focuses on K-content and dramas broadcasted or available in South Korea, international co-productions or widely-available international content on platforms like Netflix may also be ranked.

The TV-OTT drama topicality survey for the third week of May demonstrates the ongoing appeal of “Lovely Runner,” despite challenges from newcomers and strong contenders. With a diverse array of dramas making the list, the rankings reflect the vibrant and variable landscape of Korean drama viewership. As audience preferences shift and new series premiere, the rankings offer a weekly snapshot of what’s capturing the hearts and minds of drama aficionados.

'Young Sheldon' Season 7 finale explained: Jim Parsons' Sheldon return to the last moment

Spoiler alert: This story includes details of the May 16 series finale of CBS' "Young Sheldon."

It's a wrap for "Young Sheldon" after seven seasons following Thursday's emotional two-episode series finale.

The finale featured Jim Parsons and Mayim Bialik making their first appearances on the "Big Bang Theory" spinoff prequel – as adult Sheldon Cooper and his wife (and verbal sparring partner) Amy Farrah Fowler.

The final installment is filled with laughter and a final triumph for 14-year-old Sheldon (Iain Armitage), even as it begins with George Cooper Sr.'s funeral, after the flawed patriarch's devastating death at the end of last week's episode.

Here's what you need to know about the "Young Sheldon" finale (now streaming on Paramount+ ).

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'Young Sheldon last week: George Cooper's death is flawed father's 'Big Bang' redemption

Sheldon doesn't speak at his father's funeral, but Mary Cooper does

George Sr. (Lance Barber) is put to rest in the finale's first episode with a tear-filled funeral. Mary Cooper (Zoe Perry) starts humorously eulogizing her husband. But in her grief, Mary angrily laments losing her partner.

"Mary not only feels this emotion of anger but then is riddled with guilt because it's not the socially sanctioned emotion that is expected when you lose a loved one," says "Big Bang Theory" and "Young Sheldon" co-creator and executive producer Chuck Lorre.

The grief also pushes Mary deeper into her church "to come to some kind of clarity on this next stage of her life," Lorre says.

George Sr.'s heart attack lays the groundwork for explaining why the future Mary in "Big Bang Theory" (played by Laurie Metcalf, Perry's real-life mom) is much more religious than in "Young Sheldon" and harbors unresolved anger towards her husband.

Crucially, Sheldon passes up the opportunity to speak about his father, immediately fantasizing about the kind words he wished he had said.

On set with Iain Armitage Inside the 'Young Sheldon' finale: Tears, tissues and thanks as Sheldon Cooper leaves home

Jim Parsons' narration is actually Sheldon Cooper's healing memoir

In his "Young Sheldon" appearance, series narrator Parsons reveals his Nobel Prize-winning older self has been writing his memoir in his study, reexamining his childhood years.

"It ties these storylines together, even though there's a time difference between these two worlds," says executive producer and writer Steve Holland. "And maybe what we've been hearing this whole time from the 'Young Sheldon' narrator is adult Sheldon writing his memoirs."

It takes Amy, sneaking a peek at her husband's memoir, to point out that Sheldon hasn't fully appreciated the support his parents gave him as a child. Sheldon was particularly harsh when speaking about George Sr. in "Big Bang."

But "now he's able to see his parents and especially his dad with a new perspective," says Steven Molaro, co-creator and executive producer. "Being Sheldon, he often talks about himself in the memoir, but writing it gives him the opportunity to honor his family and his dad in a way he didn't feel when he was younger."

Sheldon has two children of his own that the physics genius loves but doesn't understand (one perplexingly plays sports and the other wants to be an actress). Parenting further helps Sheldon understand his own parents' plight in raising a young genius obsessed with science in East Texas.

Sheldon, who hadn't eulogized his father, tells Amy that having parents who supported him was "the ultimate gift."

Fun fact: Sheldon's study is filled with Easter eggs, including items from "Big Bang." The couch from the old apartment is visible in one shot, as is the Rubik's Cube tissue holder. Sheldon's beloved trains are set on rails near the ceiling.

"We decided that Amy let him keep some of that stuff at their home, but they had to stay in his office," says Holland.

Armitage's younger Sheldon has also morphed into the older version, dropping the bow tie look and wearing a T-shirt over long-sleeved T-shirts that his older version famously favored on "Big Bang."

It's not the holy spirit, but Sheldon's baptism shows personal growth

Even 27 days after the funeral, grieving Mary insists Sheldon and his sister Missy (Raegan Revord) be baptized. Missy backs out at the last moment, but Sheldon stays at the church even though he finds the ritual to be superstitious nonsense (and fears the baptism pool germs).

Mary asks, "Are you going to leave too? I know you don't believe."

Sheldon responds, "I don't. But I believe in you."

It's a beautiful moment and the line is a callback to the "Young Sheldon" pilot episode, when Missy chides Sheldon for going to church even though he doesn't believe in God . "But I believe in Mom," Sheldon responds.

Sheldon shows empathy going through the baptism for his mother's sake. But he does the ritual on his own terms, marching into the church wearing a scuba-diving suit with a life preserver.

How does 'Young Sheldon' end? Sheldon settles in new Caltech home

The ending moments feature Sheldon finally at the California Institute of Technology, as foretold in "Big Bang." Sheldon pauses smiling while admiring the prestigious school's sign.

A professor approaches, played by David Salzberg, a UCLA professor and experimental particle physicist who has been a consultant on both shows since "Big Bang" premiered in 2007.

"We wanted to acknowledge that he's been such a big part of both shows over the years, making our science accurate and making sure we look smart," says Holland. "He was the perfect person to have that last moment with Sheldon."

"Are you lost?" the professor asks.

"No, I'm actually where I'm supposed to be," Sheldon replies happily, in his final line.

Sheldon Cooper, the ultimate fish-out-of-water growing up in East Texas, walks onto the Caltech campus swinging his suitcase. The camera pulls back to show his big new world with the Dire Straits' "Walk of Life" heard on the soundtrack, the same song that opened the series in 2017.

"Sheldon is starting off his life at Caltech, which we eventually get to know through 'Big Bang Theory,'" says Molaro. "We wanted to show that the end is basically his new beginning."

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Joe Biden Condemns International Criminal Court Prosecutor’s Pursuit Of Arrest Warrant Against Israeli Leaders: “What’s Happening Is Not Genocide”

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The ICC’s move to seek arrest warrants drew immediate pushback from Biden and leaders of both parties in Congress.

Speaking in the Rose Garden at a ceremony to recognize Jewish American Heritage Month, Biden said, “Let me be clear: We reject the ICC’s application for arrest warrants against Israeli leaders. Whatever these warrants imply, there is no equivalence between Israel and Hamas. It’s clear Israel must do all it can to ensure civilian protect, but let me be clear: Contrary allegations against Israel made by the International Court of Justice, what is happening is not genocide. I reject that. We will always stand with Israel and its threats against its security.”

In a statement, posted in the Clooney Foundation website , Amal Clooney said that the prosecutor had asked her to review “evidence of suspected war crimes and crimes against humanity in Israel and Gaza. I agreed and joined a panel of international legal experts to undertake this task. Together we have engaged in an extensive process of evidence review and legal analysis including at the International Criminal Court in The Hague.”

Amal Clooney has come under some criticism in recent months by pro-Palestinian protesters for not speaking out on the situation in Gaza. The protests have underscored a split in the Democratic coalition over support for Israel in its war with Hamas, with Biden, Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries criticizing the ICC’s action as a false equivalence, while figures like Sen. Bernie Sanders said that the prosecutor “is right to take these actions.”

Clooney’s husband has been a longtime supporter of Democrats and of Biden, and is planning to be among the headliners at a fundraiser for the president’s reelection campaign at a fundraiser in Los Angeles next month.

At the Rose Garden event, Biden also condemned anti-semitism and violence on college campuses. He told the gathering that “there’s no place in any campus in America, any place in America, for anti-semitism or hate speech of any kind that threatens violence of any kind against Jews or anyone else.”

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