Comment this discussion bellow : Leadership Challenges in Today’s Environment Wh
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Question
Comment this discussion bellow :
Leadership Challenges in Today’s Environment
What are the challenges facing leaders in today’s environment? Consider both internal and external challenges within the organization.
Today’s leaders are faced with being able to work effectively in a global society. Manage people of different cultures, and backgrounds including communication barriers, cut cost and stay productive by doing more with less.
Describe the impact of those challenges on today’s leaders –How do they need to respond to them?
Leaders cannot do it by themselves they need others to be successful stated, (Pearson 2012), “No organizational leaders can succeed in today's fast evolving and highly connected world on their own. To succeed, today's leaders must not only optimize all their own faculties—mental sharpness, emotional depth, imagination, and creativity—but also utilize the full capacities of those around them in a collaborative and creative manner.”
When it comes to communication barriers, managers must be able to bring the group together and identify the issue that is preventing them from working together and let them know that each person’s role is important and have a purpose in the success of the business. Without this, managers who actually lead global teams are up against stiff challenges. Creating successful work groups is hard enough when everyone is local, and people share the same office space. But when team members come from different countries and functional backgrounds and are working in different locations, communication can rapidly deteriorate, misunderstanding can ensue, and cooperation can degenerate into distrust. (Neely 2015)
When it comes to cutting cost to stay productive leaders have to review all expenses and that sometimes if not most time includes laying off employees. Those who have worked for a company that struggled during the recent financial crisis know the scenario all too well: To cut costs, the business lays off workers. The survivors are grateful to keep their jobs and assume extra duties to keep things humming. Experts are now taking a closer look at the long-term effects of doing more with less. And some, including Ron Rael, CPA, CGMA, founder of the High Road Institute leadership consulting firm, are finding that the new pace can't last forever. (Hagel 2013). Leaders must find better ways of managing their profitability issue.
Describe at least 3-4 competencies that you think leaders need to be effective in today’s environment—Explain how these competencies will address the challenges you identified.
I believe leaders must be transparent and trust-worthy, hard-workers and have a clear vision that is understood by all. Leaders need to stay in communication with the people doing the work. Sometimes they tend to make decisions that affect others not realizing the impact it has on the business. Leaders need to visit other countries and learn the cultures there before they make decisions to move work and not realize the barriers until they happen be pro-active. And lastly, if leaders clearly state the vision of the company and how the company will benefit from the vision and centime to check with the staff to ensure they understand the vision, so it is not forgotten this will make the business run a lot smoother.
References:
Pearson, Carol, (2012), The Transforming Leader: New Approaches to Leadership for the 21st Century, 1st Edition, San Francisco, CA., Berrett-Koehler Publishers.
Neely, Tsedal, (Oct 2015), Global Teams That Work, Harvard Business Review; Boston, Vol. 93, ISS 10: pp. 15-81. Retrieved from: https://hbr.org/2015/10/global-teams-that-work.
Hagel, Jack, (Jan. 2013), The Long-Term Effects of Doing More with Less: Doing Less, Journal of Accountancy; New York, NY, Vol. 215, ISS 1.
Explanation / Answer
While the challenges mentioned are relevant and to the point, some other aspects of leadership challenges are also relevant in today's context. First of all, leaders must inspire their followers by creating an environment of constant learning, empowerment, having an opportunity to excel mastery in the work area, and a shared purpose. A study of 1,293 CEOs in 2018 has revealed that CEOs are finding a major challenge in communicating the shared purpose in their teams where most of the members and Millenials.
Another important aspect is diversity management which is broader than just managing people of different cultures and backgrounds (as mentioned in the response). The challenge is not only to manage the differences but also to take the best out of that which can become a competitive advantage for their firm. The way to do so is what is known as perspective management. The diversity management programs must be implemented by the leader throughout the organization across all the levels considering the perspectives of all the employee groups.
When we talk about the competencies of the leaders, it is the transformative skills of a leader which empowers the followers and makes them able to take up the jobs at any level when delegated. Building trust is this perspective is very important and since trust flows top-down, the leaders first need to be trustworthy. For this, the integrity of the leaders is very important. There must have to be a congruence between what leaders say and what they do in practice.