No matter whether you’re taking your first steps up the career ladder or you’re an experienced employee, there are certain traits that are essential to build your successful way. While your technical skills play a vital role in getting you the desired job, soft skills such as leadership qualities are something that hiring managers look for.
What are Leadership Qualities?
Leadership is more than just giving orders. It is about managing people to lead your organization successfully. These skills showcase an individual’s ability to interact in a team, communicate with others, and provide constructive feedback to the people working toward shared objective. Most importantly, candidates exhibiting good leadership qualities are more likely to accomplish tasks and work in coordination with team members than those who do not possess leadership qualities.
Why is it Important to Demonstrate Leadership Qualities on Your Resume?
Your resume is ideally the first thing you are judged by during job applications. Therefore, it is crucial for you to demonstrate what the hiring managers are looking for other than just your technical skills.
With other soft skills that make you stand out of the crowd, hiring managers scrutinize resumes for leadership qualities in candidates. They believe that who can lead people tend to stay in jobs longer, are loyal, have fewer absences, and have high levels of morale as they see themselves leading the company in the future. Whilst emphasizing on the importance of leadership qualities, candidates show potential employers that they have what it takes to help the company in achieving its long-term strategic goals.
It helps in building strong teams to ensure smooth and successful functioning of organizations. Leadership qualities are not merely confined to organizing people. It extends to having multiple interpersonal and communication skills. Good leaders are known to improve employee engagement and help in finding solutions during obstacles. Furthermore, working with good leaders inspire colleagues to apply similar traits in their work.
How Can You Demonstrate Leadership Qualities on Your Academic Job Resume?
Leadership qualities are one of the most sought-after competencies by hiring managers. Considering the pitfalls of ineffective leadership, organizations face difficulties such as improper communication among teams, missing of potential opportunities, and revenue fall.
Irrespective of the position you apply for, displaying your leadership attributes is important for all to instill belief in the employers. Candidates applying for an executive position often find it challenging to showcase their leadership qualities with relatively lesser prior management experience compared to others.
Candidates can include their leadership qualities in two sections of the resume; one is the skills section and other is the achievements section. The leadership attributes included in the skills section of the resume must be such that can be verified by your professional references. Meanwhile, the leadership qualities included in the achievements section can include awards or honors that reflect leadership.
Here, we will discuss how every candidate can utilize several effective leadership qualities and techniques to demonstrate on their resume and win that coveted interview invitation.
1. Tailor Your Resume to Fit the Job Description
It is difficult for organizations to sift through hundreds of resumes that they receive. Employers prefer looking for specifications they require listed on your resume. Therefore, while drafting resumes candidates must be sure to list the job’s actual title. Furthermore, you must mention major milestones achieved in your academic career that display your leadership qualities.
Job listings often mention the type of leadership skills that they look for. Therefore, incorporating skills that are sought by employers can get you noticed over others. Customizing your resume is far more effective than sending the same generic resume in response to different listings.
2. Mention Quantifiable Accomplishments
Another effective way to impress recruiters is by mentioning your achievements that include numeric figure or percentage of improvement. A definite figurative value can be more effective than a vague claim.
For example, explain that you managed 30 marketing staff for three years, expanding the clientele, and increasing organizational revenue by 35% displays your leadership qualities clearer than stating that you lead a marketing team for three years.
In certain situations, you may not be allowed to disclose particular figures from your current or previous roles. However, you can try to make your achievements quantifiable wherever possible. Additionally, you must list how many people achieved a promotion or increased their skillset under your management. Mentioning quantifiable results can be an influential factor for recruiters in making the decision.
3. Use Leadership Vocabulary
Employers generally use tools such as Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) that look for specific keywords to accept and reject applications. Keywords associated with leadership can be used to emphasize your ability to lead.
You must consider using the words such as campaign, advocate, engage, mobilize, mentor, empower, delegate, commitment, enable, lead, assemble, enlist, instill, encourage. stimulate, elect, guide, coach, etc. Use of these keywords can substantially present your leadership qualities. Along with these words, be sure to scour the job description and add any keywords from it to your resume.
4. Highlight Communication Skills
One of the key differences between good and bad leaders is their ability to communicate. Mention how well you work with other team members, liaise with executives that manage other departments, and report to superiors. Additionally, you must highlight examples of when you’ve displayed exceptional listening and verbal skills. Mention instances such as when you’ve presented at a seminar, organized meetings or team-building activities, or arranged social occasions, etc.
5. Commit to the Organization
Employers are looking for someone who can stick around with the organization and is not here for a short stint. Therefore, you must show your potential employer that you’re willing to invest in their organization for years to come. You can instill trust in your employers that you are a committed leader by sharing the list of projects you have led to completion. If you do not have an experience as a leader, you can showcase your steady, long-term employment or volunteer background.
Your resume is the first point of contact with any organization. Hence, resumes customized in a way that it highlights you as the most suitable candidate for the role. So how did you demonstrate your leadership qualities on your resume? What are the other ways that you can think of to emphasize leadership qualities on your resume? Let us know in the comments section below! You can also visit our Q&A forum for frequently asked questions related to different aspects of research writing and publishing answered by our team that comprises subject-matter experts, eminent researchers, and publication experts.
