Demonstrate Your Leadership Skills in Your Resume

Leadership is one of the top 3 skills employers look for in candidates‘ resumes. Most candidates are aware of this, but few know how to point it out well to their prospective job givers in their CVs.

Basically, you need to highlight strong leadership skills in a concrete and tangible manner. Here are 8 ways to apprise people who matter in your career of your attributes as a leader:

1. Ensure your specific skills match with job ads
Job ads indicate the kind of leadership skills companies seek in candidates. You need to customize your resume for the position you’ll be interviewed for. Leadership skills that are in line with a company’s specific requirements are likely to impress interviewers more.

2. Provide examples
You may claim that you have top leadership skills, but there will be few takers if your facts belie your claim. Make your resume more attractive with examples of your achievements. Specifically mention how you got past tricky situations by putting your leadership qualities to good use.

3. Use relevant action words
Make abundant use of relevant action words like mentor, advocate, mobilize, campaign, engage etc. Often, executives talk of leadership skills but fail to back their claim with the right words, thereby failing to elicit the expected response from their potential employers.

4. Point out unique leadership qualities
A leader requires a string of soft skills to succeed at their workplace. Excellent human management skills are imperative for a leader or a business on the whole. Your resume needs to specifically indicate which leadership qualities helped your company and how.

5. Mention measurable, quantitative results
To convince a potential employer with your leadership skills, you need to demonstrate quantitative results on your resume. Go for a measurement that is numerical. Tangible results always come in handier in helping people understand things.

6. List projects underlining your commitment
Enlist projects you worked on as a leader from conception to completion. A resume that highlights your skills in taking projects to their logical end is sure to leave an impression on your prospective employers.

7. Showcase your expertise through career history
Steady, long-term employment reflects your commitment to your work. Try to work in organizations for long and highlight this well in your resume. The time spent by employees in organizations is quite low these days (just a few months at times) and interviewers are sure to appreciate your inclination to work for a long time in a company.

8. Demonstrate your ability to give directions
Directing people is an essential aspect of any leadership role. Though the skill comes naturally, you need to hone it. As a leader, you should be able to efficiently guide your team toward attaining the desired objectives. You have to explain to your subordinates clearly what is expected of them. Leading a team is much more than telling people to do certain work by a certain date. The job involves planning, mentorship, and supporting and grooming people into becoming thorough professionals.

Summing Up
Before walking in for an interview, it is important that you do your research and have a broad idea about what matters to your prospective employer. You can then tweak your resume so that it suits their needs. To set the tone right away, you need to touch up on your leadership skills in the summary section at the start and then back it up with facts later on. It will help you gain brownie points.

Source- Virtual Employee