Leadership Challenges | How to overcome it

Leadership challenges are prevalent in the workplace. While we all look up to our leaders to help find a solution, we must not forget that they are human too.

A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.

John Maxwell

I have been under many leaders in my entire 20 years working in the corporate world. I have learned a lot of things from various people that I have applied in my own strategy in leading my own team.

Up until now, I envision them in my head as invincible. I see them as people with so much grit, perseverance, knowledge, and desire to be successful. I have tried to emulate them as much as I can though, I know my limits. I can only do so much.

During the times I was leading a team, it became apparent to me how difficult it is to become a leader. The constant pressure and stress, the ability to make the team effective, balancing work and personal life, dealing with difficult people, and adapting to change are some of what have become daily tasks for me. I could only imagine what is it like for the leaders I followed. It must be harder for them.

Therefore, the purpose of this blog is to share what I have seen from my leaders on how they dealt with the daily demands and help new and future leaders overcome them to be successful in their leadership roles.

The challenges

There are many challenges that each and every leader in the workplace goes through. These challenges vary from simple task completion to attending to the well-being of those he/she leads. Below are some of the most common that a leader encounters almost on a daily basis. If you are a new leader or will become one, it would be best to be prepared as these will come your way. So, along with these known obstacles are actions to overcome them.

Delegating tasks effectively

In my industry, it is easy to drown in many tasks that need immediate attention. Being in a BPO company exposed me to different people both inside and outside our company and combined with these are different requirements and asks. This makes work impossible to complete by yourself.

One of my previous leaders is so good at juggling things. While she knows what to do, she entrusted most of the work to us. There was a moment in our company when we were to launch support for multiple companies along with attending our regular internal and external client meetings. If she had attended to all of those, everything may have fallen apart. However, she did not. The work was distributed amongst those of us who could deliver.

Here is what she had done.

• Know the complexity. We went into a meeting and discussed the complexity of each task. We all gathered together with her to understand the need and what we must do.
• Prioritization. After knowing how difficult a task was and how important, we then itemized which ones needed more attention and put them on top of the list.
• Matching. Once we knew which ones to prioritize and which were complex, the tasks were assigned to whoever was mostly able to create the greatest impact. For example, the number one priority and the most important ones were taken by her. The rest were assigned to us based on what we could do at the moment. There are of course some tasks that were assigned to less capable individuals but the impact is negligible.
• Follow through. We set a regular follow-through discussion to understand the progress and if there was a need to make adjustments. It was restarting. If we need to reassign or if we need to provide help to others, then we do that. Otherwise, the plan pushes through.

There will be a lot of things happening at the same time that will require a leader’s attention. Delegating the tasks effectively is a sure way to complete and address all of them. This method capitalizes on the strength of the team resulting in accomplishing more in a short span of time.

Dealing with difficult employees

As a leader, it is a must to remember that they are handling people almost all of their working hours. While it is very optimistic to envision a team working like a well-oiled machine, there will always be people who will make accomplishing goals a little more difficult but not impossible.

When one from your team is starting to become difficult to work with, here are some steps you could take. Keep in mind that they are human too at the same time, they joined to do the work.

• Know the situation. One of my leaders is very good at this. Once she got to know that one from our team was not able to deliver results and had many excuses, she talked straight to the person to understand what was going on. Instead of hearing it from others, it is best to hear it from the person him/herself.
• Provide solutions. After understanding the situation, May it be personal or about work, a solution was immediately presented. It could be something she could do or something she needed from someone else. She did not dwell on what was happening. She focused on resolving it. Dwelling on the problem will only aggravate the emotions and that will not solve it.
• Not promising. Committing to do something and promising the desired results are two different things. There are many factors that could affect the outcome of the solution that are outside her control therefore, she just committed to doing what she could to resolve the matter but not promising any results. You may think this is giving hope and yes, it does. In the workplace, promising could put a leader in a very difficult position compromising his/her integrity thus this leader of mine knows that. She made sure to only focus on what her position enables her to do and the rest are up to fate.
• Letting go. No one can force anyone. Again, people join any company to work. If that is not being done, it is time to let go. There is no point in giving people a hand if they will not reach for it. I always say that we can only do so much for other people. In the end, it is up to them to be open for help. Letting go could benefit them more than pulling them.

Handling stress and pressure

Grace under pressure. This only means that no matter the circumstances, a leader remains focused on the task at hand. It is easier said than done but this leader of mine have shown it to me multiple times.

• Goal. What are we trying to achieve? That is a question I personally learned from a client. Understanding and keeping it mind keeps all efforts directed to that.
• Assessing. This leader of mine keeps going back to the goal when we are discussing the actions we want to take. Does it take us to near to our goals? Does it help resolve any obstacle? Does it add value? If not, the actions is remove.
• Prioritization. Juggling multiple tasks can be an art. But prioritization is a science that yields results. To handle pressure and stress, focusing the energy and team resources on meeting a prioritized goal helps relieve the pressure and deal with stress.
• Removing distraction. Lastly, this leader of mine rarely gets disturbed. Most of the stress and pressure come from the multiple distractions we get through emails, calls, and chats. By disconnecting at a certain point in time, this leader of mine is able to focus on what is important and necessary. Not everything is urgent.

Leaders are human too

As I mentioned in the beginning, I had this preconceived notion that my leaders were invincible. They can surpass anything. They can accommodate almost everything. They can do so many things.

Not to mention that since they are people like us, they also have their personal lives. They have their own problems they deal with at home. They have their own family that they love and support. And just like us, they juggle both daily.

Understanding the challenges a leader goes through daily makes us appreciate them more. We usually look up to them to get issues resolved and seek help and guidance while forgetting that they are just humans who can thrive at work and in life. By knowing what they do to overcome the challenges in a leadership role, we could better help them and in effect ourselves to be successful in life.