Leadership Training: 14 Science-Backed Skills That Boost Team Performance

Most leadership advice sounds good in a conference room but falls apart on Monday morning. The gap between knowing what leaders should do and actually doing it under pressure explains why between 45% and 80%^{1https://www.td.org/}of corporate training never gets applied on the job.

This article bridges that gap. Strong leadership training helps you direct your team toward success. Companies that invest in comprehensive training programs see 24% higher profit margins^{2https://businesstrainingexperts.com/knowledge-center/training-roi/}and 218% higher income per employee—a measurable advantage that compounds over time.

What Is Leadership Training?

Leadership training, also known as management development or executive coaching, refers to specialized programs designed to help leaders learn new techniques and refine existing skills. These programs cover assertive communication, motivation methods, coaching, and strategic decision-making.

Leadership training benefits anyone in a supervisory role—from first-time managers adjusting to new responsibilities to experienced executives seeking to sharpen their competitive edge.

What Are the Benefits of Effective Leadership?

Effective leadership increases productivity, boosts morale, strengthens employee retention, develops future leaders, and improves the bottom line.

One study published in SAGE Open^{3https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2158244020914634}found that effective leadership combined with knowledge sharing improved work performance, firm strategy, and overall organizational results.

Transformational leaders—those who inspire others to exceed expectations—share specific characteristics: charisma, the ability to inspire, intellectual stimulation, and individualized consideration for team members. Research on transformational leadership^{4https://www.proquest.com/openview/bbb4bb4ac7c98da78fac22000532a6f0/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=18750}links these traits to higher employee retention.

Organizations with effective leadership development at all levels are 54% more likely^{5https://www.ddiworld.com/global-leadership-forecast-2023/leadership-skills}to rank in the top 10% of their industry for financial performance.

Want to level up your people skills? Check out our resource:

14 Skills for Successful Leadership

1. Know Your Purpose as a Leader

Before mastering advanced techniques, you need to establish your foundation. The basics of leadership training center on clarifying your purpose and cultivating the right mindset for yourself and your team.

Core leadership practices include:

Being a role model: Embody the values and behaviors you expect from your team. When leaders demonstrate integrity consistently, team members mirror those standards.

Making an impact: Understand the specific change you want to create. Set ambitious but achievable goals that create meaningful progress for your team, organization, or industry.

Focusing on a vision: A clear, compelling vision guides decision-making and provides your team with direction. Use it as a framework for evaluating progress and making adjustments.

Encouraging collaboration: Create an inclusive environment where team members feel valued and empowered. This approach harnesses collective strengths and produces better outcomes than top-down directives alone.

The Arbinger Institutehttps://arbinger.com/offers valuable resources for leadership development. Consider reading Leadership and Self-Deception: Getting Out of the Box and The Outward Mindset to understand how thought patterns affect decisions and interactions.

2. Express Appreciation in Specific Ways

“Thank you.”

Two words that carry more weight than most leaders realize. Expressing gratitude makes you appear warmer and encourages better communication and stronger relationships.

Research from Gallup^{6https://www.gallup.com/workplace/236927/employee-engagement-drives-growth.aspx} suggests that positively motivating a team improves both effectiveness and efficiency.

Your team members want to face each day feeling confident their hard work will be recognized and their ambitions supported. Low morale leads to low productivity^{7https://www.google.com/search?q=https://www.shrm.org/topics-tools/news/employee-relations/low-morale-high-costs}and increased workplace absences.

The key: move beyond generic verbal thanks. Express appreciation in specific, memorable ways that acknowledge individual contributions.

For creative approaches, explore 14 Ideas for Employee Appreciation.

3. Develop Your Sense of Humor

Humor provides measurable benefits in any work environment. Research from Harvard Business Review^{8https://hbr.org/2014/05/leading-with-humor}shows that laughter relieves stress, reduces boredom, encourages creativity and productivity, and increases engagement.

Case Study: Gordon Hinckley led a religious organization with more than 13 million members. At his funeral, stories about his sense of humor appeared alongside praise for his leadership and wisdom.

One day, entering a meeting of senior leaders gathered to discuss serious organizational matters, Hinckley observed the men in their dark suits, white shirts, and conservative ties. He announced they all looked like penguins.

The comment drew laughter. More importantly, it became a cherished story shared for years afterward—a moment that humanized leadership and strengthened bonds.

If humor doesn’t come naturally to you, it can be developed. Check out How to Develop a Sense of Humor for practical techniques.

4. Master Communication and Active Listening

Clear communication builds trust and motivates employees to achieve personal and organizational goals. When you articulate your vision, goals, and expectations precisely, team members can align their efforts toward a common purpose.

Historical speeches demonstrate how clear communication inspires action. Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address^{9https://www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/speeches/gettysburg.htm}unified a nation. King’s “I Have a Dream”^{10https://www.rice.edu/kennedy}speech advanced civil rights. Kennedy’s “We Choose to Go to the Moon”^{10https://www.rice.edu/kennedy}speech mobilized an entire space program. Each example shows how compelling communicationhttps://www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/speeches/gettysburg.htmcreates momentum.

Speaking represents only half of communication. Strong communicators also practice these techniques:

Active Listening:

• Dedicate 5-10 minutes to fully focus on a conversation without distractions
• Use reflective summarization—repeat back key points and emotions to confirm understanding
• Show engagement through nods and affirming comments like “I see” or “Go on”
• Let speakers complete their thoughts before responding
• Paraphrase what you heard before changing subjects

Understanding Needs and Challenges:

• Conduct regular check-ins asking about current needs, challenges, or concerns
• Practice empathy mapping—consider situations from your team member’s perspective
• Encourage open dialogue where team members feel safe sharing concerns
• Show empathy and acknowledge feelings to build trust

Giving Constructive Feedback:

• Start with specific positive observations
• Provide clear, actionable suggestions for improvement
• End with encouragement and next steps
• Keep feedback focused on one or two key areas

Watch our video below to learn 10 leadership skills that every leader should have:

5. Build Interpersonal and Conflict Resolution Skills

Your team has worked hard to meet a deadline. At the last minute, everything falls through. Tension rises. A blame storm brews.

No matter how skilled you become at communication and inspiration, conflict will appear. Knowing how to address it ranks among the most valuable soft skills^{11https://www.google.com/search?q=https://www.scienceofpeople.com/soft-skills/}you can develop.

You’ll find conflict management challenging, but staying calm and communicating clearly helps. The techniques covered in quality management training include:

• Confronting situations directly rather than avoiding them
• Collaborating to solve problems
• Understanding formal complaints processes
• Recognizing why conflict arises
• Handling difficult personalities at work
• Managing stress and emotions during tense conversations

The statistics on workplace conflict reveal why this skill matters:

According to the 2022 Myers-Briggs “Conflict at Work” study^{12https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/new-research-time-spent-on-workplace-conflict-has-doubled-since-2008-301652771.html}, managers spend an average of four hours per week dealing with conflict. And 36% of employees report dealing with conflict “often, very often, or all the time”—up from 29% in 2008.

This trend is worsening, not improving. Additional research^{13https://pollackpeacebuilding.com/workplace-conflict-statistics/}shows that unresolved workplace conflict costs organizations billions annually in lost productivity and turnover.

Unresolved conflict damages more than productivity. Chronic stress can cause memory problems^{14https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5579396/}, slow learning ability, and weaken immune function.

Beyond managing conflict, effective leaders motivate teams by understanding each member’s need for purpose and accomplishment. For some, a clear goal provides motivation. For others, collaboration and feeling heard matters more.

Effective leaders assess each team member’s strengths and weaknesses, create opportunities for growth, and acknowledge achievements. Try these approaches:

• Strengths assessment: Spend 5-10 minutes evaluating each team member’s capabilities and areas for development
• Micro-learning: Share brief resources (articles, videos) tailored to individual development needs
• Recognition: Send personalized messages acknowledging specific achievements and their impact
• Development tasks: Assign short projects aligned with team members’ interests to foster engagement

6. Prioritize Decision-Making Skills

What was your last significant decision at work? Perhaps you changed tactics while closing a sale or tested a new approach to reach a larger audience.

Decision-making ranks among the most important skills you can develop. DDI’s Global Leadership Forecast 2023^{5https://www.ddiworld.com/global-leadership-forecast-2023/leadership-skills}identifies decision-making prioritization as a critical gap—one that leaders must address to succeed.

When options appear, your team will generate ideas. But you make the final call.

Just as people have personality types, they also have decision-making preferences:

Analytic decision-makers examine facts and data carefully before deciding. They rely on observation and evidence to support their choices.

Behavioral decision-makers ensure everyone works together on group-oriented choices. They consult their team before selecting a course of action.

Conceptual decision-makers integrate creative thinking and collaboration. They consider multiple perspectives and think further into the future when deciding.

Directive decision-makers act rationally and directly. They base decisions on their own knowledge and move quickly.

Once you identify your natural style, you can deliberately incorporate strengths from other approaches. Match your decision-making method to the situation: quick directive decisions during emergencies, collaborative behavioral approaches for team buy-in, analytical methods for high-stakes choices with available data.

Research from the Center for Creative Leadership^{5https://www.ddiworld.com/global-leadership-forecast-2023/leadership-skills}confirms that leaders who adapt their decision-making style to context consistently outperform those who rely on a single approach.

7. Cultivate Positive Energy

Plants naturally turn toward light—their energy source. Research published in Harvard Business Review^{15https://hbr.org/2022/04/the-best-leaders-have-a-contagious-positive-energy}shows humans respond similarly to positive energy. People gravitate toward those who radiate supportive, encouraging energy.

TheUniversity of Michigan’s Center for Positive Organizations^{15https://hbr.org/2022/04/the-best-leaders-have-a-contagious-positive-energy}has produced substantial research on how positivity affects engagement, retention, and employee well-being.

This doesn’t mean toxic positivity—overemphasizing positive thinking while denying negative emotions or experiences.

When approached authentically, positivity can lengthen life, strengthen immune function, and lower rates of anxiety and depression^{16https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2000-05007-002}.

Practical applications:

• Gratitude wall: Create a space where team members post notes expressing appreciation for each other’s contributions
• Random acts of kindness: Encourage small, unexpected gestures that spread positive energy
• Joyful traditions: Establish enjoyable rituals—celebrating milestones, organizing team activities
• Inspirational speakers: Invite guests to share uplifting stories or insights with your team

8. Maintain a Learning Mindset

Developing and maintaining a learning mindset separates good leaders from great ones.

Case Study: Julia Child, raised in a privileged family, worked for the Office of Strategic Services (which became the CIA) during World War II. She didn’t discover cooking until she married at 34 and moved to France, where she studied at Le Cordon Bleu.

Child was 51 when she started the cooking show that made her the face of French cuisine in 1960s America. Beyond her own passion for learning and teaching, she established organizations to expand culinary awareness. Her learning mindset influenced generations of American cuisine.

What made Child’s approach remarkable was her willingness to make mistakes publicly. She famously dropped food on camera and laughed it off, demonstrating that learning requires embracing imperfection—a lesson every leader should internalize.

Encouraging skill development provides financial returns:

• Create learning budgets or reimbursement programs for conferences, seminars, or courses
• Establish cross-functional projects or job rotations for exposure to different business areas
• Encourage knowledge-sharing through lunch-and-learn sessions or internal platforms
• Implement mentorship programs pairing employees with experienced colleagues
• Support employee-led communities of practice where individuals collaborate and learn together

DDI research^{17https://www.ddiworld.com/global-leadership-forecast-2023/development-experiences}shows leaders actively seek more opportunities for instructor-led training and professional coaching. By demonstrating a learning mindset, you increase creativity and investment across your organization.

Of companies with effective leadership development at all levels, 54% perform in the top 10% of their industry financially—compared to just 20% of companies without effective development programs.

9. Identify and Develop Future Talent

Within three years, identifying and developing future talent will rank among the top five leadership skills needed^{5https://www.ddiworld.com/global-leadership-forecast-2023/leadership-skills}. Currently, 65% of leaders believe this skill is critical, but only 24% have received training on how to do it.

To build this capability:

• Look for leadership traits in employees: strong communication, problem-solving initiative, and willingness to take responsibility
• Offer leadership development programs where employees learn and apply new skills
• Provide mentoring and coaching so employees learn from experienced leaders and their own failures
• Encourage networking so high-potential employees meet peers and potential mentors

Understand what drives motivation:

• Freedom to make decisions
• Realistic, achievable goals
• Recognition for achievements
• Visible progress on team objectives
• Understanding gender dynamics in leadership

When employees feel positively motivated, both effectiveness and efficiency improve. Everyone benefits when people are happy at work.

For deeper insights on motivation, explore How to Get Motivated: 10 Tips to Improve Your Self-Motivation.

10. Build a Strengths-Based Team

A strengths-based team leverages individual skills and talents for collective success.

Start by identifying (or helping team members identify) their strengths. One employee might have excellent attention to detail. Another might write content efficiently.

As you assign project tasks, allocate them based on these strengths whenever possible.

For a complete framework, check out 10 Effective Tips on How to Lead a Strengths-Based Team.

Encourage collaboration between teammates. If someone enjoys formatting spreadsheets (yes, these people exist), ask them to develop a formula and teach others how to use it for faster data analysis.

Express appreciation for specific contributions. Recognize individual strengths publicly.

But continue providing growth opportunities. Being pigeonholed into tasks you’re good at but don’t enjoy leads to stagnation. Performing only familiar tasks creates boredom and dissatisfaction.

Using a strengths-based approach improves efficiency and workflow while increasing motivation and satisfaction—people contribute more confidently when using skills they’ve mastered.

11. Master Delegation

Leaders face one persistent challenge: the urge to do everything themselves.

You simply cannot do it all. One of the hardest skills to develop, particularly for perfectionists, is effective delegation. You might feel that doing work yourself produces the best results. But as a leader, you must distribute workload across your team.

The general steps for delegation:

1. Define the task clearly
2. Make it SMART (specific, measurable, agreed-upon, realistic, time-bound)
3. Identify the best team member for the job
4. Communicate why you selected them
5. Explain the goal to achieve
6. Discuss how the task should be executed
7. Agree on a deadline
8. Keep communication open throughout
9. Provide feedback after completion

If delegation represents a significant growth area for you, seek training that provides deep coverage of this skill.

12. Implement Effective Performance Management

Performance management creates an environment where people perform their best while aligning with company objectives.

How often do you monitor and provide feedback on your team’s performance?

Performance management works as a continuous cycle: setting goals, planning achievement strategies, reviewing progress, and developing skills.

Key components include:

• Conducting regular appraisals (not just annual reviews)
• Giving timely, specific feedback
• Empowering employees to take ownership
• Using performance management tools effectively
• Tracking Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
• Implementing personal development plans

Gallup research^{5https://www.ddiworld.com/global-leadership-forecast-2023/leadership-skills}shows that well-applied performance management improves employee engagement and shifts conversations from accountability to learning.

You should also ensure your leadership training addresses the biggest mistake leaders make.

13. Develop Digital Leadership Skills

Digital leaders are 50% more likely to achieve high financial returns^{18https://hbr.org/2021/11/todays-ceos-need-hands-on-digital-skills}compared to organizations with less digitally competent leadership. Yet one study of 2,000 companies found only 7% were led by digitally competent teams.

Everything has gone digital. Twenty years ago, making phone calls through watches, paying with a tap, or accessing bank accounts via fingerprint seemed like science fiction.

As George Westerman, Principal Research Scientist at MIT Sloan, notes: “When digital transformation is done right, it’s like a caterpillar turning into a butterfly, but when done wrong, all you have is a really fast caterpillar.”

Every organization must embrace new technologies to flourish. Leaders with digital readiness stay ahead of the curve.

When selecting leadership training, ensure it covers getting your business or team up to speed virtually. This might involve calendar synchronization, video conferencing tools, or other digital platforms that improve communication and efficiency.

Currently, only 20% of leaders rate themselves as “very effective” at leading virtual teams—a significant opportunity for competitive advantage.

How can managers develop digital leadership competencies? Start by auditing your current digital skills, then identify gaps between where you are and where your industry is heading. Seek training in data literacy, digital collaboration tools, and emerging technologies relevant to your field.

14. Embrace Adaptability

The ability to adapt—assessing current opportunities, then reassessing and adjusting as needed—separates successful leaders from those who struggle with change.

Developing adaptability requires:

• Building a support network with diverse perspectives
• Practicing flexibility by adjusting plans, routines, and expectations
• Reflecting on and learning from experiences

Case Study: In the early 1960s, Honda established an American expansion^{19https://global.honda/heritage/episodes/1959establishingamericanhonda.html}in Los Angeles. The company nearly lost its foothold when two of its three lead products had design flaws requiring recalls of Honda’s most competitive motorcycles.

Left with only the Super Cub—a small, inexpensive bike—Honda faced a choice. Rather than continuing to compete against established players like Harley-Davidson with non-functional large motorcycles, Honda adapted their strategy.

This pivot illustrates what management theorist Richard Pascale calls “emergent strategy”—success evolving from grassroots experimentation rather than top-down planning. The Honda 50 turned out to be extremely popular, altering the entire motorcycle industry’s image and creating a casual, fun shopping experience.

Had Honda stubbornly pursued their original plan, the company might not have survived in America. Their willingness to abandon a failing strategy and embrace unexpected opportunity demonstrates adaptability at its finest.

Practical exercises for building adaptability:

• Random challenge: Complete a work task using only tools from a different department, or solve a problem with half your usual resources
• Reverse brainstorming: Generate unconventional or opposite solutions to a problem, then evaluate which elements might actually work
• Mind mapping: Spend 5-10 minutes visually mapping a complex issue, exploring different connections and potential solutions

Foster an environment where adaptability gets valued and rewarded—where change represents opportunity rather than threat.

Types of Leadership Styles

Think of the best leader you’ve encountered—perhaps a colleague, your first boss, or a teacher. What type of leader were they? Did they manage in a task-focused way, or did they empower individuals to take responsibility?

Good leadership training helps you identify your style. Not all leaders operate the same way—nor should they.

Three foundational leadership styles:

• Autocratic leaders set clear expectations, specify exactly how they want work done, and make decisions independently
• Delegative leaders allow groups to make their own decisions rather than micromanaging
• Participative leaders blend both approaches—providing direction while incorporating team feedback

Each style has advantages and disadvantages. Autocratic leaders excel during emergencies when problems need immediate solutions, but they don’t build the same morale and unity as participative leaders.

Participative leaders might build wonderfully cohesive teams but find some employees struggle to take full responsibility and initiative.

You may already sense your natural style (knowing your personality type provides hints). Strong leadership courses explore these styles in detail, breaking each into subtypes.

What’s the difference between leadership and management? Research suggests^{20https://www.google.com/search?q=https://hbr.org/2013/08/tests-of-a-leadership-transition}management focuses on achieving specific tasks or goals. Leadership focuses on empowering individuals to create value. The two overlap significantly, but the distinction matters.

Why Is Leadership Training Important?

A skilled leader drives team performance.

Leaders encourage teams to reach their potential, bring out the best in individuals, and help people achieve career goals.

But humans are complex. Emotional, sensitive, proud, stubborn, creative—often simultaneously. Leading a team means encountering unexpected situations daily.

Learning to address those scenarios under pressure is where training provides value. You wouldn’t expect a medical student to perform surgery without study, observation, and practice.

Similarly, great leaders study, observe, practice, and learn from mistakes.

Here’s the nuance most training programs miss: training alone isn’t enough. Research on “scrap learning” shows that 45-80% of corporate training^{1https://www.td.org/}never gets applied on the job. Training must be practical, immediately applicable, and supported by organizational systems to create lasting change.

High-potential leaders are 2.4 times more likely to stay at companies that provide leadership development helping them accomplish career goals.

Taking the Lead

Becoming an effective leader doesn’t happen automatically, but the path is clearer than most people realize. Apply these principles:

1. Start with purpose: Clarify your leadership mission before developing tactical skills
2. Communicate with precision: Master both speaking clearly and listening actively—neither works without the other
3. Build trust through empathy: Understand team members’ emotions and experiences to create psychological safety
4. Make decisions deliberately: Know your decision-making style and adapt it to different situations
5. Embrace adaptability: Treat change as opportunity, not threat—Honda’s pivot from failed motorcycles to the Super Cub illustrates this principle
6. Develop others: Identifying and growing future talent ranks among the most critical (and undertrained) leadership skills
7. Apply training immediately: Avoid the 45-80% scrap rate by practicing new skills within 48 hours of learning them

These leadership training skills complement each other to create leaders who inspire teams to achieve results.

Ready to accelerate your leadership development? People School teaches the science-backed interpersonal skills that transform good managers into exceptional leaders—from reading body language to mastering difficult conversations.For more ideas on leadership and management, explore our guide to the 14 most important management skills^{21https://www.google.com/search?q=https://www.scienceofpeople.com/management-skills/}.