If you had to pick one, what is the most important leadership skill in your business? What would it be? Communication? Organization? Delegation? Motivation? Flexibility? Creativity? Feedback?
Of course, you need to be able to communicate with your employees, customers, and vendors. Organization and delegation are crucial because you can’t do it all yourself. You have to motivate your team to do their part of the process or job. Flexibility and creativity help you meet changing conditions. Feedback enables you to refine your team’s performance and improve their results going forward.
Sure, these are all important skills for a leader to lead his/her business. And they all skirt around the most important skill. You must have sales skills (and not the sleazy kind.) You know the ability to sell is important to generate revenue, but it doesn’t stop there. Your ability to sell is the most important leadership skill. You need to be good at selling, so you can:
- Explain your value proposition to a wide variety of people
- Help employees understand the benefits of your vision or new procedure
- Convince buyers that your product/service is their optimal choice
- Persuade vendors to work with you on a delivery date
- Negotiate from mutual interest, rather than the individual position
- Learn to be persistent and handle rejection
Sales skills are communication skills. They are persuasion skills and negotiation skills. So, keep your own sales skills sharp and develop your peoples’ sales ability. The ability to sell is the most important leadership skill. You haven’t peaked yet!