I just want to start by saying that leadership is never easy. There will always be leadership challenges that will come for you — from all nooks and crannies and even from within. Just because you are placed in a leadership position doesn’t mean these challenges will go easy on you. To tell you the truth, you will encounter more bumps than you ever did in your life once you become a leader. And it’s up to you how you will let it get the best of you.
Whatever your leadership position may be — a business owner, a manager, or an HR staff — it is how you approach such challenges that will make you a winner. If you think about it, these leadership challenges are existent in every leader. But what makes winners different from the rest is their perspective. Winning leaders see these obstacles as opportunities — a chance to learn about themselves and a chance to improve their skills.
Intrapersonal Leadership Challenges
Perhaps, the reason why you’re here is that you’re going through challenges yourself or you just want to prepare yourself in case a challenge surfaces. Either way, you must know that the first and most persistent source of difficult leadership is you — the leader yourself.
More often than not, it’s your own feelings, thoughts, and reactions that create the biggest obstacles in leadership.
That’s why this is where we need to start — the intrapersonal challenges that we must face head-on.
1. Dealing with changes
The fact that you agreed to a leadership position is a change on its own. But you need to know that there will be more changes you will encounter every day. Some of them are offsprings of your past decisions, while some are the luck of the draw. As a leader, you should not let these changes faze you. You have to always prepare yourself in case a new change surfaces or handle it on the fly in case it occurs out of the blue.
2. Boosting your self-esteem
What some people don’t know is that there are leaders who struggle with their image and self-esteem too. And the higher up in the ladder you are, the more you have to battle with your intrapersonal thoughts. This is what we call impostor syndrome or that echo inside your brain that tells you you are not enough.
The sad thing is that impostor syndrome affects up to 70% of people at some point in their lives — and leaders are part of them as well. This is a type of leadership challenge that can be particularly painful because it creates so much self-doubt. At worst, it can damage your ability to lead, motivate, and be a role model for your team.
You have to have healthy self-confidence, so you can understand your value to the universe, particularly to your team. When your self-doubt starts to creep in and say you are not enough, your self-confidence will say, “I am more than enough.”
3. Maintaining focus
Admit it or not, it is so easy for us to break our focus, especially when we’re presented with much more interesting things. Remember that this is all part of your leadership challenge, and you have to fight back the distractions or the “shiny objects” that get in your way. You are in your position because you have a team to lead, a project to complete, and a goal to reach. So it’s your duty as a leader to make a plan, stick with it, and keep your focus on the important matters.
4. Staying humble as a leadership challenge
You might think that it sounds ironic how I’ve mentioned self-confidence a while ago then proceed to talk about staying humble. But remember that humility is not the opposite of confidence.
Humility is knowing that leadership is about influence and not authority. When you are humble, you become more influential, you attract more people, and you gain more respect and loyalty.
Sometimes, it can be challenging to stay humble especially when you’ve been getting back-to-back achievements lately. But it is an essential leadership quality that will make you even more successful in the long run.
5. Facing your fears
Nothing else can get in your way of making good decisions and moving your organization more than fear does. From the fear of changes to handling new situations, the fear of making wrong decisions can impact your whole team. These what-ifs will only stop you in your tracks — whether it’s economic changes or market shifts.
Yes, fear is human nature — and leaders are no exception from it. But it is something that you must face to become an effective leader.
6. Dealing with burnout
There are times when you will lose your motivation, and your will to lead will vanish entirely. Just by looking through this list, how does one simply not feel burnout from all these leadership challenges?
Feeling burnout at work is a real thing. To tell you the truth, a lot of leaders, even the successful ones, have gone through this situation. When you push yourself too hard and never rest, it can take a toll on your emotional and mental health.
Bear in mind that you won’t be able to lead anyone if you don’t deal with your burnout first. Before you can lead other people, you must first lead yourself. Take care of your body and mind and step back from the things that fill your own hell. After all, how else can you lead and inspire others if you’re going through tough times yourself?
7. Staying motivated
Have you ever had those days when you struggle with even the simplest tasks? Like, you just want to stay in bed all day, staring at the unknown while doing nothing. This happens especially when you dwell on something that isn’t working and let it sap your energy. Sadly, staying motivated can be very challenging for leaders to work through because everyone expects them to be positive and inspired all the time. As a leader, they see you as a champion of an optimistic outlook and someone with that “get it done” attitude.
8. Dealing with stress
With all the tasks staring you in the face, you must expect stress and anxiety to creep into you at some point. While this is natural, it can still create a significant challenge to your leadership. Your fear, self-doubt, and other leadership challenges can all add up to a whole new level of stress, which can be detrimental to your health.
We all respond differently to stress. But as a leader, you must respond to it in such a way that doesn’t affect your health as well as the productivity of your team. That’s why, it can be so important for leaders to know how they react to stress to avoid the ramifications that may occur when stress and anxiety go unchecked.
Leadership Challenges in Communication
There are a lot of leadership challenges that can stretch your skills and ability. But you can’t deny that communication tops them all. When there is faulty communication,it can lead to misinterpretation and employees fillilng in the gaps with their own assumptions.
These are the most common challenges in communication that leaders face.
9. Dealing with conflict in the workplace
Ah yes, workplace dramas — otherwise known as the elephant in the room. These are the types of conflict that can drive so many unhealthy behaviors and relationships in an organization. This often occurs when differences of opinion get personal.
Conflicts are part of life. And it sure is part of leadership.
As a leader, you need to accept the fact that conflict has to happen before things will start to get better. It also means embracing the fact that you have to go through tough conversations that can hurt someone’s feelings. But when you’re able to overcome this, it can lead to an incredibly healthy organization with employees who are willing to grow together. As long as you steer it to productive resolution, conflicts can be very healthy for your team.
10. Keeping everyone on the same track.
All employees come from different walks of life. They bring different backgrounds, opinions, and experiences to the table, which can be challenging fo you when trying to move them in the same direction.
To keep everyone on the same track, how do you establish common understanding among your team? How do you get them to row on the same direction rather than let them follow their own paths? This is one of the leadership challenges that is critical for the success of your organization. You have to make sure that everyone has a common vision and there’s a clear communication among your team.
11. Breaking the bad news.
We all know that life is not all rainbows and sunshines; there are times when you have to be the bearer of bad news.
Sometimes, being a leader means you have to be the bad guy. After all, you have to look stoic and tough when you deliver a sad news to your team. And while some bad news can be dramatic, you have to deliver it in such a way that steers away drama before it affects your culture.
Skill-Related Leadership Challenges
Some challenges of leadership come down to the skills it takes to lead your team effectively. These are the strength you need to have and strategies you need to learn in order to be a great leader that leaves a great impact on their teams.
These are the skill-related challenges you have to overcome as leader:
12. Helping your employees grow
It’s your job as a leader to support your employees in their career growth. It means you have to provide them with opportunities that will help them grow in their career. And to do this, you have to recognize their potential and give them a chance to improve by assigning them challenging tasks and offering them educational opportunities.
Another important part of your employees’ career growth is giving them recognition. Everyone wants to know that they’re doing a good job. And everyone wants to be seen, heard, and appreciated. If your employee did something outstanding, you should play your part by showing that you appreciate them.
Pay attention, listen to them actively, and give them new career opportunities — these are just some of the few things you can do to support your employees in their career paths.
13. Developing your own skills
It’s not just your employees who need development and improvement. Unfortunately, the more time you spend developing your employees, the lesser time you have to develop your own skills. Balancing your time well so that you have enough time to improve your skill can be pretty challenging. Still, it is something you must overcome to become successful.
Just as much as you want to improve yourself in terms of skills and strengths, you should also fill your well by taking emotional rest and self-care. Depriving yourself of these needs can take a toll in your emotional as well as professional well-being.
14. Making hard decisions
We know that the easy way out is always never the right choice. Sometimes, you have to sacrifice something just to refine another area. And making decisions without being sure of the outcome can be very scary.
Newton’s Third Law of Motion tells us that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. This goes the same for the tough decisions you have to make. Chances are you make the right decision. But sometimes, it may turn out to be a bad call. But as a leader, you have to pick the best decision often with very little time to think about its effects.
These are just some of the most common leadership challenges you will have to face. If you can overcome these challenges, you’ll be able to overcome just about every bigger obstacle you will go through in your leadership journey.