5 Ways to Show Leadership Skills on Your Resume

Today, companies know that soft skills are just as important as hard skills when it comes to improving the bottom line. And maybe the most important soft skill of all is leadership ability. However, leadership is something many people don’t know how to effectively market on their resume. So below, we show you five concrete ways to get across your leadership skills on your CV. 

1. Use specific leadership skills mentioned in the job listing.

Job listings often include the type of leadership required. If they do, then customize your resume for the position and mention those (if you have them). This technique is far more effective than sending the same generic resume in response to each different listing. 

2. Provide solid examples.

Anyone can say they have leadership skills, but few can prove it. Make sure to include on your resume specific examples of your leadership achievements to back up your abilities.

3. Use verbs related to soft skills.

One of the biggest mistakes made when writing resumes is avoiding the use of verbs. A quick way to remedy that is to use verbs associated with leadership skills. Verbs such as advocated, mentored, engaged, mobilized, campaigned, motivated, challenged, focused, championed, ignited, drove, influenced, spearheaded, steered, and empowered are great examples.

4. Use your leadership qualities to highlight other soft skills.

Being a leader in the workplace requires the use of multiple soft skills at once. Simply put, you can’t be a leader if you don’t know how to deal with people. Highlighting your leadership qualities on your resume can help you bring in other, very important and related soft skills into your resume.

5. Use measurable, quantitative results.

If you really want to impress a potential employer with your leadership, find quantitative results to quote on your resume that demonstrate your leadership in action.

A version of this post previously appeared on ChameleonResumes.com.