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W H AT D O W E M E A N B Y T H E C H A L L E N G E S O F L E A D E R S H I P ?

Being a leader is in itself a challenge. The challenges of leadership are really of three kinds:
external, coming from people and situations; internal, stemming from within the leader himself;
and those arising from the nature of the leadership role.

Attribution Theory of Leadership


The idea that leadership is merely an attribution that people make about other individuals.
Qualities attributed to leaders:

Leaders are intelligent, outgoing, have strong verbal skills, are aggressive, understanding,
and industrious.

Effective leaders are perceived as consistent and unwavering in their decisions.

Effective leaders project the appearance of being a leader.

EXTERNAL CHALLENGES
It's almost impossible to imagine a situation where a leader doesn't have to cope with external
challenges. In an organization, such issues as lack of funding and other resources, opposition
from forces in the community, and interpersonal problems within the organization often rear their
heads. Social, economic, and political forces in the larger world can affect the organization as
well. To some extent, the measure of any leader is how well he can deal with the constant
succession of crises and minor annoyances that threaten the mission of his group. If he is able to
solve problems, take advantage of opportunities, and resolve conflict with an air of calm and a
minimum of fuss, most of the external issues are hardly noticeable to anyone else.
If the leader doesn't handle external challenges well, the organization probably won't, either.
We've all seen examples of this, in organizations where everyone, from the director to the
custodian, has a constantly worried look, and news is passed in whispers. When people feel that
leaders are stressed or unsure, they themselves become stressed or unsure as well, and the
emphasis of the group moves from its mission to the current worrisome situation. The work of
the group suffers.

INTERNAL CHALLENGES
While leadership presents to each of us the opportunity to demonstrate the best of what we are, it
also exposes our limitations. In many cases, good leaders have to overcome those limitations in
order to transmit and follow their vision. Fear, lack of confidence, insecurity, impatience,
intolerance (all can act as barriers to leadership. At the same time, acknowledging and
overcoming them can turn a mediocre leader into a great one.
It's often very difficult for people, especially those who see themselves as leaders, to admit that
they might have personality traits or personal characteristics that interfere with their ability to
reach their goals. Part of good leadership is learning to accept the reality of those traits, and
working to change them so they don't get in the way.

C H A L L E N G E S AR I S I N G F R O M L E A D E R S H I P I T S E L F
Real leadership makes great demands on people. As a leader, you are responsible for your
group's vision and mission, for upholding a standard, often for being the group's representative to
the rest of the world and its protector as well. These responsibilities might be shared, but in most
organizations, one person takes the largest part of the burden.
In addition to its responsibilities, leadership brings such challenges as motivating people - often
without seeming to do so - and keeping them from stagnating when they're doing well. Leaders
also have to motivate themselves, and not just to seem, but actually to be, enthusiastic about
what they're doing. They have to be aware of serving their group and its members and all that
that entails. In other words, they have to be leaders all the time.

W H E N AR E T H E C H A L L E N G E S O F L E A D E R S H I P M O S T O B V I O U S ?
One obvious - and correct - answer to this question is "all the time," but in fact some times are
more likely than others. Leadership is usually the most difficult when the situation is changing or
unstable. When a grass roots group is doing well - gathering allies, getting its message across,
attracting funding - no one much notices what the director does; but when something unexpected
happens, she's expected to take care of it, often in a very public way.
Some particular times when challenges may arise:

When something new is about to start. When you're beginning a new intervention,
trying something different in a program that's been running for a while, stepping up to

another stage in your initiative, or hiring a new leader, no one is quite sure what's going
to happen. Systems and relationships can break down, and it's often a matter of leadership
as to whether the new situation is successful or not.
When something is about to end. Often at the end of a school year, a particular project
or initiative, a training period - anytime when something is coming to an end and things
are, by definition, about to change - times get difficult. That may be because of a big push
to get finished, or because it's tough to tell what's coming next, or because a close-knit
group is splitting up. Whatever the reason, it often takes leadership skills to make sure
that the project ends successfully, and everyone moves on to the next phase, whatever
that is.

When times are tough. If there's not enough funding, or an organization or group is
being publicly criticized, for instance, its leader usually has to try to solve the problem in
some way: find money, reduce expenses, defuse the attacks. Leaders are tested when
times are difficult.

During transitions. There are many ways in which a group can be in transition. It may
go - because of a grant or because of other circumstances - from a loosely organized,
grass roots collective to a much more formally structured organization. It might grow
quickly...even too quickly. It might be losing some key people, or changing leaders. One
of the most difficult tasks a leader faces is trying to keep a group stable through a period
of change.

The challenges of leadership are ongoing and occur daily. Knowing when the greatest challenges
are likely to arise, however, can prepare you to meet them successfully.
Effective managers can smoothly cope up with these challenges. For creating effective leader we
should hire those who have the quality to be a effective leader and who can face these challenges
effectively. For creating effective managers organizations should hire those who have those
qualities and can train existing leaders as we know leaders are made not born.
Effective managers must develop trusting relationships with followers because, as organizations
have become less stable and predictable, strong bonds of trust are replacing bureaucratic rules in
defining expectation and relationships. Tests and interviews help identify people with leadership
qualities. Manager should also consider investing in leadership training such as formal courses,
workshops, rotating job responsibilities

For each category of challenge, there are strategies that can help leaders cope. For the external,
these include:

Be proactive
Be creative

Face conflict squarely

Look for common ground

Be objective

Be collaborative

For internal challenges, some strategies are:

Listen
360-degree feedback

Look at what's going on around you

Finally, strategies for coping with those challenges that stem directly from the circumstance of
leadership:

Create mechanisms to review the vision


Share the burden

Find mutual support with those who share your experience

Take time for yourself

If you can employ some or all of these strategies to cope with the challenges that leadership
brings, you're likely to be an effective and successful leader.

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