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Team leader skills for your resume and career

Updated January 8, 2025
6 min read
Quoted experts
Jessica Tangen Daniels Ph.D.,
Jessica Tangen Daniels Ph.D.
Team leader example skills

Some of the most important hard skills a team leader can possess include work with office procedures, ensuring safety, and consistently meeting and exceeding sales goals, and inventory control. It's important that team leaders have these skills because they will likely be major parts of the job. Team leaders may also need hard skills such as work with food safety practices in the food service industry, or work with POS systems in retail.


When it comes to soft skills, team leaders should be focused on providing excellent customer service while still attending to the needs and concerns of their team. Team leaders will likely need to deal with a fair amount of conflict, so conflict resolution skills are also a plus.

Below we've compiled a list of the most critical team leader skills. We ranked the top skills for team leaders based on the percentage of resumes they appeared on. For example, 26.5% of team leader resumes contained customer service as a skill. Continue reading to find out what skills a team leader needs to be successful in the workplace.

15 team leader skills for your resume and career

1. Customer Service

Customer service is the process of offering assistance to all the current and potential customers -- answering questions, fixing problems, and providing excellent service. The main goal of customer service is to build a strong relationship with the customers so that they keep coming back for more business.

Here's how team leaders use customer service:
  • Provide safety, security and inventory control leadership while maintaining a focus on providing exceptional customer service.
  • Maintained satisfactory service levels by continually monitoring Customer Service Analysts on the operations floor.

2. Ladders

Here's how team leaders use ladders:
  • Used 10 to 12 foot ladders to dry clean/sanitize metal frames behind drywall.
  • Climb ladders frequently and work on elevated roof surfaces.

3. Patients

Here's how team leaders use patients:
  • Promoted continuity of care by accurately and completely communicating to other caregivers the status of patients for which to provide.
  • Prepared clinical charts for new and existing patients, contacted insurance companies for verification of member eligibility and benefits.

4. Sales Floor

The sales floor is the area in a company or a business that is specified for retail activities or is designated as the selling area of the shop. A car showroom can be considered a sales floor, as it has cars in its display which are to be sold. A sales floor is generally crowded with sales assistants who are there to help you out while you can search and check out the products. Generally a sales floor has free access to the public and they can observe, view and get information about the product that is being sold.

Here's how team leaders use sales floor:
  • Supervised five different departments to assured sufficient sales floor coverage.
  • Direct Merchandise Team in fulfillment picking, and in the placement of merchandise on the sales floor to ensure floor readiness.

5. PET

Here's how team leaders use pet:
  • Assisted customers with their specialty pet needs, including their housing, diet, and health related information.
  • Used computer based ordering system to order product for the Garden, Floral, and Pet Departments.

6. Safety Procedures

Safety procedures are a set of standardized procedures, that ensures minimal to no risk to people, resources, and the work environment. A company follows the step-by-step safety procedures as it they not only keep the customers and the employees safe, but also help in avoiding legal claims.

Here's how team leaders use safety procedures:
  • Analyzed, revised and initiated comprehensive security/safety procedures; to protect employees and company assets from internal and external sources.
  • Conduct and manage informational team meetings to review safety procedures and standard operating procedures for task completeness within time constraints.

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7. Asphalt

Here's how team leaders use asphalt:
  • Provide Maintenance Services on commercial properties, including porter trash, maintain building exteriors (painting) and asphalt repair.
  • Operate loaders to pull out stumps, rip asphalt or concrete, rough-grade properties, or perform general cleanup.

8. HR

HR stands for human resources and is used to describe the set of people who work for a company or an organization. HR responsibilities revolve around updating employee records and carrying out management processes like planning, recruitment, evaluation, and selection processes. HR is a key contributor to any company or organization's growth as they are in charge of hiring the right employees, processing payrolls, conducting disciplinary actions, etc.

Here's how team leaders use hr:
  • Supervised, developed and supported six cross-functional team members in realizing the organizational mission of delivering strategic integrated HR consulting.
  • Supervised team of HR representatives and coordinated the delivery of generalist human resources programs and services.

9. Product Knowledge

Product knowledge is the skill of having better information and knowledge about the product you are selling. Product knowledge is essential for the employees of the companies so they can communicate and inform the customers about the product. Having great product knowledge is essential for a better sales pitch and to give the customer a better and complete idea of the product that will influence him to buy the product eventually.

Here's how team leaders use product knowledge:
  • Managed multiple departments ensuring pricing accuracy, maintaining inventory levels, displaying product knowledge and effectively teaching others about the products.
  • Fostered ongoing business relationships by enhancing customer product knowledge and empowering them to make informed decisions resulting in product purchases.

10. Customer Complaints

Here's how team leaders use customer complaints:
  • Prepare sales and customer relations by analyzing sales information, identifying and investigating customer complaints and service suggestions.
  • Assisted in resolving customer complaints, ensured accuracy of purchase transactions, and performed inventory control.

11. Payroll

Payroll is the sum of all the compensation that an organization has to pay to employees at a specified time. Payroll is managed by the finance or HR department while small business owners may handle it themselves. Payroll isn't fixed as it varies every month due to sick leaves, overtime, etc.

Here's how team leaders use payroll:
  • Analyzed and organized office operations from operation of payroll, information management/filing systems, requisitions of supplies and other clerical services.
  • Entered vacation hours and monitored hours worked daily to assure correct payroll information resulting in improved morale.

12. Process Improvement

Here's how team leaders use process improvement:
  • Prepared process improvement plans for streamlining effectiveness of the department; researched industry trends and improvements to increase productivity and quality.
  • Developed pilot projects and champion challenger initiatives to illustrate the enhanced customer experience and cost benefit of implementing proposed process improvements.

13. POS

POS is an abbreviation of "Point of Sale" which is the time and place where a customer completes a transaction. It can either be a physical shop that consists of POS terminals or a virtual shop. A POS system helps simplify the retail functions and track important sales data.

Here's how team leaders use pos:
  • Validated security features and employees payroll information within POS.
  • Trouble shoot POS systems/printers/terminals/PCs/phone systems.

14. Quality Standards

Quality standards are a specific level of standards of products that are set by the companies for the customers that have to be met and maintained throughout the process until the time of delivery. Quality standards are information that includes the customer's requirements, guidelines, and characteristics for the needed final product or service.

Here's how team leaders use quality standards:
  • Developed implemented and monitored UAT testing and test cases ensuring quality standards are adhered and timely project delivery.
  • Hired as a seasonal customer services representative, advanced to permanent position for exceeding productivity and quality standards.

15. Leadership

Here's how team leaders use leadership:
  • Interacted with clients individually and with leadership in an effort to organize inventory processes and optimize efficiency and accuracy.
  • Provided leadership to pricing and signage team that executed weekly merchandising and marketing plans to provide exceptional customer experiences.
top-skills

What skills help Team Leaders find jobs?

Tell us what job you are looking for, we’ll show you what skills employers want.

What skills stand out on team leader resumes?

Jessica Tangen Daniels Ph.D.

Associate Provost - Innovation and Partnerships, Program Director/Professor, Ed.D. Leadership in Higher Education, Bethel University

The skills that "stand out" on an educational leader's resume are those that synergize into a coherent story. So not necessarily the skills that are self-identified and listed under a "skills" heading, but those that are evidenced through outcomes achieved appointments/promotions, or other demonstrated successes. For example, in an educational institution, being elected to a chair or moderator position within a senate structure might indicate characteristics of diplomacy, advocacy, collaboration, and wisdom. The resume reader can imagine how those attributes might translate to a new employment space, with much more confidence than if those same characteristics were merely listed as skills. So first, on a resume, prioritize representing your skills through a story, experience, and evidence (rather than self-described adjectives) in a way that reflects your unique narrative.

Now, regarding the specific skills. Some of the skills desired in an educational leader change, based on the institutional context, the previous leader, unique internal or external challenges, etc. However, I would suggest two interminable and foundational skills that will always stand out on a resume and differentiate the applicant: working hard and working with others. Employers want to hire a hard worker, determined, responsible, trustworthy, and strong work ethic. And employers want to hire someone who others want to work with, someone who is collaborative, thoughtful, or in Ingnation or Jesuit language, someone who is for and with others.

Those two skills form a foundation for professional success.

What hard/technical skills are most important for team leaders?

Jessica Tangen Daniels Ph.D.

Associate Provost - Innovation and Partnerships, Program Director/Professor, Ed.D. Leadership in Higher Education, Bethel University

Many hard/technical skills are incredibly context-specific, so importance varies by role and/or industry. But for educational leaders, generally applicable skills might be related to teaching and learning constructs, finance and budgeting, and basic legal issues awareness. Perhaps familiarity with specific content management systems or learning management systems, but again, this use varies by institution.

List of team leader skills to add to your resume

Team leader skills

The most important skills for a team leader resume and required skills for a team leader to have include:

  • Customer Service
  • Ladders
  • Patients
  • Sales Floor
  • PET
  • Safety Procedures
  • Asphalt
  • HR
  • Product Knowledge
  • Customer Complaints
  • Payroll
  • Process Improvement
  • POS
  • Quality Standards
  • Leadership
  • Safety Standards
  • Windows
  • Food Preparation
  • Inventory Control
  • PowerPoint
  • Professional Development
  • Corrective Action
  • ISO
  • Troubleshoot
  • Performance Reviews
  • Takeaways
  • Direct Reports
  • Performance Evaluations
  • SQL Server
  • KPI
  • Medicare
  • Customer Orders
  • Forks
  • Customer Issues
  • Medicaid
  • Excellent Guest
  • Excellent Negotiation
  • Groceries
  • JavaScript
  • SLA
  • Develop Long Term
  • Exceptional Guest
  • HTML
  • Unix
  • Customer Inquiries
  • Test Cases
  • Alertness
  • XML
  • Bank Deposits

Updated January 8, 2025

Zippia Research Team
Zippia Team

Editorial Staff

The Zippia Research Team has spent countless hours reviewing resumes, job postings, and government data to determine what goes into getting a job in each phase of life. Professional writers and data scientists comprise the Zippia Research Team.