Leadership is not a gift or magic but a set of soft skills to acquire. Once you decide to foster them, you should be ready to work like a beaver, consume your energy, and practice a lot. It requires time.

After reading this post, you’ll know skills you might miss on the way to leadership and techniques to practice for nurturing them.

To be a happy leader, you need:

7 Skills You Need to Be a Happy Leader

1. Creativity

For true leaders, it’s crucial to think outside the box. Your team will look at you and wait for the decision, no matter what difficult situation you experience. Even when you have to choose the better of two evils, creativity is what can help you deal with that with least losses.

What? You think you aren’t creative. That’s not true!

All you need to do is awaken the creative genius sleeping inside of you. Develop habits that influence the right brain, responsible for creativity in our life. Forget about perfectionism and fear of mistakes. Don’t hurry to choose the first solution coming to your mind: it won’t motivate to play with alternatives, which kills creative bones.

2. Emotional Intelligence

According to Psychology Today, emotional intelligence is “the ability to perceive, control and evaluate emotions – in oneself and others – and to use that information appropriately.” And please, don’t say that a leader doesn’t need to develop this skill!

Emotions give energy, influence your decisions, dictate the tone of communication with employees, and, therefore, affect your business results. To be a stellar leader, you should know how to manage them. What is more, motivate your team to become emotionally intelligent too for more efficient interaction.

3. Communication

A productive work environment depends on healthy communication. If you can’t understand what happens around you and can’t relate your vision to a team, you won’t be able to lead them toward the same goal.

Discipline yourself to observe and listen, learn to describe what you want from others, and don’t be afraid of asking for feedback from your team. A great leader is a skilled communicator who stays focused and welcomes constructive criticism to become more effective.

[RELATED: 6 Female Leadership Strengths That You Should Be Proud Of]

4. Personal Growth

Lead your team by example. Grow yourself, develop your professional skills, discover new fields – and it will be the best motivation for mentees to follow you.

Demonstrate your commitment to work and your role for others to get inspired by your energy. But be honest and sincere. Don’t plagiarize your communication style from others. Be your natural self. Create a reputation as a fair leader, so you can gain the respect of your team and nurture their desire to work alongside you.

5. Mentorship

Even professionals need an inspirational person to motivate them so they could grow. As a leader, you need to become a mentor to guide and support your team rather than preach to them.

Successful leaders are self-motivated, so they never stop teaching mentees and keep them well-informed through trends and newsworthy items. Mentors understand their employees’ mindsets and areas for improvement, so they challenge them all the time, motivating them to reach more.

6. Ability to Spot Talent

As a leader, you should know how to connect with the right people, see their talents, and understand how their diverse abilities can best work together with your vision to develop successful strategies. Easier said than done, but you need to go with your gut and professional background to spot talents.

Also, consider the psychological aspects of today workplace representatives who are Millennials: they work from coffee shops, they are tech-savvy team players, and they focus on mindfulness, ambitions, and responsibility. With that in mind, you can connect with creative and productive people to lead them.

7. Team

Stellar leaders worry about what matters most in their organizations: people. As part of the team, you need to support them, guide them, and create the bond to share your success for them to feel invested in the accomplishments of your business.

As a leader, inspire your team by appreciating the hard work they do to deal with current issues as well as future goals. Don’t stint to invest in employees that are loyal, dedicated, and engaged. Nurture your team members and provide them with a clear vision of what you need from them.

And remember:

Lead with love. Love what you do, love people who work with you, and be ready to give, not just take. With such an approach and motivation, you’ll discover the secret of great leadership in no time.