5 Skills All Leaders Should Have [INFOGRAPHIC]

When it comes to leadership skills in the financial sector, some key attributes can pay dividends from a human and economic perspective. Leading people with certain strategies and specific goals can lead to success for your clients, employees, and the institution. Let’s take a closer look at the five most important leadership skills that executives in the banking sector can leverage.

Technical Leadership Skills

Technical skills for a leader include an understanding of how the industry works.  More importantly, a leader should have the ability and desire to share this knowledge with employees on how to work within the sector’s parameters for the client’s benefit.

Diagnostic Leadership Skills

The ability to see and identify an issue is critical in any role.  This is especially important when it comes to finding solutions for your client’s financial needs.  It is critical to understand the available options and how they can solve your employee’s client’s issues.  Furthermore, communicating these solutions will bring success to your frontline staff and, most importantly, your institution’s clientele.

Human Leadership Skills

At the end of any day, any leader is working, collaborating, and spending their time with other humans.  As a leader, knowing how to work and interact with people on a personal level is invaluable.  Encouraging relationships, stoking communication, and empathizing with issues outside of the context of work is essential in creating an inviting and inspiring environment.

Analytical Leadership Skills

The financial sector is rife with data and information. The ability to understand, decipher, and communicate this data is critical in order to do your due diligence, and your due diligence is crucial to your clients. These skills also need to be shared with your employees.

Conceptual Skills

Conceptual skills are a combination of the aforementioned talents. Utilizing all of these abilities in a strategic way can make your institution and employees successful.  Furthermore, organizing these abilities and implementing plans for your team will create great potential for your bank’s clients.

During the most recent session of the Graduate School of Banking at LSU, Stephen Robichaux covered these critical leadership skills and more for the Junior students in his class, “Leading Through Motivation.”