How to demonstrate leadership qualities in your resume (with examples)

Many companies look for people with strong leadership skills, no matter the position. People with leadership drive company visions and goals, boost productivity, have strong work ethics, and help build happy teams. Leaders not only contribute directly to the company’s success but also create a lasting impact on its culture and growth. 

So it’s no wonder that 83% of companies say that leadership skills are important for the organization. If you’re submitting your resume for a new role, you’re more likely to succeed by highlighting your leadership skills.

In this article, Remote shares how to demonstrate leadership qualities in your resume to land your next job.

What are leadership skills 

Leadership skills are the abilities that an individual has to guide, inspire, and influence others to achieve common goals. Leadership is a quality important for everyone, not just for people in managerial roles. No matter what role you have, leadership shows that you’re capable of guiding yourself and others to success.

How to demonstrate leadership qualities in your resume

To effectively highlight your leadership skills, use active language to describe qualities that strong leaders have. You can use key words to showcase you have leadership qualities and experiences that companies are looking for, that are also Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) friendly. 

Here are some specific ways (with examples) to demonstrate leadership qualities in your resume.

1. Use action verbs

Action verbs make your resume more energetic and proactive, which are also leadership traits that companies look for in candidates. For each previous role or experience, you can start bullet points with action verbs that reflect leadership qualities. 

Here are some action verbs that you can use in your resume to demonstrate your leadership skills. 

• Directed: Proves your oversight and control over a specific function

• Led: Shows that you were responsible for teams, budgets, and/or projects

• Mentored: Emphasizes helping others develop skills

• Inspired: Demonstrates motivation and influence on others

• Coordinated: Reflects organizing and aligning teams or projects

• Delegated: Shows your ability to assign tasks strategically

• Implemented: Implies your ability to execute strategies or processes 

2. Quantify your achievements

Use numbers and percentages to quantify your leadership impact. You can quantify how much time or costs you saved, or specify growth or customer satisfaction increases. For example, “achieved a 15% increase in Q3 product sales after leading a team of ten associates” is more impactful than “increased sales and productivity.” 

Comparing metrics before and after your leadership intervention is also effective. For example, “reduced customer complaints by 50% after mentoring customer service representatives” is a good way to highlight your leadership skills objectively in a resume.

3. Exemplify problem-solving skills 

Knowing how to solve a problem is a key leadership trait. You don’t need to have a role that leads other people to prove you have leadership skills – knowing how to solve problems and deliver results is already a good leadership trait. Describing situations where you identified and solved problems shows your ability to think critically and make decisions. 

Offer specific examples in your resume of how you overcame obstacles that benefited your organization. You can use the STAR method (Situation, Task, Action, Result) to do this, which is describing a challenging situation (S), the task at hand (T), what actions you took (A), and the result (R).

For example, you can demonstrate leadership and accountability by saying: 

“My team faced a critical deadline with a key member out sick. I decided to step up to make sure we delivered our presentation on time. I coordinated task redistribution within our team, provided additional support, and held daily check-ins. As a result, my team met the deadline with a 95% satisfaction rate from the client.” 

4. Highlight mentorship and training

Offering to mentor or train another person is leadership in its purest form. Include any experience you have in mentoring or training others in your resume, as this shows your ability to develop and lead a team. 

Mentorship also shows your willingness to spend your time for others, which is important for a healthy work culture. You can even quantify how your mentorship and training has led to long-term benefits for the individuals and the organization.

For example, you can prove your leadership skills in your resume by specifying:

“Mentored a junior developer for 3 months, improving their code quality by 40% and reducing development time by 20% through structured training and one-on-one guidance. Their performance resulted in a promotion after 6 months.”

5. Emphasize strategic planning

Strategic planning involves setting clear goals, analyzing the current situation, and developing a roadmap to achieve those goals. If you have experience in strategic planning, highlight how your long-term ideas align with company goals to show your leadership skills. 

You might even incorporate a SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) to specify how you led a strategic plan for your company.

This resume example shows that you are able to lead and execute a long-term plan. 

"Started a new content strategy that increased team revenue by 18% in six months by optimizing market segmentation. Improved lead generation by 60% and cross-functional collaboration toward common marketing goals.”

Highlight your leadership skills with Remote Talent 

Because top companies are continuously seeking people with strong leadership skills, it’s important to show that you can lead yourself and others. But sometimes, writing a killer resume that shows off your leadership skills is not enough to stand out to land the job you want. 

That’s why Remote Talent connects you with hundreds of remote-verified companies to simplify your job search and remove frustration. Match with the employers offering what you’re actually looking for with zero ads, free of charge.

Remote Talent makes sure that top employers notice your leadership skills listed in your resume – all you have to do it sign up for free to land your next job. 

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