Article

Top 10 In-Demand Leadership Skills for 2025

December 14, 2024

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Emily May

Are you prepared for the changes and surprises 2025 will bring? With inevitable pivots and opportunities on the horizon, this year requires a dynamic set of leadership skills.

This article explores the top ten in-demand leadership skills to develop in 2025 so that you can lead your team to success. 

10 In-Demand Leadership Skills for 2025

1. Coaching Skills

Coaching skills are an asset for all leaders. The coaching skill set helps leaders encourage growth for their team members through presence, powerful questioning, and active listening. These impactful interactions lead to improved team trust, performance, and development. 

Example: Leaders can leverage their coaching skills to help team members brainstorm short-term and long-term career goals and identify opportunities to work toward them.

How to improve your coaching skills: Learn foundational coaching techniques through our Coaching Essentials Micro-Credential. If you’re new to coaching, this course is affordable and provides practical guidance for impactful conversations with team members.

2. Adaptive Skills

person leading with a document showing an up arrow

Leaders must be willing to adapt their strategies and tactics to succeed in today’s ever-evolving business landscape. Through continuous learning and monitoring, leaders can identify opportunities to respond to change and improve their work culture, performance, and success. 

Example: Amazon leaders saw an opportunity to pivot their product from an online bookstore to a marketplace. This adaptation ultimately defined their business as one of the most successful in the world. 

How to improve your adaptive skills: Adaptability is vital in 2025. Begin honing your agile mindset and skills with the Agile Fundamentals certification course. You’ll learn to adapt your processes and products for stronger organizational agility.

3. Inclusive Decision-Making Skills

Professionals in positions of influence have an opportunity to amplify diverse voices when making decisions. Leaders can gather fresh perspectives from stakeholders of all levels and backgrounds. In addition to boosting innovation, celebrating diversity also contributes to creating a healthy work environment. 

Example: All ICAgile team members are invited to weigh in on strategic decisions. The collective brainstorming process provides a sense of inclusion for all roles on the team and ensures we don’t overlook exciting opportunities. 

How to improve your inclusive decision-making skills: According to a LinkedIn article by Untapped Leaders, you can improve your inclusive leadership skills with awareness and reflection. What did previous team decisions look like, and how can you make your next one more inclusive?

4. Digital Literacy Skills

Digital literacy is essential for today's leaders. Generative AI has drastically changed our digital landscape. There are unlimited programs and automation tools that streamline processes and data retrieval. Remember, a key aspect of digital literacy is exercising careful ethical judgment when assessing digital opportunities. 

Example: Identifying automation opportunities across functions opens up time for more valuable work to get done–leading to more product updates and stakeholder satisfaction.

How to improve your digital literacy skills: Take our Foundations of AI certification course. You’ll learn about the history of AI, how it works, and how to navigate associated ethical challenges. With this foundation, we’ll teach you how to write better prompts and implement AI where and when it matters.

5. Emotional Intelligence Skills

An emotionally intelligent leader understands how to read others’ emotions and respond appropriately. This skill set helps leaders create and maintain healthy relationships with internal and external stakeholders. Further, emotional intelligence supports effective communication, conflict resolution, and decision-making.

Example: An empathetic communication style is excellent for mediating conflict so that each party involved feels seen and emotions don’t escalate.

How to improve your emotional intelligence skills: The Harvard Business School encourages leaders to focus on self-awareness. Taking the time to understand your own emotional strengths and limitations can help you identify these in others.

6. Self-Management Skills

person in a cross-legged pose focused on time and puzzle pieces and calendar

When we think of the word ‘leader,’ team management comes to mind. However, leaders must also manage themselves to create a positive work atmosphere. A leader’s capacity for self-awareness, regulation, and discipline sets the tone for the rest of the team. Self-management skills are also crucial for maintaining resilience when navigating change. 

Example: Self-management can look like investing time in self-development and learning. Modeling continuous growth encourages the same behavior in team members. 

How to improve your self-management skills: BetterUp suggests beginning your self-management journey by clarifying your role responsibilities. “Those with role clarity know what our responsibilities are, who our work matters to, and how we are measured.”

7. Team-Building Skills

Leaders are people-centric by nature. However, it’s not just about working well with others but having a passion for developing and connecting people. Team unity enhances engagement, innovation, and collaboration. Relationship-building can also prevent workplace conflict by improving communication between team members.

Example: Identifying opportunities for small groups to collaborate on ongoing projects can spur deeper connections and creative ideas. 

How to improve your team-building skills: Indeed outlines eight team-building skills you can work on to improve collaboration and connection in your team: 

  1. Delegation
  2. Motivation
  3. Teamwork
  4. Leadership
  5. Problem-solving
  6. Communication
  7. Reliability
  8. Empathy

8. Strategic Thinking Skills

person thinking with a cloud a gears and a lightbulb

Leaders are often responsible for developing their team's vision, goals, and strategies. Strategic thinking requires the consideration of various factors to ensure a well-rounded decision with a high probability of success. Strategic thinking also comes into play for creative problem-solving and identifying lucrative opportunities. 

Example: The COVID-19 pandemic challenged how many industries did business. Companies had to think strategically to survive, such as restaurants expanding their operations outdoors to continue serving customers. 

How to improve your strategic thinking skills: Consider leveraging the 6-step strategic process outlined in Pam Didner’s LinkedIn article:

  1. Articulate your goals clearly
  2. Research and identify options to reach those goals
  3. Analyze the options and risks objectively
  4. Decide on a course of action based on your research and analysis
  5. Create an implementation plan
  6. Adapt and adjust along the way

9. Data Literacy Skills

Data is crucial to identifying patterns, measuring team performance, identifying risks, and making informed decisions. Today, you don’t have to be good at math to analyze data–automation tools often do the heavy lifting for you. Metrics are the evidence that backs up your decisions and helps your stakeholders understand the ‘why.’

Example: Marketing leaders will analyze performance data to decide which tactics are worth investing time, effort, and budget in and which aren’t.

How to improve your data literacy skills: In an article by MIT Sloan, one recommendation is to gain hands-on experience working with data, such as proactively joining data-centric projects. 

10. Motivational Skills

people leading a meeting in front of their team

Motivational skills help leaders inspire purpose and innovation in their teams. Motivational techniques can include creative brainstorming sessions, growth plans, performance goals, and employee recognition, to name a few. These strategies help engage team members to feel valued and contribute creatively.

Example: A leader holds a meeting to share the big-picture vision of the new calendar year and how the team’s new priorities fit in with those goals. 

How to improve your motivational skills: Your team is your most insightful resource. Forbes lists fifteen questions leaders can ask their teams to understand what motivates them. 

Conclusion

From coaching to motivational skills, this list prepares you to improve your leadership performance in 2025 and drive results. Progress takes time–and hands-on experience. Set realistic expectations for yourself and lean on other leaders in your network for guidance.

The Leading with Agility certification course is a well-rounded class that teaches students how to succeed in today’s leadership landscape. You’ll learn to lead change and develop self-awareness, self-management, and emotional intelligence. Additionally, you’ll gain an understanding of leadership styles that increase agility. 

Download the Leading with Agility Learning Outcomes to learn more. 

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TAGGED AS:
Leading Change, Agility in Leadership, Leading with Agility

About the author

Emily May | ICAgile, Marketing Specialist
Emily May is a Marketing Specialist at ICAgile, where she helps educate learners on their agile journey through content. With an eclectic background in communications supporting small business marketing efforts, she hopes to inspire readers to initiate more empathy, productivity, and creativity in the workplace for improved internal and external outcomes.

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