How to develop leadership skills in your career

Leadership is a fundamental axis in professional and organizational development. The ability to guide teams, make strategic decisions, and foster innovation largely depends on leadership soft skills and specialized leadership training. In an increasingly competitive and digitalized business environment, these competencies become a decisive factor in achieving strategic objectives and ensuring organizational sustainability.

Therefore, understanding how to develop leadership skills is essential to drive individual growth and strengthen organizational resilience in the face of current challenges.

The importance of leadership in the current context

Leadership is no longer an exclusive quality of those holding executive positions; today it is recognized as a transversal competency that impacts all levels of organizations. UNESCO considers it one of the most influential factors in achieving educational and organizational outcomes, confirming its importance in training professionals capable of facing 21st-century challenges.

Rodríguez (2024) points out that social-emotional skills such as trust, empathy, and conflict resolution are determinants of leadership quality. These soft skills allow building authentic relationships, generating team cohesion, and promoting a positive organizational climate focused on growth.

De la Cruz et al. (2025) highlight that managerial training and the development of soft skills strengthen organizational culture, consolidating effective teams and improving internal cohesion in a way that facilitates organizations in achieving their goals. Their systematic review confirms that organizational leadership does not depend solely on experience, but on structured training programs that integrate theory and practice into daily activities.

Leadership soft skills you should develop

Effective leadership relies on a set of competencies that go beyond technical knowledge. The most relevant include:

• Assertive communication: Clarity in messaging and active listening build trust and reduce errors.
• Strategic decision-making: Evaluating risks and acting with conviction and judgment is essential in constantly changing environments.
• Conflict management: Resolving disagreements constructively prevents wasted time and strengthens team cohesion; the leader becomes a catalyst in environments requiring stakeholder negotiation.
• Innovation and creativity: Promoting new ideas and allowing experimentation enhances competitiveness. A leader open to new procedures and disruptive ideas inspires continuous improvement.
• Team motivation: Recognizing effort and providing positive feedback increases commitment and productivity. A leader who identifies the potential and challenges of collaborators can guide individual growth and create differentiation in the workplace.
• Critical thinking: Analyzing problems from different perspectives strengthens decision-making.
• Negotiation: Reaching mutually beneficial agreements fosters lasting relationships and common goals.
• Adaptability and resilience: The ability to adjust to technological and social changes is indispensable in the digital era.

Strategies to develop leadership soft skills

Leadership training is a structured process that combines theory and application; it should not be random or visionless. Recommended strategies include:

1. Participate in executive training programs: These spaces provide theoretical and practical tools to strengthen managerial and leadership competencies.
2. Practice communication in meetings and presentations: Constant exposure improves clarity and persuasion skills.
3. Request feedback from colleagues and supervisors: Constructive feedback identifies areas for improvement and consolidates strengths.
4. Simulate negotiation and conflict resolution scenarios: Practice in controlled environments prepares for real situations.
5. Incorporate critical reflection habits into daily routines: Evaluating past decisions and projecting future scenarios strengthens strategic thinking. Lessons learned to become analysis factors for improvement.
6. Encourage interdisciplinary collaboration: Working with diverse teams broadens perspective and enriches decision-making.
7. Define your growth path: Balance technical specialization with strategic people management, designing a hybrid profile capable of combining both dimensions.

Impact of leadership on organizational culture

Leadership is reflected both in team management and in building a solid organizational culture. De la Cruz et al. (2025) emphasize that communication, negotiation, and conflict management are pillars for consolidating effective teams and sustainable organizational cultures.

An organizational culture based on effective leadership is characterized by:

• Transparency in communication.
• Recognition of individual and collective achievements.
• Promotion of innovation as part of strategy.
• Inclusion and diversity as core values.

Transforming a work team into an effective ecosystem begins by prioritizing the development of leadership soft skills among its members. In this way, organizations ensure talent retention and the professional growth of their leaders.

Digital leadership: The influence of technology on global leadership

Digital transformation conditions contemporary leadership. Muñoz (2024), in his article “The Influence of Technology on Global Leadership: Amplifying Skills and Capabilities in a Digitalized Business Environment”, highlights that artificial intelligence and automation amplify leaders’ capabilities but also pose challenges related to skill adaptation and ethical management of technological changes.

Muñoz (2024) points out that:

• Artificial intelligence offers efficiency and precision, but raises challenges such as the replacement of skilled labor and job losses.
• Automation requires the development of new digital competencies.
• Leaders must integrate technological and socioemotional skills to manage hybrid and global teams.
• Emotional intelligence becomes an indispensable complement for leading in digitalized environments.
• Ethics in technology implementation is key to ensuring organizational sustainability.

The influence of technology on global leadership shows that the future of organizations will depend on leaders capable of balancing the efficiency of artificial intelligence with the humanity of emotional intelligence. True differentiation will not lie solely in mastering digital tools, but in the ability to lead with ethics, empathy, and strategic vision amid automation. In this scenario, leadership is redefined as a bridge between technological innovation and human values, becoming the engine that ensures organizational sustainability and relevance in an increasingly interconnected and digitalized world.

Difference between traditional leadership and digital leadership

Leadership has evolved significantly over the last decades, moving from traditional models centered on authority and experience toward digital approaches that integrate data, technology, and global team management. This transition reflects not only a change in available tools, but also in the competencies required to lead organizations in highly dynamic environments.

Contrasting traditional and digital leadership allows understanding how classic management practices coexist and transform in response to digital-era demands, providing a comprehensive view of the challenges and opportunities contemporary leaders face.

Aspect	Traditional Leadership	Digital Leadership
Communication	In-person, hierarchical	Virtual, collaborative
Decision-making	Experience-based	Data-driven, scenario analysis
Team management	Local, homogeneous	Global, diverse, multidisciplinary
Innovation	Gradual	Disruptive, agile with tech tools
Key competencies	Authority, experience, technical skills	Adaptability, digital skills, emotional intelligence

The comparison between traditional leadership and digital leadership reveals both substantial differences and possible points of convergence. In terms of their purpose, they seek to guide, inspire, and generate positive impacts, while they differ in the tools and skills they prioritize. Both aim to guide, inspire, and generate positive impact, while differing in prioritized tools and competencies. In many contexts, both approaches can be integrated complementarily, allowing leaders to adopt the best of each in building a personal style suited to organizational needs.

Conclusions

Developing leadership skills is not limited to holding executive positions; it is a necessity for any professional aspiring to make an impact. Academic evidence confirms that soft skills are at the core of effective leadership, while continuous practice, leadership training, and technological adaptation ensure consolidation and sustainability in the digital era.

The leadership of the future will be hybrid: combining the strength of socioemotional skills with the agility of digital competencies. Leaders who integrate these dimensions will be better prepared to face the challenges of automation, globalization, and organizational culture transformation.

References

1. De la Cruz Damian, J., Mantari Calderon, K., Barrionuevo Inca Roca, Y. A., & Ortiz Colca, G. C. (2025). Formación y desarrollo de habilidades gerenciales para fortalecer el liderazgo organizacional: una revisión sistemática. Impulso, Revista De Administración, 5(12), 87–103. https://doi.org/10.59659/impulso.v.5i12.171
2. Muñoz Garro, E. (2024). La influencia de la tecnología en el liderazgo global: amplificando habilidades y capacidades en un entorno empresarial digitalizado. E-Ciencias de la Información, 14(2). https://www.redalyc.org/journal/4768/476881715015/
3. Rodríguez (2024). Habilidades blandas en liderazgo directivo: Una revisión sistemática. Revista Iberoamericana para la Investigación y el Desarrollo Educativo. https://www.ride.org.mx/index.php/RIDE/article/view/2216/5310