Discover what leadership skills to improve first. Learn how to prioritise your development, assess your gaps, and focus on skills that will have the greatest impact.
Written by Laura Bouttell • Thu 17th September 2026
The leadership skills to improve first are those that address your most significant performance gaps, align with your current role demands, and will have the greatest impact on your effectiveness—typically communication, emotional intelligence, strategic thinking, or people development capabilities. Rather than attempting to develop everything simultaneously, strategic prioritisation produces better results.
Research from the Center for Creative Leadership indicates that leaders who focus their development efforts on a small number of high-impact areas outperform those who spread attention across many competencies. Gallup data further reveals that only 10% of people possess the natural talent to manage, suggesting that most leaders have substantial room for skill development—but the question is which skills deserve attention first.
This examination provides frameworks for identifying your priority development areas, assessing where gaps exist, and creating focused improvement plans that produce measurable results.
Identifying which leadership skills to improve requires honest self-assessment, external feedback, and alignment with role requirements. The intersection of these three perspectives reveals your highest-priority development areas.
| Lens | Question | Information Source |
|---|---|---|
| Self-perception | Where do I struggle? | Honest self-reflection |
| External feedback | What do others observe? | 360-degree feedback, reviews |
| Role requirements | What does success demand? | Job analysis, leader expectations |
Skills that appear problematic across all three lenses represent clear development priorities. Skills that only appear in one lens may be lower priorities or require investigation to understand the discrepancy.
Ask yourself honestly:
Sources of external perspective:
"Feedback is the breakfast of champions." — Ken Blanchard
Research on leadership development consistently identifies certain skills as common development needs across leaders at all levels.
Communication appears in virtually every study of leadership development needs. Despite its fundamental importance, most leaders have significant communication improvement opportunities.
Communication sub-skills to consider:
Signs you need communication improvement:
Emotional intelligence—the ability to recognise, understand, and manage emotions in yourself and others—predicts leadership effectiveness more reliably than cognitive intelligence in most leadership contexts.
Emotional intelligence components:
| Component | Description | Development Focus |
|---|---|---|
| Self-awareness | Recognising your emotions | Reflection, feedback-seeking |
| Self-regulation | Managing your reactions | Pause practices, trigger management |
| Motivation | Internal drive | Purpose connection, goal-setting |
| Empathy | Understanding others' emotions | Perspective-taking, listening |
| Social skill | Managing relationships | Communication, conflict navigation |
Signs you need emotional intelligence improvement:
Strategic thinking—the ability to see systems, patterns, and long-term implications—becomes increasingly important as leaders advance.
Strategic thinking sub-skills:
Signs you need strategic thinking improvement:
People development—the ability to grow others' capabilities—distinguishes leaders who multiply organisational capacity from those who merely maintain it.
People development components:
Signs you need people development improvement:
Delegation and empowerment skills enable leaders to multiply their impact through others rather than remaining bottlenecks.
Effective delegation involves:
Signs you need delegation improvement:
Most leaders identify multiple skills requiring improvement. Prioritisation ensures focus on highest-impact development.
| High Feasibility | Low Feasibility | |
|---|---|---|
| High Impact | Priority 1: Focus here | Priority 2: Plan for these |
| Low Impact | Priority 3: Efficient wins | Priority 4: Deprioritise |
Impact factors:
Feasibility factors:
Research on behaviour change suggests focusing on no more than three development priorities simultaneously. Beyond this number, attention diffuses and progress stalls across all areas.
Recommended approach:
Different skills develop through different methods. Matching development approach to skill type improves results.
| Skill Type | Primary Development Methods | Supporting Methods |
|---|---|---|
| Communication | Practice with feedback | Training, coaching |
| Emotional intelligence | Reflection, feedback | Assessment, coaching |
| Strategic thinking | Experience, exposure | Reading, mentoring |
| People development | Deliberate practice | Training, observation |
| Delegation | Guided practice | Coaching, frameworks |
Research on how leaders develop suggests:
Applying this model:
| Method | Time Investment | Cost | Impact |
|---|---|---|---|
| Self-directed learning | Flexible | Low | Moderate |
| Feedback-seeking | Low | Free | High |
| Peer learning groups | Moderate | Low | Moderate-High |
| Mentoring | Moderate | Free | High |
| External coaching | Moderate | High | Very High |
| Formal training | High | High | Variable |
| Stretch assignments | High | Free | Very High |
Effective development requires structured planning that moves beyond good intentions to specific actions.
For each priority skill, specify:
Skill: Listening effectiveness
Current state: I frequently interrupt and prepare responses whilst others are speaking. 360 feedback rates my listening at 3.2/5.
Target state: Others perceive me as an effective listener. 360 feedback improves to 4.0+.
Gap: Habits of interruption and response preparation. Insufficient patience.
Development activities: - Practice active listening techniques in every 1-1 meeting - Ask clarifying questions before offering opinions - Request real-time feedback from trusted colleagues - Complete listening skills workshop - Work with coach on underlying drivers
Timeline: 6 months intensive focus
Resources: Listening workshop (company L&D), executive coaching budget, peer feedback partners
Measurement: Re-administer 360 at 6 months, track self-observations weekly
Accountability: Coach check-ins monthly, peer feedback partner weekly
Accountability options:
"What gets measured gets managed." — Peter Drucker
Leadership skill development requires sustained effort over months or years, not days or weeks. Setting realistic expectations enables persistence through the inevitable difficulties.
| Skill Type | Initial Progress | Meaningful Change | Mastery |
|---|---|---|---|
| Technical skills | Weeks | Months | 1-2 years |
| Behavioural skills | Weeks-months | 6-12 months | 2-5 years |
| Cognitive skills | Months | 1-2 years | 3-5+ years |
| Character qualities | Months-years | Years | Ongoing |
Communication, emotional intelligence, and people development represent behavioural skills requiring sustained practice. Strategic thinking represents a cognitive skill requiring extensive experience.
Skill development rarely proceeds linearly. Expect:
Understanding this pattern helps maintain motivation through difficult periods.
Strategies for persistence:
Measuring development progress enables adjustment and maintains motivation.
Leading indicators (early signals):
Lagging indicators (outcome measures):
| Approach | What It Measures | When to Use |
|---|---|---|
| Self-assessment | Perceived capability | Regular check-ins |
| 360 feedback | Others' perceptions | Pre/post development |
| Behavioural tracking | Specific action frequency | Ongoing |
| Outcome metrics | Results achieved | Quarterly/annually |
| Milestone achievement | Development activity completion | Per milestone |
Improve the leadership skill that most significantly limits your current effectiveness whilst being feasible to develop. This typically means addressing a skill gap that's both impactful (you use it frequently and consequences matter) and developable (you have resources, motivation, and opportunity to improve). Communication skills often provide high-impact starting points because they affect everything else.
Improve leadership skills without formal training through deliberate practice in daily work, seeking feedback from colleagues, studying how effective leaders operate, finding a mentor for guidance, reading extensively on the topic, and creating structured development experiments. The majority of leadership development occurs through on-the-job experience rather than classroom training.
Introverts can develop excellent leadership skills, though the path may differ from extroverts. Leadership effectiveness doesn't require extroversion—research shows introverted leaders often produce better outcomes with proactive teams. Focus on developing your authentic leadership style rather than imitating extroverted approaches. Listening, thoughtful decision-making, and written communication are areas where introverts often have natural advantages.
Focus on improving no more than three leadership skills simultaneously, with one receiving primary attention. Research on behaviour change suggests that diffuse attention produces poor results across all areas. Depth of development on a few priorities outperforms shallow attention across many. Once you've made meaningful progress on initial priorities, you can shift focus to new areas.
If you're uncertain about what leadership skills to improve, seek external input through 360-degree feedback, honest conversation with your manager, or assessment from a coach or mentor. Self-perception alone often misses blind spots that others readily observe. Formal leadership assessments can also provide structured frameworks for identifying development priorities.
Improve leadership skills within your existing work by treating daily situations as practice opportunities rather than adding separate development activities. Apply new techniques in meetings you're already attending, practice feedback in conversations already scheduled, and seek reflection opportunities in experiences already occurring. Integrate development into work rather than adding it on top.
Work on a leadership skill until you've achieved sustainable behaviour change—typically 6-12 months of focused attention for most behavioural skills. Moving on prematurely often results in regression. Signs that you're ready to shift focus include consistent demonstration of the skill without conscious effort, positive feedback from others, and ability to coach others in the skill.
Deciding what leadership skills to improve requires honest assessment, strategic prioritisation, and sustained commitment to development. The leaders who develop most effectively don't try to improve everything—they identify highest-impact opportunities and pursue them with focus and persistence.
Start by conducting honest assessment across multiple perspectives. Prioritise based on impact and feasibility. Create specific development plans with accountability. Persist through plateaus and difficulties. Measure progress and adjust approaches as needed.
The investment in leadership skill development pays dividends throughout your career. The skills you build become assets that compound over time, creating greater capacity to contribute, influence, and lead. Choose your priorities wisely, develop them thoroughly, and watch your leadership effectiveness transform.