They're short articles about growing as a leader, written for working managers. Each one covers a single subject, like leadership traits or motivating a team, and most of them point to a free tool you can use the same week.
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Leadership Development Articles
These leadership development articles cover various aspects of a leader's role and responsibilities. You'll learn about how you can grow as a leader. They're short enough to read on a lunch break, and most of them point to a free tool you can use right away.
If you'd like to work through leadership development in order, the 10 Steps to Leadership Development series has its own page, linked below.
The articles on this page are grouped by subject, so you can go straight to the one that fits what you're working on.
There's no set order for these articles. A supervisor six months into the role might start with Leadership vs Management, while a parent looking for ways to build confidence in a ten-year-old will get more from Leadership Skills for Kids.
Jump To: Leadership Skills | Leadership for Kids | Example | FAQ
LOOKING FOR THE 10 STEPS SERIES?
10 Steps to Leadership Development
The ten-part series has its own page, starting with what drives you to lead and finishing with making time for life outside work.
Go to the 10 Steps seriesBuilding Your Leadership Skills
Many new managers were promoted because they were good at the work they were currently doing, but the traits that got them there aren't always the same ones their team needs from them now. The first three articles look at what effective leaders do differently, with examples you can hold up against your own week. The fourth helps you keep your own goals in front of you, and the fifth gives you a fair way to hold your people accountable.
Leadership Traits
The 14 traits the U.S. Marine Corps teaches its leaders, from integrity to endurance, each with a talking point for your next team meeting.
Leadership vs Management
A side-by-side comparison of managing and leading, plus a quick self-check that shows which side you lean on and how to build the other one.
How to Motivate Your Team
Seven things good leaders do to keep a team motivated, plus a firm but supportive conversation with an employee named Joe who keeps missing the mark.
Vision Board App and Software
How to build a vision board with an app, software or a poster board, and what to put on it so your goals stay in front of you every day.
How to Hold Employees Accountable: Teach, Coach, Expect
Three steps that check you've taught and coached before you expect results, and how one supervisor took a clerk from 14 invoice errors a month to 2.
Teaching Leadership Skills to Kids
Many of the habits you use with your team work at home too. Leadership Skills for Kids is written for parents, with six skills to teach and activities you can do together. Teach, Coach, Expect works at home as well, and that article ends with how our daughter learned to clean a bathroom to company-ready.
Leadership Skills for Kids
The Golden Rule, six skills to teach your child and leadership activities you can try together, including the Best-of-the-Best exercise.
How One New Supervisor Used These Articles
PRIYA'S FIRST QUARTER
Priya was promoted in January to supervise the six claims processors she used to work beside. Her first month, she read Leadership vs Management and saw that most of her week went to solving the team's problems and almost none of it to where the team was headed. She picked two of the 14 leadership traits to work on, decisiveness and initiative, and wrote them on an index card she kept next to her monitor.
In March, one processor missed the same weekly deadline for the third time. Priya used the firm but supportive approach from How to Motivate Your Team, telling him his success mattered to her and spelling out what would happen if it came up again. He met the next six deadlines.
Two articles and one index card used for quick reference in leadership development.
More for Leaders
The articles pair well with the free tools on this site, which are organized into three phases of leadership:
- Leading Self tools for your own goals, habits and development.
- Leading People tools for coaching, feedback and one-on-ones.
- Leading Teams tools for planning, priorities and team meetings.
Leadership Development Articles FAQ
The questions below address what leaders most commonly ask about these leadership development articles.
Click on the (+) sign below to expand each question. Click the (-) sign to collapse it again.
What are leadership development articles?
Where should a new manager start?
Start with the article that fits the problem in front of you this week. If you're not sure, Leadership vs Management is a good first read, because it helps you see how the job changes when you move from doing the work to leading the people who do it.
What is the 10 Steps to Leadership Development series?
It's a ten-part series that works through leadership development in order, starting with what drives you to lead and ending with making time for life outside work. The series has its own page, and each step can be read on its own.
Are the leadership development articles free?
Yes. Every article and every tool on Leadership-Tools.com is free to read and download, with no sign-up required.
Can I use these articles with my team?
Yes. Leadership Traits has a talking point for each of the 14 traits, so you can cover one trait at each team meeting, and the conversation with Joe in How to Motivate Your Team works as a model when you coach someone who keeps missing the mark.
Who is Leadership Skills for Kids written for?
It's written for parents, and the activities also work for anyone who leads young people, like a coach or a scout leader. Teach, Coach, Expect also has a section on using the same three steps with chores at home.
More Leadership Article Collections
10 Steps to Leadership Development
A ten-part series that works through leadership development in order.
Business Management Articles
Running the business side, from cash flow and funding to hiring and meetings.
Team Building Articles
Building a team that works well together, from hiring the right person to keeping spirits up.
Sales Management Articles
Leading a sales team, from recognition programs to courtesy calling scripts.
Customer Service Articles
Serving customers well, from handling an angry customer to keeping customers coming back.
Richard Gorham has led teams in financial services for more than 30 years, from retail branches and operations to investments and insurance, and he still leads a team today.
He founded Leadership-Tools.com in 2002 to give managers free, practical tools like the ones he used in his various leadership roles. Every tool here has been used in a real workplace and comes with a filled-in example you can follow.
