When it comes to building the perfect resume, showcasing your leadership skills is essential. There are several ways to highlight your experience leading a team, but knowing which one is going to work best can be difficult.
In this article, we’ll shed some light on the tricky task of communicating your experience. Whether you’re a seasoned manager or a new team lead, these tips will help you stand out to potential employers.
Are you ready? Let's dive in!
When building your resume, it’s important to tailor your statements to your specific experience and the position you’re applying to. Leading a team requires several skills depending on the job, you may want to highlight some specific skills over others.
When it comes to showing off your leadership skills, you want to use specific words like “mentored,” “led,” or “organized”’ to paint a picture of the role you played. You can also include your official title alongside a more accurate description of your position. E.g. “Marketing Associate (Marketing Department Team Lead).”
When including your leadership experience, there are a few things you want to keep in mind. The first is that you should indicate what type of leadership you provided. Supervising, mentoring, project managing, and performance monitoring are all leadership positions that have very different connotations.
Furthermore, you’ll want to include statistics and metrics. How big was the ream you lead? What did you achieve? How did you achieve it? A big part of resume building is your ability to show rather than tell. If you can show your success as a leader, it will go a long way.
There are several places you can put your experience on your resume. As we’ll discuss later, you can draw attention to your leadership experience in your summary by including something like this:
“Results-driven professional with an extensive background in leading cross-functional teams. Proven track record of motivating and guiding team members towards exceeding goals”
Another place you can indicate you have led a team is under work experience. This section emphasizes your specific responsibilities and achievements within each position. You can include words like:
Of course, your job titles can indicate your leadership experience in addition to your active verbs. If you have a substantial amount of leadership or management experience, you can also include a leadership or management section on your resume. For example:
Leadership Experience
Manager, ABC Company
Remember, you may need to tailor your resume to the specific job you’re applying for. In this way, you can show your best side to the hiring manager.
As a team leader, you know the importance of being concise. Here are a few ways you can highlight the core aspects of your experience within a few words.
Another way to show that you lead a team on your resume is by using a job title. Including job titles can demonstrate your experience and give you the opportunity to expand on the skills you developed in a given role.
A few job titles that will highlight your leadership experience are:
When using a job title to demonstrate your leadership experience, it’s important to detail the skills you learned and used in this position. Be sure to include specific examples of how you have used and developed those skills in your work experience.
Including your leadership skills in your resume summary can be helpful for grabbing the attention of potential employers. Hiring managers receive a large volume of applications. Including your experience up front helps give them an immediate understanding of how you will be an asset to the team.
Here are a few ways you can set yourself apart from other candidates at first glance at your resume.
Leading a team is a dynamic experience that is nuanced. Convey the versatility of your role as a leader by using synonyms that help to paint a picture of your day-to-day role. Additionally, this will demonstrate your great communication skills and help keep your readers attention. List of Words To Say Instead of “Lead a Team" on resume
When it comes to showing off your leadership skills, clarity is key. Don’t be afraid to use a variety of synonyms to best illustrate your experience. Want to learn more about how to put your best foot forward on a resume? Check out how VisualCV can help! Our online resume builder can help you build an eye catching resume and make a big impression on your next application.
Written By
Madison Norton
VP Marketing & Resume Expert
Madison is the VP Marketing and General Manager at VisualCV. He's a seasoned marketing leader, resume writing and career marketing expert and now helping people grow their own career marketing strategies to build a career they love.
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