Inclusive leaders foster and maintain a culture that values authenticity and a sense of belonging among all employees. When people feel they can be their authentic selves at work, without the need to assimilate and adapt to the dominant organizational culture, they are more engaged, creative, and more likely to want to stay.

While an organization's mission, culture, policies, and practices play a role in helping employees develop and nurture this sense of belonging, leaders most often directly and indirectly determine this through their words and actions.

As part of developing their interpersonal skills, project leaders should cultivate strong leadership skills. Project teams need sound leadership from their project leads to complete their objectives. Without robust leadership from the project leader, projects can fail or miss key deadlines.

For some project leaders, delegating tasks is the hardest part of the job. As a project leader, it can be tempting to try to perform all project work yourself (i.e., the "if you want something done right, do it yourself" syndrome) or to micromanage when you delegate work. For better or worse, projects are often far too big for any one person to complete, and delegating work is a project management necessity.

People are recognized as leaders for different reasons, but to be a leader, other people must be willing to follow you. Some people find the power to be leaders from their history of successes or their expertise. Others rely more on their personalities. Some demonstrate strong values or an ability to empathize that makes others willing to follow them. The most common bases of leadership are charisma, expertise, authority, success, commitment, values, and empathy.

We are always making a choice, no matter what. Not only is every action you take a choice, but not doing something is also a choice. There is a great quote from Stephen Covey: "Leadership is a choice, not a position."

No matter your role—whether you're a CEO or an intern—you have the choice every day to be a leader. Especially if you're working in a startup, there are countless opportunities to step up and make a 10X impact.

Companies of every size are faced with a reality once reserved for "future of work" strategies and conversations in the boardroom. That reality is now.

As more Gen Zers enter the labor market, remote work is predicted to become the norm. In fact, by 2028, 73 percent of all teams will have remote employees, according to UpWork's 2019 Future Workforce Report.

Another eye-opening report is the 2018 Global State of Remote Work. It found that 56 percent of employers worldwide currently offer either a completely remote workplace or a hybrid form of remote work.

Few things are more important to human activity than leadership. Effective leadership makes a business organization successful. It enables a not-for-profit organization to fulfill its mission. The effective leadership of parents enables children to grow into independent and productive adults. But for all leaders, abiding by ethical standards is vital.

What are the characteristics of an ethical leader? If you were asked to list the qualities and behaviors of leaders who live out their values, what characteristics would you cite?

This week, Skye Learning is spotlighting Dr. Jonathan Jefferson, the Chief Academic Officer and Provost at Lesley University. Skye was thrilled to include Dr. Jefferson’s expert commentary in Introduction to Leadership, a course within the Certificate in Leadership.

Formerly, Dr. Jefferson was Chair of Lesley’s Business Management Division and a professor of management. He was Managing Director of Jefferson Consulting Group for almost eight years, where he managed a portfolio of $200 million and over 130 projects. He was also formerly Director of the United States Coast Guard Academy’s Institute for Leadership. He also served as Dean of Albany State University’s College of Business and Dean of Clark Atlanta University, among other former positions.

Building downtime into your schedule can help you recharge your battery, manage stress, and keep perspective. During these moments of downtime, it is important to completely step away from your work obligations (that means silencing your smartphone!) and focus on the activities that bring you personal fulfillment. Making time for these activities is essential for avoiding burnout.

The early approaches to studying leadership focused on identifying patterns of leadership behavior that resulted in superior performance. Such behavioral studies placed leaders' behaviors on a spectrum ranging from job-centered to employee-centered behavior.

In job-centered leader behavior, a leader focuses on the actual work of subordinates (e.g., explaining specific tasks and monitoring output), and her primary concern is the subordinates' performance. On the other end of the spectrum, employee-centered leader behavior seeks to elicit superior performance from subordinates by focusing primarily on the human aspects of the group (e.g., motivation, job satisfaction) rather than the subordinates' tasks.