Conflict is one of the biggest challenges facing any team. 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. My advice for women leaders … 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. There is a fine line between pushing people too hard and not hard enough. It is easy to see how these seven challenges build on each other. In the face of a tidal wave of despondency it can be really tough to stay positive. From the outside looking in, leading a team can seem easy. TIP #1 – To be an effective leader, you have to set the standards expected of your team. The 6 challenges leaders face. A challenge for team leaders is getting team members aligned around a common worldview. Of all the challenges facing team leaders this may well be the most difficult to overcome. Research over the past 15 years has shown that roughly 40% of newly hired or promoted managers fail. Is this your first experience in leading a team? 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. 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. 1. These goals will identify the activities to be performed and whether individuals, sub-groups, or entire teams are best suited to get them accomplished. If you chose to please your subordinates, you will automatically fail to please your Supervisor and vice versa. But what should a leader be focused on in the midst of a global disruption? It is important to note that mastering team conflict is not the same as minimizing team conflict. It is easy to forget that leadership is a team sport, as most of what gets written about the topic focuses on leaders. Gordon Curphy is a leadership consultant specializing in succession planning, executive coaching, top team facilitation, and leadership development. Scott Tannebaum recently described three types of team conflict: task, process, and interpersonal, with the first centering around disagreements over what the team needs to do (goals, strategies, and plans), the second concerns disagreements over who does the work (role clarity and individual vs. sub-group vs. team issues) and the third pertains to people who cannot get along with each other. 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? One of the challenges of being a leader is good communication with employees. Part of being a great leader is having the ability to lead a team to success despite setbacks like miscommunication, limited resources or pressure. Stop blaming organizations and others for your shortfalls and failures. Understand your team Uncover your team’s real needs by giving them a safe space to share honest, anonymous feedback. Got promoted to a team leader and excited about your new role? Youâll soon find the bar is raised and you’re expected to up your game. In December 2013 the conference organizer EBCG invited me to Prague to lead a workshop on team leadership. In recent days, I’ve observed how COVID-19 is a test case for good and bad leadership. Lack of projects, scarcity of funds and lack of support from clients are some of the external challenges faced by a leader. Team members fail to understand their role in the bigger picture which leads to lack of motivation. 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 … No one is going to be 100% happy with their allocated tasks. So, what are the significant challenges you need to overcome to be a successful team leader? Development of leadership qualities: Though being the leader of a team could be a challenge it is also an extremely enriching experience. Donât take it personally, and patiently stand your ground. What percentage of leadership development program content focuses on getting to know oneself better or being true to oneself? 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. In my opinion, the leader’s primary responsibility is to keep the team safe, cohesive and productive. Take the bull by the horns. We achieve this through practical high-quality leadership programs, self-directed action planning and embedded learning support. You can find more about Gordon’s books, products, and consulting services at: www.curphyleadershipsolutions.com and www.TheRocketModel.com. 4, 5, 8-11. doi: 10.7748/nm.4.5.8.s16 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. Confidence during setbacks. 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. 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. Leaders at … 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. Leadership Directionsâ mission is to help emerging and frontline managers achieve positive, long-term behavioral change for themselves and their teams. Helping teams gain a common understanding of the situation will in turn help define the team’s purpose, goals, and strategies. As a leader, you are continually ensuring your team members remain positive and motivated. Platform. There are several external challenges as well in leadership. You either have to see it coming and prepare or be able to handle it on the fly because both things are inevitable. The best way to do this is to lead by example. Conflict can make people think differently, expanding knowledge and insight, and innovation can happen and results flourish. Motivating Employees 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. 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. Teams tend to get disengaged when there’s a lack of proper direction or vision. 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. What type of leader are you? 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. The distractions that you face can make it easy to lose sight of long-term and even short-term goals. It also de-motivates team members, which ultimately impacts the bottom-lineof your business. To be a leader, you need people to follow you. Some leaders are directive, while others are more open, inclusive and encourage collaboration with their team. You are the bull. Marshmallow Challenge Leaders are charged with being the visionary but responsible for developing managerial skills. 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. Broadly – it’s an influencing process. Being a leader can be really lonely. 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. 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 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. Being able to step into others shoes is a major benefit. To prevent leadership style conflicts, it’s important to recognize and appreciate these differences throughout the team. But the reality is that anything worthwhile takes time to achieve. Employee disengagement is bad for business. A lack of trust can break down a team because it threatens productivity, creates a toxic culture, and shuts down communication. 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. Challenges of Being a Leader Being named a manager does not automatically make you an inspirational leader. The values outline acceptable and aspirational behaviors, and team member support of the values is a requirement. 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. 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. And by being aware of these challenges, you can put your best foot forward in dealing with them.  Our leadership courses run over one to two days giving you exposure to theories, concepts and real-life examples of managing issues. Stepping into a new team often brings the challenge of learning the best way to lead the team. ; Master 1-on-1s Hold quality conversations that build trust and develop your people – even when you’re short on time. Challenge #5: Leverage Team Norms to Drive Performance. Leaders should look to their team … You need to be the boss and sometimes you can’t really talk through issues you’re having with your employees, team, or … 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. Team Building Workshop with DISC® Profile, Team Building with Emotional Intelligence. A prolific author, he has written 19 and sold over 100,000 books and written numerous chapters and articles on leadership and teams. Perhaps the easiest to overcome but the most overlooked challenge for team leaders is implementing the right norms to drive team member behavior. The challenge of nursing leadership is no less today than it was in the past. Use this activity to create a powerful shared vision your whole team can get behind. How to balance being an inspirational and comforting leader … 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. Image : shutterstock Being a great leader means making some very difficult choices, ones which may even go against the very core of your being. Too many organizations forget leadership is a team sport. Q4. This means keeping an eye and ear out for it, and acting on it quickly. Many of the most common leadership challenges arise when leaders are either unaware of common pitfalls, or are inattentive to developing problems. 1. Team leaders can overcome all seven of these challenges, but as it currently stands most are falling short of the mark. Challenge #7: Master Team Conflict. 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. By Signing up, you will receive our free weekly leadership insider newsletter, with complimentary downloads, tips, resources & much more to accelerate your management journey. 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. That is often easier said than done. Everyone is different, and everyone wants different things from their job and their leader. 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