What are the Challenges in Leadership?

Being a leader is not quite a cakewalk. Infact, to be very honest; managing people is one of the most challenging tasks.

You really need to extract the best out of your team members and handhold them even in the worst situations.

We all want to lead a team, but have we ever realized what are the challenges faced by a leader? Remember, a leader is just like the captain of a ship. One wrong decision and the entire blame comes on you.

The biggest challenge in leadership is to listen to everyone’s opinions and come to a mutually beneficial solution. You just can’t afford to ignore anyone, else he/she would turn out to be your biggest enemy and would neither respect you nor bother to listen to you. Agreed, there are all types of people around. You may like someone; you may not like someone at the workplace, but that does not mean that you start being rude to the person you are not comfortable with.

Avoid favouritism. As a leader; you really need to be impartial towards everyone. Not every individual has the quality of being fair towards people. As humans, we generally tend to develop feelings of jealousy and hatred towards people we do not like. Remember, such negative feelings have no place in the professional world.

Sit with your subordinates, listen to their grievances and always try to come up with innovative solutions. Never ever loose your temper. The moment you do so, trust me, very soon your name would appear in the bad books of employees.

A leader has to win the trust of his/her subordinates. And that is again a big challenge. Yes, you would be surprised to see that the colleague who used to call you his best friend has all of a sudden started avoiding you and is actually jealous of your promotion and has problem with you being his team leader.

A leader, most importantly has to understand the psychology of individuals. Never feel bad about the sudden change in the behaviour of your colleagues. Try to keep yourself in their shoes. Do not start showing your bossy attitude.

Sit with your subordinates and make them realize that your job is not to rule over them but work as a team. Making people work together is a big challenge in itself. Remember, any problem in the team, you will be held responsible.

In case of misunderstandings and conflicts, intervene immediately. Listen to both the parties and resolve the problem at the earliest.

As a leader, you are the face of your team. A team manger ought to act as a bridge between the employees and the management. It is your responsibility to ensure your subordinates are happy with their work, their bills are being released on time and they are overall satisfied with their jobs.

There are several external challenges as well in leadership. Lack of projects, scarcity of funds and lack of support from clients are some of the external challenges faced by a leader. Your subordinates will come to you for work and it is your duty to delegate responsibilities.

If your team members are unable to bring work from clients, immediately take the charge. If there is a financial crunch and your subordinates are not getting salaries on time, you just can’t afford to take the back seat. Emergency situations are unpredictable.

A leader needs to stand by his team members at the times of crisis. You just can’t run away from the situation. Remember, a boss is always referred to as a Hitler, no matter how much he thinks for his team.

A boss–employee relationship is more of a hate than a love relationship. Make your subordinates feel comfortable. Do not force them to call you “Sir”. Respect is always commanded and never demanded. You need to inspire your team members for them to look up to you and treat you as their mentor.