5 Skills The Most Successful Leaders Possess

What to Look for in New Hires, Potential Leaders

We all have high hopes when we begin a new job or a new career. No one — neither the employer nor the new employee — wants to come up short.

Aside from gut feelings about an individual, and perhaps some assessment information about their behavior and motivators you may have gleaned by using an assessment like ours, there may not be a lot to go on to predict a successful hire.

I’ve experienced employees who, on their first day, seem like an incredible fit turn out to be the opposite. I’ve also witnessed individuals I’ve had doubts about turn into reliable experts in their role.

So, what can you gauge performance on?

Research we conducted just a few years ago illustrated there are five key skills superior performers have. I wrote about these skills in the Harvard Business Review. 

THESE FIVE KEY SKILLS INCLUDE:

• Persuasion
  
• Leadership
  
• Personal accountability
  
• Goal orientation 
  
• Interpersonal skills
  

While our study focused primarily on entrepreneurs, I wanted to reiterate the importance of this skill set. Using this set of skills as a rubric during hiring or staff development helps reveal those among your team that show an immediate and great potential for growth.

Watching carefully for them in behaviors will help you to quickly identify those employees who would benefit from careful coaching, mentoring or additional development training.

And, it will take you from hoping you have a great team to knowing you do.