Discover the critical leadership skills and values that drive business success. Learn proven strategies to develop integrity, strategic thinking, and influence in your executive role.
Written by Laura Bouttell • Mon 29th September 2025
Leadership skills and values are the foundational competencies and guiding principles that enable leaders to inspire teams, drive organisational success, and create lasting impact. Whilst skills represent the technical abilities leaders deploy—such as strategic thinking, communication, and decision-making—values embody the ethical compass that guides how those skills are applied. Together, they form the bedrock of effective leadership in today's complex business environment.
The distinction matters more than most executives realise. Companies with effective leadership are 13 times more likely to outperform their competition, yet 77% of organisations report experiencing leadership gaps. The chasm between ordinary management and transformational leadership isn't merely technical prowess—it's the synthesis of capability and character, competence and conscience.
Consider this: you wouldn't trust a surgeon who possessed brilliant technical skill but lacked the ethical foundation to use it wisely. Leadership operates on precisely the same principle. The executives who ascend to lasting influence master both the how and the why of leadership—the skills that enable action and the values that ensure those actions serve a greater good.
Leadership skills are the learned competencies that enable individuals to guide teams, make strategic decisions, and drive organisational outcomes. Valuable leadership skills include the ability to delegate, inspire, and communicate effectively, alongside traits such as confidence, commitment, and creativity.
These capabilities span three critical dimensions:
Cognitive Skills encompass strategic thinking, problem-solving, and analytical reasoning. Leaders must process complex information, identify patterns others miss, and anticipate challenges before they materialise. Cognitive skills are crucial whether you are new to a role, at a mid-level position, or a seasoned senior leader.
Social Skills involve communication, emotional intelligence, and relationship building. The capacity to influence without authority, navigate conflict constructively, and inspire genuine commitment separates competent managers from exceptional leaders.
Technical Skills include industry-specific knowledge, operational expertise, and the ability to execute strategic initiatives. Whilst context-dependent, these skills provide the credibility and confidence required to make informed decisions.
The most accomplished leaders don't simply possess these skills—they orchestrate them with precision, adapting their approach to the situation at hand much as a conductor shapes the performance of an orchestra.
Leadership values are the core beliefs and principles that guide leaders in their personal and professional lives and allow them to oversee, lead, and manage others effectively. They represent the moral architecture upon which all leadership decisions rest.
Unlike skills, which can be developed through training and practice, values reflect deeper convictions about what constitutes right action. Leadership occurs within the context of core values—leaders guide and facilitate others to make a positive difference in their own lives and to contribute to a larger good.
Values function as a leader's internal compass, particularly vital when navigating ambiguous situations where no clear precedent exists. When faced with competing priorities or ethical dilemmas, values provide the framework for consistent, principled decision-making that builds trust over time.
Research demonstrates the tangible impact of values-driven leadership. 83% of employees believe that a strong sense of purpose and values in leadership positively impacts their work, whilst employees are 115% more engaged when their organisation has a well-defined set of values.
The relationship between skills and values isn't merely complementary—it's synergistic. Skills without values create technically proficient leaders who lack the ethical foundation to wield their influence wisely. Values without skills produce well-intentioned leaders who cannot translate their principles into tangible outcomes.
Values inform the application of leadership qualities as the competencies of leadership are activated—learned, developed, and practised—within the set of core values. Think of skills as the tools in a leader's repertoire and values as the wisdom guiding which tool to use, when, and for what purpose.
Consider a leader facing redundancies during economic turbulence. Communication skills enable them to convey difficult news clearly. Strategic thinking helps them identify which roles to eliminate. Yet integrity and empathy—core values—determine how they conduct those conversations, support affected employees, and maintain trust amongst remaining staff.
The best leaders are skilled communicators who can communicate in various ways, both orally and in writing, with a wide range of people from different backgrounds, roles, levels, and geographies. Communication isn't merely about transmitting information—it's about creating shared understanding, inspiring commitment, and fostering psychological safety.
Effective leaders master multiple communication channels:
The most accomplished communicators tailor their approach to their audience, recognising that executives in the boardroom require different framing than frontline employees implementing the strategy.
Strategic thinking involves scanning the environment for emerging trends, synthesising disparate information, and making decisions that position the organisation for long-term success. Leaders thoughtfully align decisions with their broader vision and goals, seeking diverse opinions and carefully weighing pros and cons before choosing a course of action with conviction.
This competency manifests in several ways:
Strategic thinkers resist the temptation to become buried in operational minutiae, maintaining altitude whilst remaining connected to ground-level realities. They possess what the military calls "fingertip feel"—the ability to sense when something demands deeper attention.
85% of business success is attributed to soft skills like communication, adaptability, and emotional intelligence. The capacity to recognise and regulate one's own emotions whilst understanding and influencing the emotions of others represents a competitive advantage in modern leadership.
Empathy allows leaders to build far stronger teams by understanding each person's motivations, matching people's strengths and skills to roles where they can make the most impact, and sustaining positive and productive relationships.
Emotional intelligence encompasses:
Leaders high in emotional intelligence create environments where people feel psychologically safe to take risks, share dissenting opinions, and bring their full selves to work—conditions essential for innovation and high performance.
In a study conducted by Development Dimensions International, one of the most important leadership qualities was the ability to facilitate change—adaptability remains one of the most important leadership skills. The velocity of change in contemporary business demands leaders who can pivot quickly whilst maintaining strategic coherence.
Adaptive leaders excel at:
The British explorer Ernest Shackleton exemplified adaptive leadership during his ill-fated Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition. When his ship Endurance became trapped in pack ice, Shackleton pivoted seamlessly from expedition leader to survival strategist, adapting his mission whilst never losing sight of his ultimate responsibility: bringing every crew member home alive. Modern leaders face their own pack ice in the form of market disruption, technological change, and geopolitical uncertainty.
Effective delegation involves assigning tasks based on team members' strengths and trusting them to complete the work, empowering team members and allowing them to develop skills whilst freeing the leader to focus on strategic aspects.
Delegation represents both a practical necessity and a powerful development tool. Leaders who fail to delegate become organisational bottlenecks, creating learned helplessness in their teams. Those who delegate effectively multiply their impact exponentially.
Masterful delegation requires:
The paradox of delegation is that leaders gain control by relinquishing it—the more they empower others, the greater their collective capacity becomes.
Leaders who embody integrity are recognised by their commitment to doing what's right regardless of challenges, building trust through transparency that is essential for effective teamwork. Integrity represents the congruence between stated values and actual behaviour.
Leaders demonstrate integrity by:
The people who work for us notice if we only exhibit our values when times are good—by knowing your leadership values and having them guide your actions, you lead with integrity no matter what your company faces.
Integrity builds what Warren Buffett calls "trust capital"—an asset that compounds slowly but compounds reliably. Once lost, it's extraordinarily difficult to rebuild.
Humility is centred around recognising one's limitations and being open to feedback—it's about focusing more on others and being approachable, adaptable, and committed to continuous learning. Far from weakness, humility represents secure self-awareness.
Leaders must constantly be learning, and to be in that receptive state of mind requires humility—opportunities to build wisdom can easily be lost if you are not willing to recognise and process mistakes.
Humble leaders:
The scientific method itself rests on intellectual humility—the willingness to abandon cherished theories when evidence contradicts them. Leadership demands the same discipline.
Courage is essential for facing risks, making tough decisions, and upholding what's right even in challenging situations, driving innovation, trust, ethical behaviour, and effective change management.
Leadership courage manifests in multiple forms:
Churchill's resolution during Britain's darkest hour exemplifies leadership courage. Facing seemingly insurmountable odds, he rallied a nation not through false optimism but through unflinching acknowledgement of reality coupled with unshakeable determination. "We shall never surrender" wasn't bravado—it was a values-driven commitment that shaped history.
Accountability means taking ownership of both successes and failures, creating a culture where everyone understands expectations and feels personally responsible for outcomes. Gallup data show that 80% of employees who say they have received meaningful feedback in the past week are fully engaged.
Accountable leaders:
The challenge lies in balancing accountability with psychological safety—creating environments where people own their results without fearing honest mistakes that come with innovation.
At the heart of leadership is a commitment to serve a greater good—the best leaders are driven by a purpose that transcends personal gain, striving to make a positive impact. Servant leadership inverts traditional hierarchies, positioning the leader as enabler rather than overlord.
Service-oriented leaders ask:
Robert Greenleaf's concept of servant leadership challenges the notion that leadership requires domination. The most enduring influence comes not from positional authority but from genuine investment in others' growth and success.
Respect involves recognising and valuing the inherent worth of every team member irrespective of their position or background—respectful leaders create inclusive workplaces where diverse perspectives and contributions are acknowledged.
Respectful leadership requires:
Respect enhances employee engagement, as respected employees are more motivated and perform better, cultivating a positive workplace culture where everyone feels valued.
| Dimension | Leadership Skills | Leadership Values |
|---|---|---|
| Nature | Technical competencies and learned behaviours | Guiding principles and ethical convictions |
| Development | Acquired through training, practice, and experience | Shaped by personal reflection, culture, and moral philosophy |
| Application | What leaders do and how they do it | Why leaders act and what principles guide action |
| Measurability | Objectively assessed through performance outcomes | Demonstrated through consistent behaviour patterns |
| Flexibility | Context-dependent and situation-specific | Relatively stable across contexts |
| Examples | Strategic thinking, communication, delegation | Integrity, humility, courage, accountability |
When we calculate the average relationship of leadership traits, skills, and styles with effectiveness, styles are at the forefront of influence whilst traits and skills show smaller effects. This suggests that how leaders synthesise skills and values into a coherent leadership approach matters more than either dimension alone.
Good leaders are moulded through experience, continued study, intentional effort, and adaptation—you can strengthen any of these characteristics if you're open to growth and use your experiences to fuel development.
Development requires moving beyond your comfort zone. Volunteer for stretch assignments that demand capabilities you haven't yet mastered. Lead cross-functional initiatives that expose you to different organisational perspectives. Take on challenges where failure remains possible—it's in the crucible of difficulty that skills crystallise.
The global leadership development market is valued at £366 billion globally, with 88% of companies planning to upgrade their leadership programmes. Organisations recognise that leadership capability drives competitive advantage.
Consider:
Self-awareness is the ability to understand one's strengths, weaknesses, and the impact of one's actions on others—self-aware leaders make informed decisions, leverage strengths, and address areas needing improvement.
Establish regular reflection practices:
The unexamined leadership is not worth practising. Self-awareness transforms experience into wisdom.
Seek out leaders in your workplace who are willing to serve as mentors—ask them what you need to know to be an effective leader and be teachable when they show you areas where you can improve.
Effective mentorship relationships provide:
Study leaders you admire, both historical and contemporary. What skills do they deploy masterfully? What values guide their decisions? How do they synthesise capability and character?
Leaders who prioritise continuous learning create work environments where new ideas are valued, keeping skills sharp and organisations competitive.
Structure your development with:
88% of organisations believe that leadership has a significant impact on business results. Leadership capability isn't a "soft" concern—it directly influences financial performance, market position, and organisational resilience.
More than half (54%) of organisations offering leadership development programmes at all levels report being in the top 10% of their industry's financial performance, dropping to 40% when effective programmes are offered for just two levels of leaders.
Managers account for at least 70% of discrepancies in employee engagement scores across all business levels. The quality of leadership represents the single greatest predictor of whether employees bring discretionary effort, recommend their organisation as an employer, and remain committed during challenging periods.
92% of employees say they're more likely to stay at a company with empathetic leadership, whilst 79% of employees want to quit their jobs because of lack of appreciation from leaders. The implications for talent retention, productivity, and organisational capability are profound.
Companies with effective leadership are 13 times more likely to outperform their competition. In an era where products commoditise quickly and technology advantages prove temporary, organisational capability—rooted in leadership excellence—provides sustainable differentiation.
Competitors can reverse-engineer your products. They can poach your employees. They struggle to replicate your culture, values, and leadership depth. These intangible assets compound over time, creating widening performance gaps.
Only 46% of employees trust their manager to do what's right, and that number drops to 32% for senior leaders. This trust deficit represents an enormous drag on organisational performance—employees hedging, withholding information, and engaging in political behaviour rather than focusing energy on value creation.
Leaders who demonstrate consistent skills and unwavering values rebuild trust systematically. Trust enables speed—teams move faster when they don't need to verify, validate, and protect themselves from leadership caprice.
Modern business environments present unprecedented complexity. 70% of L&D professionals and functional leaders say it's important or very important for leaders to master a wider range of effective leadership behaviours to meet current and future business needs.
Leaders face:
Success demands cognitive flexibility—the capacity to hold multiple perspectives simultaneously whilst maintaining strategic clarity.
Developing the next generation of leaders is the top challenge for 55% of CEOs, yet only 19% of organisations believe that their leaders are good at developing leadership skills in others.
The tyranny of the urgent—quarterly targets, operational fires, stakeholder demands—crowds out the important but less immediate work of developing future leaders. Yet organisations that fail to build leadership bench strength face succession crises and capability gaps that constrain growth.
About 61% of leaders reported tiredness by the end of each day, indicating burnout, with 44% of those leaders who felt worn out planning to move to other companies. The always-on nature of modern leadership extracts a toll that few organisations acknowledge adequately.
Leaders require the same care they extend to their teams—adequate recovery, clear boundaries, and permission to prioritise wellbeing without career penalty. Sustainable high performance requires rhythms of exertion and recovery, not relentless intensity.
Vision without execution creates organisational cynicism. 75% of leadership development professionals estimate that less than half of what they train gets applied on the job. The challenge isn't merely developing skills—it's creating conditions where those skills translate into changed behaviour and tangible outcomes.
This requires:
People don't spend much time thinking about what they stand for unless they face a crisis—by which point they are unprepared to properly evaluate possible trade-offs amongst competing values.
Examine critical decisions you've made:
Successful leaders set aside dedicated time for introspection, cultivating curiosity about what truly brings them fulfilment.
Medical organisations rarely declare their values, which can leave their members unclear about what the organisation stands for. The same proves true for individual leaders—unexpressed values remain abstract and fail to guide behaviour during pressure.
Draft explicit statements:
Specificity matters. "Integrity" means different things to different people. Define what each value means to you and how it manifests in behaviour.
Taking stock of how your stated values align to how you invest your time, energy, and money can help clarify how effectively you are living your values.
Conduct an audit:
Gaps between espoused and enacted values reveal developmental opportunities. The goal isn't perfection but honest self-assessment and continuous improvement.
Values are not always static—some evolve over time as individuals and organisations experience different conditions and circumstances.
Your values at 25 may differ from those at 55. Career transitions, personal experiences, and evolving understanding all shape what principles guide you. Revisit your values annually, asking whether they still resonate and serve you well.
Organisations must align all internal processes with their values—from recruitment to induction, to reward and recognition, to regular tracking of culture and credibility. Leadership development cannot remain an isolated training event—it must permeate organisational systems.
This requires:
Alignment acts exponentially, not arithmetically, so these organisations devote much time to its pursuit.
99% of alumni from strong leadership programmes report growth in key competencies, yet only 5% of companies have a well-established leadership development plan that covers all levels of the organisation.
Effective development architectures combine:
The most sophisticated organisations recognise that 70% of development occurs through challenging experiences, 20% through relationships, and only 10% through formal training—they design accordingly.
Only 10% of CEOs believe their company's leadership development efforts have a clear business impact. Without rigorous measurement, organisations cannot improve systematically.
Track leading and lagging indicators:
What gets measured gets managed. Organisations serious about leadership capability make it as visible and accountable as financial performance.
Leadership skills are the technical competencies that enable leaders to execute their roles effectively—such as strategic thinking, communication, and decision-making. Leadership values are the guiding principles and ethical convictions that determine how leaders apply those skills—such as integrity, courage, and humility. Skills represent capability; values represent character. Both are essential for effective leadership, as skills without values create technically proficient but ethically rudderless leaders, whilst values without skills produce well-intentioned leaders who cannot translate principles into results.
Leadership development is a continuous journey rather than a destination with a fixed timeline. Good leaders are moulded through experience, continued study, intentional effort, and adaptation. Research suggests that foundational leadership competencies typically require 18-24 months of deliberate practice to reach proficiency, whilst mastery of advanced capabilities can take years of sustained development. However, AI-powered training improves skill acquisition by up to 20% over traditional methods, suggesting that modern approaches can accelerate development. The key is consistent, intentional practice combined with reflection and feedback.
Whilst personal experiences and upbringing shape initial value systems, leadership values can absolutely be developed through conscious reflection and practice. You can foster and develop leadership values with time, and by embracing the notion that you can develop leadership qualities, you can also choose leadership values to develop. The process requires honest self-assessment, identifying value gaps, and deliberately practising behaviours that align with desired values until they become authentic expressions rather than forced performances. Values become internalised through consistent application, particularly during challenging situations that test commitment.
Every organisation rated integrity and ethics as their top leadership qualities, making integrity foundational for executive leadership. Beyond integrity, research highlights accountability, courage, humility, and service orientation as critical. 77% want more empathy in the workplace, suggesting emotional intelligence and compassion represent increasingly valued executive capabilities. However, the most important values ultimately depend on organisational context, industry demands, and strategic priorities. Values-driven leaders identify which principles matter most for their specific situation rather than adopting generic lists.
Managers account for at least 70% of discrepancies in employee engagement scores across all business levels. Effective leadership skills—particularly communication, emotional intelligence, and the ability to recognise and develop talent—directly correlate with higher engagement. Business units with highly engaged employees demonstrate 41% fewer quality defects, 37% less absenteeism, and a 21% increase in productivity. Leaders who master core competencies create psychological safety, provide clear direction, and demonstrate genuine investment in employee development—conditions essential for engagement.
The values you display as a leader will permeate your entire organisation and affect its performance—leaders who adhere to their values earn respect and commitment from their teams. Values function as the organisation's operating system, shaping what behaviour gets rewarded, how decisions are made, and what standards prevail when no one is watching. Organisations with strong leadership and positive corporate culture outperform their competitors by 20%. Leaders set cultural tone through daily actions—which values they honour under pressure, what behaviour they tolerate, and how they respond when values conflict with expedience.
Begin with structured self-assessment using validated instruments such as the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, DiSC Assessment, or Emotional Intelligence evaluations to understand personality tendencies and development areas. Complement self-assessment with 360-degree feedback soliciting input from superiors, peers, and subordinates about your leadership effectiveness. Self-aware leaders are conscious of their behaviour and how it affects their team, which enables them to make informed decisions and address areas that need improvement. Examine critical incidents where you performed at your best and worst—what skills did you deploy? What values did you honour or compromise? Consider engaging an executive coach for objective perspective and structured development planning.
Leadership skills and values together create the foundation for sustainable influence and organisational success. The executives who master technical competencies whilst remaining anchored to principled values build organisations characterised by high performance, deep engagement, and enduring impact. Development requires intentional effort, honest self-assessment, and commitment to continuous growth—but the returns compound over time, creating leadership capability that serves as genuine competitive advantage.
The synthesis of capability and character, competence and conviction, separates adequate management from transformational leadership. Organisations investing in developing both dimensions create leadership depth that weathers disruption, inspires commitment, and delivers results that matter. In an era demanding more from leaders than ever before, those who cultivate both skills and values position themselves—and their organisations—for lasting success.