Tips to Overcome Challenges in Leadership

Leadership indeed becomes a challenging job, if managers do not understand their employees well. You can’t make employees work by scolding or being rude to them. Bosses are successful only when their employees look up to them and treat them as their role models.

Let us go through some tips to overcome challenges in leadership:

A leader needs to inspire his/her subordinates. Don’t expect your juniors to concentrate on work if you yourself are not serious about your work. The best tip to overcome challenges in leadership is to understand the psychology of your subordinates.

An individual who is leading a team of say five employees also has a reporting boss. Now try to analyze your relationship with your reporting authority. How would you feel if your superior insults you in front of all? Yes, you would never like to see your Boss’s face again and he/she would become your biggest enemy. Yes, your team members also go through the same feeling when you do not scold them in private.

Always keep yourself in other’s shoes before reacting. Yes, a boss needs to be a little strict, else no one would actually listen to him/her but that does not mean you really need to be a Hitler. A Hitler like Boss finds it extremely challenging to make his team work and deliver.

The next tip to overcome challenges in leadership is to encourage open communication among team members. You are sadly mistaken if you feel that your job as a team manager is to sit in your closed cabin and sleep. A leader needs to know what his team members are up to but yes there is a difference between knowing and interfering.

You need to give your team members the space they require. The best way to win the trust of your team members is to sit with them once in every week and enquire whether they are happy with their current role or not?

Remember, employees who are not satisfied with their jobs are the ones who create problems and badmouth their organization. Let them come up with their grievances and it is your duty to provide the most appropriate solution as soon as possible. Trust me, if minor issues are addressed at the earliest, you would never have a problem later on. Communicate in the presence of all. Common policies ought to be discussed in the presence of all so that information reaches in its desired form.

As a leader, you need to have the quality of extracting the best out of your team members. Remember, a leader ought to lead from the front. Set an example for your subordinates. Make them work as a single unit. Once in a while go out with them for sales meetings, client presentations, and so on. You need to assure your employees that you are always there with them, even in the most critical times. A boss needs to protect his team. Handhold and guide them as to what is right and what is wrong? Employees tend to blindly follow their leaders, thus as Bosses, you need to watch your behaviour carefully.

Encourage ice breaking activities at the workplace. Celebrating festivals together, going out for lunches and team outings once in a while go a long way in strengthening the bond among employees and their superiors.

Top performers need to be appreciated. Do not be rude to the ones who have not performed well this time. It would demotivate them. Sit with them and try to work on their problem areas. Trust me, this way, your subordinates would not only become your biggest fan but also strive hard to perform better.

Planning intelligently also goes a long way in overcoming challenges in leadership. Do not depend on a single plan. It is always better to be ready with Plan B than to crib later.

Leadership is no rocket science. You just need to treat your subordinates with utmost respect and care.

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