The Leadership Challenge in Fast Moving Era

Leadership is a challenging job. Leaders who do not understand their employees well will find it difficult to produce good performance. Leaders are said to be successful when their team looks up to them and treats them as their role models, so they can respond well to various challenges together.

Today's, the challenges of being a leader are getting bigger. What are the challenges of a leader in the future? This is not necessarily the same as the challenges of current leaders, or in the past.

The world is very dynamic. What will be a challenge this year, will not necessarily be the same as in 10 years to come. A leader should be able to recognize these dynamic challenges in order to effectively conquer them.

What will be the biggest challenges in organizations and leadership today? Are the challenges different around the world?

A study describes and answers each of these questions by collecting input from more than 763 mid-level leaders and executives. The leaders studied were leaders in organizations from various regions of the world such as, China, Hong Kong, Egypt, India, Singapore, Spain, England, and the United States.

So, what are the challenges for leaders in this fast-moving era?

#1 Challenges of Leaders in Developing Managerial Effectiveness

The development of managerial effectiveness is a challenge to develop relevant skills. Managerial effectiveness includes time management, priority management, strategic thinking, decision making and increasing productivity to be more effective at work.

A leader must be good at managing so that he can continue to be involved in the activities of his team, both short term and long term. Use to do lists for daily plans for tasks and activities. Mark tasks that are important and urgent so that you can do better management.

If there's too much to do, don't hesitate to say no. Feel free to say “no” or reject it, in favor of activities you marked as “important and urgent”.

Make sure, you have priorities and know these priorities well!

#2 A Leader's Challenge in Inspiring

Leaders are synonymous with influence. A leader must be able to influence and inspire his team. For this reason, the vision and mission play a very important role. Moreover, in a world that is constantly changing, the vision and mission must continue to be able to dynamically follow it.

Vision and mission allow others to feel as though their work has purpose and meaning beyond the tasks they perform every day. The inspiration given by the leader will encourage the team and make the team more familiar with the big picture of the goals of the organization or company.

Communicate regularly with your team. Communicate regularly to help reinforce the reason for your organization's existence. But, don't just make your team understand you, but you also have to understand your team.

A good leader must be intellectually inquisitive and determined to learn, including to understand his team. They are curious and always looking for new ideas, insights and information, from anyone.

#3 Leader Challenges in Developing Quality Team Performance

An organization will be more advanced if it is developed by qualified people in it according to their fields and skills. For this reason, developing the quality and skills of the team to be more effective at work and improving organizational development is important.

You need to invest your time, effort and money to develop them. The key to actively developing employees is setting relevant and attainable goals. Update goals and strategies according to the times and the needs of your organization.

Instead of setting and discussing employee goals every year, it is better to optimize the development and review process by creating goals on a quarterly basis. In addition, it is also important to encourage employees to seek professional development opportunities outside the workplace.

Employees who aim to advance their skills in their own day are likely to be great leaders. You have to acknowledge the effort they put in.

#4 Leader Challenges in Leading a Team

Leading a team is a team development and team management challenge. This particular challenge includes how to instill pride in the team that will support teamwork. As a leader, you need to be able to lead a growing team of any size. A team that continues to grow, also requires you to continue to grow. You also have to be ready if at any time you have to take over a new team.

Create a fun team work atmosphere, not too serious or tense. But, also make sure to stay to the point on the goals and objectives of the organization that have been mutually agreed upon. Make teamwork more compact with activities that don't smell like business and office matters. You can take advantage of the moment of a birthday or a moment of traveling together to strengthen togetherness.

#5 Challenges of Leaders in Facing Change

Change will always be there. There is nothing we can do to prevent change. All we can do is adapt to change. We must also minimize the negative impact of change, and prepare ahead of time if possible.

So, no need to be afraid of change! You as a leader need to confirm this to your subordinates. Change will become a momentum for development if you and your team members react to it in a positive light.