5 Ways to Demonstrate Your Leadership Skills on Your Resume

How do you demonstrate your leadership attributes when looking for a job? This has been a challenge to many professional seeking leadership roles. Jane has been a team leader and I would call her style of leading, a transformational leadership.

For the past one year, she has been applying for leadership roles without success. She emailed me to find out what she could be doing wrong despite having relevant skills and experience.

I knew there was a problem with how she had positioned herself for management roles through her resume. When I scanned through her application documents, there was no section that indicated her leadership skills in her previous roles because her CV was not updated and that was the reason why she was not shortlisted.

One of the most important soft skills that employers look for when hiring is leadership but many people don’t know how to demonstrate that on a resume.

Here are 5 ways to show that you are a leader through you curriculum vitae.

1. Mention the Specific Leadership Skills Used In the JD

Employers give the detailed information of the skills they need for an ideal candidate through the job description.

Go through the job listing and identify the keywords used the highlighted requirements and modify to have a professional CV.

The leadership skills that employers consider valuable and you possess them; ensure they are reflected on your CV so that if the system is used to search for specific phrases, you will be sure to be shortlisted.

2. Give Solid Examples

Many professional can claim to have been in leadership positions but few can prove the same. Back up you claims with relevant examples for you to stand out in a competitive world.

Think about the situations you shown your leadership to show how that prepared you for future leadership roles.

Give specific examples for instance, “Led a team of 20 team members to implement the strategies that improved the company’s bottom line.”

3. Use Related Power Words On The Experience Section

When describing the responsibilities, make use of the power words to demonstrate your strengths.

The use of action verbs in a CV makes it stand out and make the employers get better understanding of your value.

Verbs that are associated with leadership skill include managed, led, mentored, influenced, spearheaded, empowered, and steered.

4. Use Quantitative Results

To impress the employer, it is important to show your achievements because it gives an overview of strengths and unique selling points.

Not only should you show what you achieved but you need to quantify them using figures and, percentages.

Quantifying the results makes your resume more credibility, provides and proves that you are results-oriented.

For example “Reduced the employees’ absence by 40% by introducing an employee satisfaction programme”.

5. Use the Education Section

At CSS, we ensure that professionals are equipped with relevant leadership and management skills through the short courses we offer. We also provide an accredited certificate for credibility purposes.

When you get certificate, it is important to update your resume for example on other courses section, include the institution where you were trained, the year and specific training to show the employers that you’re committed to professional growth.

Bottom Line

Resume is the first contact with the employer and therefore it is important to optimize it to show your ability to lead and inspire others in productive way.

Develop and demonstrate versatile leadership skills on your curriculum vitae for employers to notice you.