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Leadership and followership
Leadership and followership

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1 Challenges for modern leaders

The role of leader is not an easy one. They must juggle and prioritise many complex responsibilities and as leadership styles and employee expectations develop and change, they must increasingly prioritise the wellbeing of their staff. While many leaders thrive on the variety, it can also be challenging.

A snow-covered mountain peak.
Figure 1 There are many challenges for modern leaders

In recent years, many researchers have surveyed leaders across the globe, aiming to identify common leadership challenges. Before you explore some of the results in more detail, you’ll start by considering your own perceptions.

Activity 1 Three most critical leadership challenges

Timing: Allow about 5 minutes

What are the three most critical leadership challenges you or your leaders currently face? List them in the box below:

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Discussion

Did you choose predominantly internal or external challenges, or a mix of both? Perhaps you focused on the internal challenges involved with building and motivating your team. Or you might have considered national or global issues that could impact on your leadership.

As you’ve already learned, the challenges different leaders face will vary, depending on the context of their work and their own personal strengths and abilities.

When searching online for the most common leadership challenges in recent times, the following are frequently mentioned:

  • leading a team
  • inspiring and motivating others
  • developing employees
  • dealing with change
  • fostering trust.

Drawing from her experience of working with many high-profile leaders, from elected politicians to civic activists and other public and private sector professionals, Professor Jean Hartley adds her own impressions of common leadership challenges.

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Following on from Professor Hartley’s comments, in the prologue to his practical and insightful book, Grace Under Pressure: Leading through Change and Crisis, John Baldoni (2023) expands on the phrase ‘grace under pressure’, describing it as meeting:

  • anger with composure
  • denigration with respect
  • sadness with compassion
  • scarcity with abundance
  • insults with smiles
  • selfishness with selflessness
  • hoarding with generosity
  • life with gratitude.
Baldoni, 2023, p. xvii

Something for everyone to aspire to!

Before you look in more detail at some of the most common issues, you’ll spend a few minutes reflecting on your own experience of a leadership challenge.

Activity 2 Personal leadership challenges

Timing: Allow about 20 minutes

Reflect on your experiences of leadership challenge, either as the leader or as an observer. Choose one example from the common challenges highlighted so far to consider in more detail. Summarise the challenge/situation in the box below.

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Now answer these questions:

What actions did the leader take?

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What actions did others take?

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What was the outcome?

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Discussion

By reflecting on your own times of challenge or crisis and considering your actions, you can gain an insight into your own methods and assess whether you need to change them. Use your leadership journal to do this regularly.

If you were reflecting on the actions of a leader you observed, you can learn from their strengths and weaknesses and apply what you have learned to your own leadership practice either now or in the future.

In the next section, you’ll focus on the challenging but crucial process of building and leading a motivated team.