Understand your team Uncover your team’s real needs by giving them a safe space to share honest, anonymous feedback. The challenge for team leaders is to make the most efficient and effective use of team members’ time and talents, and this means clearly defining when individuals, sub-groups, or the … Have A Clear Vision of What You Want To Achieve You need to get really clear about what it is you want to achieve during your time in your leadership role. The challenge of nursing leadership is no less today than it was in the past. The reality is often very different. If the work to be performed involves some type of collective effort, rest assured teams will be used as the means for organizing people. TIP #1 – To be an effective leader, you have to set the standards expected of your team. Conflict can make people think differently, expanding knowledge and insight, and innovation can happen and results flourish. Too many organizations forget leadership is a team sport. Conflict is one of the biggest challenges facing any team. Therefore, don’t underestimate the importance of keeping your staff motivated and engaged. Whether your team is looking or not, be a leader of integrity. To be a leader, you need people to follow you. TIP #3 – Showing empathy as a leader, when required, is vital.You should expect to demonstrate this during the process of your team leader interview questions and answers. Team leaders who clearly identify the competition and benchmark against their performance, devise strategies to beat the competition, and articulate how individual and collective team members’ efforts contribute to winning have overcome this challenge. If there is one thing team leaders can learn from their athletic coach and military leader counterparts it is teaching their teams how to win. Those that never talk about the competition, have not set goals or strategies to beat the competition, or do not describe how each team members’ efforts contribute to winning fail to meet this challenge. No change will suit everyone. Gordon Curphy is a leadership consultant specializing in succession planning, executive coaching, top team facilitation, and leadership development. Stepping into a new team often brings the challenge of learning the best way to lead the team. Challenge #7: Master Team Conflict. Far too many leaders assume team members have access to the same information and see the world the same way they do, yet time and again this is often not the case. Your role as a leader is to not get off balance because of change. If you’re not convinced that trust has an important role to play in teamwork, turn your attention to the extensive research on teamwork in Google's Aristotle Project. But if you can get the balance right then you’re winning. What we call Challenge #1, the first of the “New Manager Challenges,” is the challenge of being promoted to a position of supervisory responsibility over former peers. Teams that get along fabulously and never argue over goals or the work to be performed are usually led by team leaders who value getting along over winning. If there is one thing team leaders can learn from their athletic coach and military leader counterparts it is teaching their teams how to win. They often arise in periods of instability or change, such when a program or period of work is beginning or ending, or when a group or organization is in transition. So-called “good” leadership is often a lot easier to describe than to actually implement. People who were vaguely familiar with the products, processes, and services of their peers now needed to work together to turn the business around. Everyone is different, and everyone wants different things from their job and their leader. The distractions that you face can make it easy to lose sight of long-term and even short-term goals. An organization is typically made up of hundreds if not thousands of teams, including Boards of Directors, executive leadership teams, product teams, marketing and sales teams, cross-functional teams, task forces, committees, and the like. But what exactly is leadership? “If there is no struggle, there is no progress.” Challenge 2: Getting The Buy-In Of People Unless you have followers you are not a leader and not leading a team. One of the challenges of being a leader is good communication with employees. It is tough to gain clarity, but necessary if you’re going to achieve greatness as a team leader. Having integrity means: It doesn’t matter if anyone is watching. Many congratulations on stepping into the first step of a Leadership role. Many people experience challenges when they become a leader.  Our leadership courses run over one to two days giving you exposure to theories, concepts and real-life examples of managing issues. Lack of projects, scarcity of funds and lack of support from clients are some of the external challenges faced by a leader. There is a fine line between pushing people too hard and not hard enough. The end-goal of overcoming manager challenges. Though it's very exciting I understand that you might be concerned and fretful about the new role particularly how to succeed in it. Stop blaming organizations and others for your shortfalls and failures. In understanding the different facets of team leadership, you will learn to build a cohesive and high performing team which can work together to resolve challenges and conflicts. By allowing everyone to work on a solution using their own education and experience, innovation is encouraged, making it possible to address complex and critical concerns. Many of the most common leadership challenges arise when leaders are either unaware of common pitfalls, or are inattentive to developing problems. Once you achieve anything, don’t think you can rest. Helping teams gain a common understanding of the situation will in turn help define the team’s purpose, goals, and strategies. They come in three categories: external (from people and situations); internal (from within the leader herself); and stemming from the circumstance of being a leader. Of all the challenges facing team leaders this may well be the most difficult to overcome. One of the biggest challenges my female clients are currently facing is equality in the workplace. A multi-billion dollar client recently underwent a major reorganization, which lead to the reformulation of a number of teams. Creating an Environment that Encourages Women in Leadership, How to revolutionise your leadership skills. Stop blaming organizations and others for your shortfalls and failures. Leadership poses a host of challenges. Perhaps the easiest to overcome but the most overlooked challenge for team leaders is implementing the right norms to drive team member behavior. Trust was found to be a key require… Other leaders prefer a hub and spoke leadership style, where they spend time doing one-on-ones with team members and never hold all hands team meetings. Nonetheless, a challenge for all team leaders is to ensure the dashboards, scorecards, or KPIs needed to drive team performance are in place and understood by everyone on their teams. Companies would be far better served by ensuring those teams critical to strategy execution were operating on all cylinders than spending money identifying and developing high potential talent or sending leaders off to executive education programs. Team leaders can overcome all seven of these challenges, but as it currently stands most are falling short of the mark. The challenges of leadership are inside leaders. You are the bull. Whether individual team members, a sub-set of team members, or the entire team best perform these activities is something most team leaders get wrong. Motivating Employees If you are taking over a team on which you have been a member, it is very likely that you may have formed some friendships in the course of working together. Effective team leaders foster task conflict (as it will drive better solutions), minimize process conflict by establishing clear roles and rules around individual vs. sub-group vs. team issues), and stay on top of and work out interpersonal conflicts, as the latter are the most damaging to team morale and performance. A challenge for team leaders is getting team members aligned around a common worldview. ; Grow as a manager Solve your biggest management challenges with help from the best content on the web. Is Your Team Surviving or Thriving During…, Teamwork in the Time of COVID-19: Mission, Teamwork in the Time of COVID-19: Context. Don’t take it personally, and patiently stand your ground. A lack of trust can break down a team because it threatens productivity, creates a toxic culture, and shuts down communication. In fact, with the changes and pressure facing today’s nursing leaders, the general feeling is that the challenges are becoming harder to face and overcome. As a situational question, you should use the STAR method to showcase your ability to recognize a challenge and make a plan to overcome it. No one is going to be 100% happy with their allocated tasks. Winning hearts and minds is tough, especially when proposing something different. In recent days, I’ve observed how COVID-19 is a test case for good and bad leadership. The values outline acceptable and aspirational behaviors, and team member support of the values is a requirement. Discover our 1 day Leading Teams course. So, what are the significant challenges you need to overcome to be a successful team leader? Being Treated Equally. Learn how to apply the six different leadership styles depending on the situation, and how to successfully navigate your team through the different stages of team formation. Is this your first experience in leading a team? Image : shutterstock Being a great leader means making some very difficult choices, ones which may even go against the very core of your being. Your subordinates will come to you for work and it is your duty to delegate responsibilities. It is easy to forget that leadership is a team sport, as most of what gets written about the topic focuses on leaders. Trust is a key building block of all relationships, and is especially critical in teams. Those managing team leaders can easily see how well their N-1s are coping with these challenges by asking N-2s about their customer and competitor assumptions; their understanding of team goals and roles; the extent to which team rules are helping or hindering performance; and how they win and their performance to date in skip level meetings. In the face of a tidal wave of despondency it can be really tough to stay positive. The challenge for team leaders is to make the most efficient and effective use of team members’ time and talents, and this means clearly defining when individuals, sub-groups, or the entire team is needed to get particular tasks accomplished. That is often easier said than done. A prolific author, he has written 19 and sold over 100,000 books and written numerous chapters and articles on leadership and teams. We achieve this through practical high-quality leadership programs, self-directed action planning and embedded learning support. Responding to these different demands and agendas is tough, but rewarding if you can get it right. Being able to step into others shoes is a major benefit. Confidence during setbacks. Platform. Be proactive in setting goals, as well as establishing the timelines — and deadlines — necessary to keep yourself and your teams on track. Challenge #3: Are You a Group or a Team? Being a leader can be really lonely. It is easy to see how these seven challenges build on each other. You’ll soon find the bar is raised and you’re expected to up your game. Leaders at … Development of leadership qualities: Though being the leader of a team could be a challenge it is also an extremely enriching experience. What type of leader are you? Yet humans are social animals, and the basic work unit in most public and private sector organizations is the team. How to balance being an inspirational and comforting leader … Leaders can sometimes feel overwhelmed by these challenges, but take heart in the fact that you’re not alone. By Signing up, you will receive our free weekly leadership insider newsletter, with complimentary downloads, tips, resources & much more to accelerate your management journey. If team meetings are a waste of time, team members are constantly being surprised, ill-informed decisions are consistently made, strict behavioral standards are applied to some team members but not others, and teams never take a step back to review how they are operating as a team, then these team leaders have not overcome the team norm challenge. December 14, 2013 fm. For example, team size can be problematic, and many executive leadership teams are too big to be effective. Some team leaders suffer from inclusivity overload, which is why it can take their teams an hour to determine when the next meeting will take place. Conflict, or a difference of opinion, can be healthy and, if carefully managed, it can trigger useful debates. If the leadership team isn’t doing what you expect managers to do, you’ll have a snowball effect and struggle to get everyone on the same page. Disengagement in teams is often a result of lack of clarity on team goals and how they contribute to the organization. 1. This means keeping an eye and ear out for it, and acting on it quickly. In my opinion, the leader’s primary responsibility is to keep the team safe, cohesive and productive. Challenge #2: Establish the Team’s Purpose. But the reality is that anything worthwhile takes time to achieve. With so much on your plate as a leader, it is tempting to want to clear tasks quickly. Team leaders need to understand that vision, mission, and purpose statements are merely statements of intent; they usually will not result in any tangible action until they are translated into meaningful goals, metrics, and strategies. Nursing Management. ; Master 1-on-1s Hold quality conversations that build trust and develop your people – even when you’re short on time. So, what are the significant challenges you need to overcome to be a successful team leader? Q4. The democratic leadership style empowers leaders to work with their team, based on consensus, to create open lines of communication that acknowledge the problems being faced. Research over the past 15 years has shown that roughly 40% of newly hired or promoted managers fail. Team members fail to understand their role in the bigger picture which leads to lack of motivation. These goals will identify the activities to be performed and whether individuals, sub-groups, or entire teams are best suited to get them accomplished. You don’t engage in behavior that is seen, in your workplace culture, as being wrong or unacceptable. Winning hearts and minds is tricky, but it’s not impossible. Got promoted to a team leader and excited about your new role? The 6 challenges leaders face. Some leaders are directive, while others are more open, inclusive and encourage collaboration with their team. It is easier for leaders in some industries (retail, restaurants, and manufacturing) and functions (sales, operations, and customer service) than it is for others to quantify team performance. Marshmallow Challenge Most of the time team members have a shared understanding of their team’s purpose, but team leaders may need to work through this issue with new or highly dysfunctional teams. All these latter two groups think about is winning; public and private sector team leaders rarely if ever talk about winning. You need to be the boss and sometimes you can’t really talk through issues you’re having with your employees, team, or … Teams play a pervasive role in organizations, and those wanting to be effective team leaders will need to overcome seven challenges unique to teams: Challenge #1: Create a Common Understanding of the Situation. 4, 5, 8-11. doi: 10.7748/nm.4.5.8.s16 To prevent leadership style conflicts, it’s important to recognize and appreciate these differences throughout the team. Seven Challenges For Team Leaders 14 Dec 2013. fm Charisma, Inspiration, Leadership, Moderation, Motivation, Teambuilding, Workshops No Comments. Broadly – it’s an influencing process. But as leaders look to broader, longer-term concerns, here are the five most common leadership challenges I heard from them. My advice for women leaders … But what should a leader be focused on in the midst of a global disruption? Other challenges include getting the right reporting structures in place (matrix structures tend to interfere with good teamwork), clarifying team members’ roles and responsibilities, ensuring team behavior and performance is adequately incented, and dealing with team killers. You either have to see it coming and prepare or be able to handle it on the fly because both things are inevitable. Use this activity to create a powerful shared vision your whole team can get behind. As a team leader, how much ever you try, you CANNOT please your immediate ascendings and decsendings on your organizational chart at the same time. If you chose to please your subordinates, you will automatically fail to please your Supervisor and vice versa. Take the bull by the horns. Team Building Workshop with DISC® Profile, Team Building with Emotional Intelligence. There is no excuse for team leaders for not implementing a set of meeting, communication, decision-making, accountability, and self-adjustment norms that help rather than hinder team performance. You need to get really clear about what it is you want to achieve during your time in your leadership role. Different opinions are not a bad thing. Leaders should look to their team … In December 2013 the conference organizer EBCG invited me to Prague to lead a workshop on team leadership. TIP # 2 – Being firm but fair is a great way to lead. Teams rarely if ever get mentioned in the leadership literature, are underrepresented in many leadership competency models, do not make up any of the curriculum in a vast majority of leadership programs, or are taken into account when promoting people or appraising their performance. From the outside looking in, leading a team can seem easy. 1. You can find more about Gordon’s books, products, and consulting services at: www.curphyleadershipsolutions.com and www.TheRocketModel.com. Teams tend to get disengaged when there’s a lack of proper direction or vision. Challenge #4: Manage Team Talent. Because they were coming from different parts of the organization, everyone on these new teams had their own views about customers, competitors, suppliers, regulators, headquarters, and the other internal teams they relied upon to be successful. There are several external challenges as well in leadership. Being ethical and honest in all things is crucial to a team leader. Team goals and activities will also determine how many people are needed, how they should be organized, what roles are to be played, which norms are needed to bolster team performance, and how to properly manage conflict and help teams win. What percentage of leadership development program content focuses on getting to know oneself better or being true to oneself? 5. And by being aware of these challenges, you can put your best foot forward in dealing with them. An influencing process involving imagining future possibilities for the organisation, figuring out strategies to achieve those possibilities and engaging followers to act of their own free will to achieve the changing goals of the organisation. It is important to note that mastering team conflict is not the same as minimizing team conflict. How many articles and blogs get published each year with authors claiming that their lists of characteristics or traits is all it takes for someone to be a great leader? Challenge #5: Leverage Team Norms to Drive Performance. And not everyone will get along. Part of being a great leader is having the ability to lead a team to success despite setbacks like miscommunication, limited resources or pressure. Team goals and strategies define the activities that need to be completed for teams to be successful. What role do individuals play in your organization’s recruiting, hiring, on-boarding, performance management, succession planning, and compensation systems? Leadership Directions’ mission is to help emerging and frontline managers achieve positive, long-term behavioral change for themselves and their teams. Resistance from direct reports is an inevitable part of being a leader. Challenges of Being a Leader Being named a manager does not automatically make you an inspirational leader. As a leader, you are continually ensuring your team members remain positive and motivated. Challenge #6: Teach Teams How to Win. However, you also need to ensure that you retain your own personal positivity. One reason why is that many team leaders falsely believe that team member skills, experience, and abilities are all that matters, when in reality there are other team talent considerations. You can easily get sucked into dealing with urgent issues that arise unexpectedly rather than staying focused on producing the outcomes that matter most to your organization.While no lea… Negativity spreads like a virus, and it is crucial you stop it in its tracks when you can. Leaders are charged with being the visionary but responsible for developing managerial skills. Many project managers and team leaders work hard to clarify team values early in the formation process. Helping a team align on purpose and group culture is a vital part of being an effective leader. While leading a team is hugely rewarding, there are many challenges too. It also de-motivates team members, which ultimately impacts the bottom-lineof your business. As a leader, a mentor or a manager, the end-goal is the same – … The best way to do this is to lead by example. 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