A leader who wants to develop his technical competence should

The prospect of advancing to the top of one's field is what makes it possible for many people to keep plugging away at their jobs, honing their skills, and taking on new projects. But after a certain point, career development depends on more than technical skills and a willingness to work hard. You also need a few soft skills, not the least of which is the ability to take on a leadership role.

Some people are natural leaders, but anyone can develop the skill set needed with some practice. If you want to take your career as far as possible, you have to be willing to put in the work. Here are nine strategies to help you develop your leadership skills and advance your career.  

Find out your ideal leadership style based on your personality here: Which of These Leadership Styles Is Right For You? (Decision Tree)

1. Practice discipline

A good leader needs discipline. Developing discipline in your professional (and personal) life is a must to be an effective leader and to inspire others to be disciplined as well. People will judge your capacity to lead by the amount of discipline you display at work. 

Demonstrate discipline at work by always meeting deadlines, keeping appointments, and ending meetings on time. If you are naturally disorganized, then you may have your work cut out for you, but you can always start small. Try implementing good habits at home, like waking up early and getting daily exercise, and work your way up from there. 

2. Take on more projects

A great way to develop your leadership skills is to take on more responsibility. You don't have to take on more than you can handle, but you do need to do more than simply what's covered in your job description if you want to grow. Stepping out of your comfort zone is the only way you will learn anything new, and doing so will get you noticed by executives as someone who takes initiative. 

3. Learn to follow

A true leader has no problem yielding control to another person when appropriate. You should not feel threatened when someone disagrees with you, questions your thinking, or puts forth their own ideas. Keep an open mind and give merit where merit is due. It won't always be easy, but if you learn to value and respect others on your team, they'll be more likely to step up to the plate for you. 

4. Develop situational awareness

A mark of a good leader is someone who can see the bigger picture and anticipate problems before they occur. This is a valuable skill to have when handling complex projects with tight deadlines. The ability to foresee and provide suggestions for avoiding potential problems is invaluable for a leader. This ability also helps you recognize opportunities that others overlook, which will certainly earn you recognition. This can be especially difficult to develop when leading remote teams but with practice, you can become more attuned to your teams and projects. 

5. Inspire others

Being a leader means you are part of a team, and as a leader, you should be able to motivate and inspire those you work with to collaborate as best they can. When a team member needs encouragement or guidance, offer it. Sometimes, all a person needs is someone to listen and be sympathetic. 

6. Keep learning

The best path to becoming a good leader is to be open to learning new things. It keeps your mind sharp and your skills fresh. It primes you for new challenges that may come your way, which is always a good thing for a leader.

7. Empower your teammates

No one is the best at everything, and the sooner you realize that the sooner you can learn to be a good leader. Delegating tasks to others not only frees you up for things you do well, but it also empowers other people on your team. 

8. Resolve conflicts

Don't be a manager from hell! Not everyone will get along all the time. Instead of ignoring interpersonal conflicts and hoping they will go away, address them by talking to those involved privately. Also, be open to reassigning team members if the conflict can't be resolved. 

9. Be a discerning listener

Becoming a leader doesn't mean you always have to be in the spotlight. An important trait of a good leader is someone who listens to suggestions, ideas, and feedback from other people and builds on them. Good listeners know that communication is not only about words, but picking up on non-verbal cues, such as eye contact and body language. 

Good leadership skills are essential to advancing your career, but as you can see, leadership is much more than simply being in charge. As American statesman John Quincy Adams said, "If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more, and become more, you are a leader."

How Wrike can help you hone your leadership skills

Being a good leader is hard enough without dealing with disorganized project management systems. Wrike's project management software gives you the tools you need to lead your team to greatness:

• Customizable request forms, so you can streamline your work intake and delegate tasks with ease
• Dashboards for 360-degree visibility into projects, tasks, and workloads
• Gantt charts to visualize deadlines and adjust schedules with a click 
• Dynamic reports with all the data you need to make key decisions

Get started today with a free two-week trial of Wrike and watch your leadership skills blossom.

AUTHOR BIO: Stacey Marone is a social sciences graduate and freelance writer for Essay Scholar Advisor who also volunteers with children. She enjoys exploring new cultures and languages, and loves painting, reading, and singing. You can follow her on Twitter.

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Do you know what your team needs to grow?

Your team is amazing. It works at the highest level of efficiency and reacts responsively at lightning speed in every situation. At times where additional effort is required, your team members step in and out of one another's roles deftly and at a moment's notice… right?

If this is not an accurate description of your team right now, you'll be encouraged to know that it could be very soon.

Developing your team is an important part of your job, whether you're a new team leader or an experienced manager. And it doesn't apply only to new hires. People need training and support throughout their careers – both as individuals and as teams – to develop their skills and to continue to work effectively.

If you work in a small or medium-sized organization, you may perform the roles of recruiter, trainer and team leader. The resources in this article can help you to perform to the best of your ability in each of these roles. If you work within a large organization, the Human Resources or Learning and Development department will likely provide development opportunities for your team.

As a manager, however, you are in a great position to know how your people work, to identify what training they need to perform better, and to work closely with HR or L&D to deliver the right training to the right people at the right time.

In this article, we'll look at several areas of team development, and explore some practical tips and tools to help you get the best out of your people and achieve your objectives.

Identifying Training Needs

The hardest part of developing your team can be knowing where to begin. Start by understanding your team members' developmental needs. Review and update their job descriptions, talk to them, and watch them working.

Often, just asking the right questions can reveal knowledge and skill gaps in your team. For example, what is the key part of a person's role? And what is your team's most urgent performance issue?

This is particularly helpful if your workplace doesn't have a culture of performance management – that is a system of regularly appraising and improving people's performance. If your team members are not used to having their performance appraised and developed in this way, they may view it as a negative judgment of their competency. Gathering specific information about what they need to be successful in their roles will help them to feel positive about developing themselves.

You can use a Training Needs Assessment to help you to identify who needs to develop their skills, and what kind of training is right for them. This will allow you to select training in a targeted way for the people who really need it. After all, Excel® training for one team member who is having trouble with spreadsheets may be a waste of time for other team members with different needs.

It can be helpful to appraise yourself in this way too. You may identify areas where you can improve that will, in turn, help your team to grow.

Choosing the Right Training Methods

Now that you've identified areas where your people can improve, you can choose training to suit their needs. However, finding the right balance between different ways of learning that will suit everyone can be a challenge.

The 70:20:10 model, for example, suggests that 70 percent of learning happens through experience, such as daily tasks; 20 percent through conversations with other people, such as coaching; and 10 percent through traditional training courses. Here, you need to give people the opportunity to use the skills they need to develop, discuss them with more experienced practitioners, and then train appropriately.