Leadership and management skills describe your ability to organize people and resources to achieve specific goals.
Employers place a high value on management skills when hiring for positions that involve:
- Supervising, training, or mentoring team members
- Managing projects, budgets, or client relationships
- Coordinating work between departments or team.
The soft skills and achievements on your resume help employers gauge how your leadership style could benefit their organization.
While different industries value different management approaches, certain core qualities are valued across nearly every industry.
Employers are looking for these 10 leadership & management skills in 2026
A great way to demonstrate your leadership abilities on your resume is to showcase your relevant skill areas for employers.
We have searched through 65,000 real job postings to locate the most sought after leadership and management skills.
We will explain what each of these skills mean within a leadership/management context and provide examples you can follow when including them on your resume.
| Keyword | Percentage | Count |
|---|---|---|
| Persuasion & messaging skills | 26 | 16945 |
| Customer Service | 17 | 11307 |
| Problem Solving | 16 | 10632 |
| Project Management | 15 | 9542 |
| Personal Organization | 14 | 9375 |
| Insight Generation | 13 | 8480 |
| Teamwork | 10 | 6553 |
| Strategic Vision | 10 | 6379 |
| Accountability | 8 | 4922 |
| People Management | 7 | 4596 |
Summarize key achievements in your resume introduction
The introduction to your resume sets the tone for the rest of your application and indicates to potential employers what you believe to be important about your experience. The introduction should consist of the accomplishments, skills, and experiences most closely related to the roles and responsibilities outlined in the job description, as well as the values of the company.
An example of a Property Manager’s Resume Summary showing both accountability and project management capabilities would be the total number of properties managed by the Property Manager, as well as the total number of employees supervised, while indicating the size of the portfolio managed.
Property manager with 8+ years of experience overseeing luxury condominiums. Currently manage a portfolio of 85 properties worth $50m monthly in rent and fees, and oversee a staff of 39, including a security team. Able to consistently negotiate 4.7% discount from suppliers.
Emphasize your role in team wins
While the value of action verbs is overstated in resume writing, they are important in highlighting leadership and management skills.
Choose verbs that emphasize your role in achieving project successes to show employers that you can provide strategic insights and decision-making.
Here’s an example of how to incorporate management-focused verbs into your resume bullet points:
- Managed, directed, and prioritized gym operational expenses worth $65m. Stayed under-budget by 7%
- Manage financial assets for 50+ investors, including 10 stock portfolio each worth over $5m
- Overhauled sales process and systems to achieve revenue goals, hitting target of 17% annual growth
Emphasize impact and project value
At senior levels, employers expect you to be able to make meaningful contributions to core business goals.
To demonstrate this ability, quantify the results of your achievements using the key metrics most employers use to measure leadership:
- ngagement
- Retention of key talent and reduced turnover
- Number or quality of team initiatives led
- Reduction in recurring issues
- Contribution to revenue growth or cost reduction (in %)
Build My Resume
Great examples of resumes that show leadership
These leadership and management resumes include detailed results-driven achievements that show each applicant’s ability to operate at higher levels of responsibility within their field.
