The 5 essential leadership skills, and why vision comes first
There are hundreds of leadership qualities on the internet and no CEO has time to build hundreds. This guide argues for 5, in a specific order, with the first one carrying the other 4.
The 5 Most Important Skills for Leaders was written by a founder who scaled a company to over 150 people and sold it to Canon, and it reads like it. The skills are chosen for what a growing company needs from the person at the top, not for what looks good in a job description.
It is 8 pages. You can read it in the time it takes to have a coffee, and it will change what you look for in your next senior hire.
What is inside What are the five leadership skills?
Five skills, one chapter each, with the reasoning for the order.
- Skill 1, visionary leadership: the foundation the other 4 are built on, and why culture is built from the vision rather than the other way round
- Skill 2, fast resolute decision making: why any decision is better than no decision in a young company
- Skill 3, resilience: openness, curiosity, adaptability and tenacity when the plan breaks
- Skill 4, emotional intelligence: reading the room, the team and yourself
- Skill 5, dependability: following through so the team can build on your word
Who this free guide is for
If you want an academic model of leadership competencies, this is not it. There are no citations to leadership theory.
If you run a company, or you are about to, and you want to know which 5 things to get right first, this was written for you.
How to use it
Score yourself 1 to 10 on each of the 5 before you read the chapters. Then read the chapter for your lowest score first. Skill 2 is the one most founders underestimate.
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Questions people ask before downloading
What are the 5 essential leadership skills?
According to the guide: visionary leadership, fast resolute decision making, resilience, emotional intelligence and dependability. Vision comes first because the other 4 are applied in service of it.
Why is decision speed a leadership skill?
In an early stage company each decision compounds, and mature company style analysis is not available. The guide's position is that a leader who decides quickly with intuition and confidence outperforms one who waits for certainty, because any decision is better than none.
Can these skills be learned, or are they traits?
The guide treats all 5 as learnable, and dependability and decision speed in particular as habits. The free assessments on this site measure several of them if you want a baseline.
About the author
Andreas Pettersson is the founder of Leaders ADAPT. He built a company from zero to over 150 people, sold it to Canon and became their youngest standalone CEO. He now coaches founders and executives on leading without being the bottleneck. This guide is free, the download arrives by email within a minute, and you can measure where you stand first with the free leadership assessments.
