What are the biggest leadership challenges organisations are facing? The overall success of a business rests on an organisation’s ability to create cohesive departments that work toward common goals. But this level of synergy rarely happens organically. It requires active leadership that drives productivity and keeps all the wheels turning together.
Unfortunately, not all company leaders have been able to achieve this level of inspiration across their teams. In fact, statistics show that around 40% of new leaders fail within their first 18 months.
Shaping an organisation for greatness isn’t something that happens overnight, nor does it take place without first dealing with several challenging roadblocks. However, with the right strategies in place, businesses can create more agile leadership teams that get the most out of their employees.
Below, we’ll address some of the largest leadership challenges most businesses face and how to address them.
Recruiting and retaining talent
Today’s market dynamics have led to increasingly competitive hiring practices as businesses try to acquire top talent for their organisations. With more flexibility on where and how to work, potential job candidates now have many more employment opportunities than they know what to do with.
For leadership teams, this creates a significant challenge when building long-term teams and keeping employees actively engaged with the organisation. While company leaders may not be able to directly control their hiring budgets and meet every financial requirement for their employees, they play an essential role in creating an optimal working environment.
A company’s culture has a positive or negative impact on an employee’s willingness to stick around for the long haul. Leaders should play an active part in shaping this culture and not leave it to be defined, improved, or degraded by just a small group of people in the company.
Change management
To be an effective business leader, employees need to be willing to adapt as the organisational needs change over time. However, this is rarely easy, as most people immediately put up certain walls when being asked to step out of their comfort zones.
Effective change management is a critical component of team leadership and should be actively worked on by management groups. But navigating organisational change doesn’t just mean being clear to employees about where and how changes should take place. It requires showing the right adaptive attitude to employees and leading by example.
Company leaders who are sincere in their excitement to embrace new changes and challenges as they come up help their employees do the same. This attitude can be infectious among staff members and make it easier for them to move outside of their comfort zone.
Staying grounded
Seeing somewhat regular success in a business can be a catch-22. While early signs of growth point to the fact that the organization must be doing something right, it can be easy to get caught in the trap of thinking there isn’t anything to improve.
Not all company leaders operate with the same personalities when managing their teams. While some may maintain a more humble approach, consistently looking for new ways to improve, others may be less inclined to adjust their methods.
It’s important to stay grounded as a leader and recognise that there is always room for improvement. While leaders should always be authentic in their actions, there is an obligation that needs to be met when it comes to supporting the business’s overarching values. Leaders need to always maintain perspective and keep in mind that any level of success their departments achieve isn’t just because of their individual efforts but everyone’s.
Managing isolated teams
Operating with a distributed workforce is no longer considered the anomaly it once was. Many organisations have adopted more flexible staffing structures to give them more hiring flexibility and lower their operating expenses.
Unfortunately, for leadership groups, while these unique working situations create more convenience for the employees themselves, they also introduce several management challenges. One of the largest obstacles leaders face when working with isolated teams is keeping everyone moving in the same direction while maintaining a certain level of cohesion.
Technology investments are helpful in these situations as they help to facilitate communication and shared accountability between teams. However, it’s also important for company leaders to take an active role when creating a better sense of community across remote and in-office teams.
Many times, this will involve setting a better cadence for one-on-one meetings and arranging group get-togethers in or outside of the office. Just like when coordinating a home renovation project across multiple contractors, the more effort that goes into the collaboration process, the better the returns will be.
Balancing business and employee needs
Businesses thrive the most when all employees feel supported by their leadership teams. But this is a tough needle to threaten for most company leaders today. Balancing the performance needs of a business and the needs of employees requires a delicate approach.
Employees’ professional and emotional needs often change over time. Quality leaders manage the pulse of their teams closely, regularly offering their support however they can. Although some personal situations may require more assistance than managers can offer on their own, they can still be a listening ear and help their employees find the resources they need.
Establishing an empathetic relationship with employees helps leaders to get more effort from their team members over time. This type of relationship can be invaluable when it comes to asking for additional support from teams when aggressive deadlines come in or when improvements need to be made in team performance.
Synergising multi-generational teams
Businesses are now in a state where there is a convergence of multi-generational team members. The generational gaps have shifted considerably over recent years, and there are wildly different viewpoints now coming together when it comes to the balancing act of work priorities and everything else.
As a company leader working with multi-generational teams, it can be a real challenge to get the same level of motivation from all employees. However, it’s important to find ways to find commonalities with each individual and highlight how employees can capitalize on each other’s strengths.
Taking this approach helps to encourage cultural development where everyone in the company values and respects each other’s differences and avoids unnecessary conflict.
Keep your business inspired
All businesses deal with leadership challenges from time to time. However, rather than allowing these situations to cause rifts between team members or slow down company growth, you can follow the strategies discussed to keep your business inspired and maximise productivity.
