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The Point: Maya Angelou once wrote that …‘what is true anywhere is true everywhere’. While the later author had a different context in mind, herThis quote is relevant to the world of business, especially when we talk about leadership development. Latest research shows that business leaders around the world face uncertainties as we head into 2015. In this article, we discuss the major leadership challenge(s) organizations across the globe face… Enjoy!

#5 Efficient Management

So much to do and so little time to do it is a major leadership challenge, not only in America but in countries like India and China as well. It should also be added that along with time, personal health and stamina are also valuable commodities that a leader cannot afford to spend excessively. So before a leader starts to manage a business, he needs to learn how to manage his own time and energy. This calls for prioritization, strategic thinking, and more delegation. This is especially true when you also have to manage the internal politics and act as mediator between the various stakeholders to avoid conflict.\

#4 Employee Development

When we talk about a greater need of delegation, we first need to have talented employees that can be trusted with important organizational tasks. Not only is the modern leader responsible for hiring people that have the potential to serve as future leaders in the firm, but he must also mentor and coach them. Employee development is a pressing need for businesses that are struggling with a lack of skilled applicants, especially in Egypt.

#3 Motivating the Workforce

It is not enough for the senior management to verbally tell the employees how valued they are to the organization. Actively inspiring and motivating others to ensure both operational efficiency and job satisfaction is also part of developing a company’s human material. Economies like Singapore are increasingly researching ways on how keep employees motivated.

#2 Team Management

It is not enough to hire and nurture skilled employees. As a leader, you also need to bring all these people on the same page as team and facilitate their individual and collective growth. One of the best ways to lead a team is to hire an executive coach for the entire group. That way, the workforce development becomes streamlined. Spanish and British companies especially need to pay attention to their leaders’ team management skills, and so do organizations at home.

#1 The Leader as Change Master

Finally and most importantly, leaders need to understand that they operate in a volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) environment. This means that no matter how hard you work to create an innovative, efficient, and healthy organizational, both internal and externals factors will continue to disturb this stability. This environment can only be tackled by leaders that are flexible and open to change.   Surprisingly, countries like England list receptivity resistance to chance as a top leadership challenge.

Summary

To sum up, the modern leader faces common challenges regardless of the country s/he works in. They are responsible for not only supervising, but training and motivating diverse groups of people to make the workplace more efficient and to achieve company objectives. Now that these common challenges have been identified, finding effective strategies to counter them will help leaders of tomorrow to run profitable companies, even in uncertain economic conditions.

If you’d like more information about Tip of the Spear’s Business Advisory Services, consisting of Centered Executive Coaching, Leadership Development through ‘The Leadership Challenge’ methodology, and Communication Skills Training for Leaders use the CONTACT US page of this website.

The Point: Less than 10% of all employees trust their leaders. Only 40% of leaders have a high view of their organizational leadership, while only 1 in 4 people in HR are satisfied with its company’s senior management. Meanwhile, investments in leadership development continue to be rolled out in billions. But since we are not seeing the necessary results, many question the very need of paying for leadership development. So we thought we’d ask… Is leadership development a waste of time? Unequivocally we can say that we don’t agree, and here are three reasons why… Enjoy!

A Leader Connects the Dots

Taking an example of sports entertainment, the demise of World Championship Wrestling (WCW) serves as the perfect example of how a lack of leadership can bring a multi-billion dollar corporation to the ground, even when they have all the right tools in place. WCW hired the top wrestling talent and executives not only from its rival promotion, but from international companies as well. It had wrestling stars that actually made sports entertainment popular in the 80s. Then there were celebrities like Jay Leno and KISS who made frequent appearances on the company’s shows.  Most importantly, WCW has the backing of a media giant.

So what went wrong? To start off, no one knew who the boss was. Decisions were made at the last minutes, and no one was there to control the inflated egos (and inflated paychecks) of the top stars. In the end, the company was acquired by a rival promotion which WCW had outrun in TV ratings for a better half of the late 90s. The difference: this other company was run by an innovative leader.

A Leader Motivates

When only 7% of employees trust the top executives in their company, we have a serious issue of workplace motivation. Yes, good paychecks, job security, and employee benefits go a long way in motivating people to bring out their best for a company, but let us not forget the role of a leader in maintaining job satisfaction in his team.

We can relate this from personal experience how many people resign on the spot when they hear about a senior manager leaving the company. While they may not admit it when given job satisfaction surveys, the reasons that employees give for resenting work boils down to leadership. They will use words like ‘low morale’ and ‘poor communication’, they are obviously talking about the quality of leadership in the company.

Once again, even if all pieces of the puzzle are in place, employees will still feel de-motivated if there is no genuine leadership above themto guide them.

A Leader Gives Direction

Finally and most importantly, a leader plays the same role as an editor of a major publication. You see, no matter how many great writers contribute to The Chicago Tribune or The New Yorker, what makes a publication stand out is its unique voice that resonates through every piece of content in its pages, even the ads. A typical newspaper editor has to sift through millions of words everyday to bring out the best articles and stories that stick true to the publication’s overall theme.

This is exactly what a leader does. Using robust communication skills, he instills the company’s vision into each of his employees so that everyone works towards a common goal. He spots the best talent, and deals with the bad seeds effectively. But while an editor may work in anonymity, CEOs and other business leaders are constantly being monitored, both by their team and the industry at large.

So, considering how important leaders are, the cost of not paying for their coaching and development is too significant to be expressed in numbers.

Summary

There is a definite dearth of effective leadership in corporations across the globe, which is why we cannot disregard the importance of leadership development. At the same time, unless such programs are tweaked to take these challenges into account, we are not going to see radical changes in the way things are run.

If you’d like more information about Tip of the Spear’s Business Advisory Services, consisting of Centered Executive Coaching, Leadership Development through ‘The Leadership Challenge’ methodology, and Communication Skills Training for Leaders use the CONTACT US page of this website.

The Point: Here at the Tip of the Spear ‘The Point!’ blog we have highlighted the importance of investing in leadership development. We have also talked about how effective leadership development is in terms of ROI (such as with Executive Coaching). But all these benefits are only possible if the leadership development is approached in the right manner. In this post, we list four tips to make a leadership development endeavor successful… Enjoy!

#4 Measure Results

More often than not, the effectiveness of a leadership development program is judged by the satisfaction of the executives. While there is nothing wrong in using satisfaction as a criterion, Bbut satisfaction doesn’t always guarantee effectiveness. In fact, satisfaction can also mean that executive wasn’t challenged at all during the development training. Money wasted. The same is true when you only use participant feedback. In this scenario, the trainee will learn to game the system and perform in a specific manner simply to ‘pass the test’.

That is why it necessary to use effective systems to track progress and measure changes in the leader’s behavior over time. If participant feedback proves to be ineffective, imagine the implications ofconsider using 360 degree-feedback, where the results of the training exercises are shared with others. Of course, you can still say that the leader will only perform under the fear of negative feedback in this case as well, instead of experiencing genuine behavioral changes. But more on this in a while.

In the long run, the true measure of leadership development success is productivity boosts, cost savings, improved job satisfaction, and increased profits.

#3 Personal Development

While leadership training focuses on improving the corporate performance of managers and executives, many a times this involves prying a little in the trainee’s personality as well. Sometimes, a reluctance to change and improve as a leader often stems from the person’s mind-set. Employees, fellow managers, and even the board of directors don’t feel comfortable in addressing these issues, but this is where a leadership coach comes in. He will identify the root cause of why the leader is acting in the way he does, which may prove to be a little discomforting at first (see the point on satisfaction above), but this is necessary. Maybe the person is an introvert, or he has trust issues. These need to be resolved so that company objectives are fulfilled.

#2 Context is King

Many things come under the leadership umbrella: writing, speaking, listening, body language, confidence, personal grooming, emotional intelligence, and so on. You may excel at some of theseleadership skills, while lack at others. The key is to identify which areas of your leadership persona are most relevant to the company’s overall goals (or current strategic needs), and then to determine which of these skills need improvement. For best results, leadership training should only be focused on 1-2 core areas.

#1 Development on the Job

Finally, considering that the leader is the most crucial element in the organizational structure, it is hard to determine the mode of training. Should he take some time off work, be trained after work, or during the job? Every option has its pros and cons, but theThe third one seems to be the best, considering that this will not affect the company’s operations in any way. For example, if the trainee is an introvert and he needs to make a presentation on the company’s financial progress in the last quarter, the coach can teach him how to face a crowd with confidence. Thus, he is not only being trained while working, but the quality of his work will improve in the process. Not to mention, you will get feedback from the very people you are leading.

Summary

Once again, the only way in which leadership training can succeed is when it is approached with the right frame of mind. Underlying issues need to be identified, the training should be contextual, and most importantly, there should be a robust method to track results.

If you’d like more information about Tip of the Spear’s Business Advisory Services, consisting of Centered Executive Coaching, Leadership Development through ‘The Leadership Challenge’ methodology, and Communication Skills Training for Leaders use the CONTACT US page of this website.