10 Ways to Grow into Challenges
Certainty is a symptom of ignorance.
You’re never fully up to real challenges. If you feel prepared for the challenge, it’s really just business as usual.
The top 12 leadership challenges:
- Dealing with ego and developing humility.
- Building environments where there’s a sense of pull rather than push.
- Establishing mutually supportive relationships with the board, boss, colleagues, subordinates, and customers.
- Overcoming failure and navigating success.
- Understanding others and developing the team.
- Creating wins.
- Facing turbulence.
- Uncertain results.
- Emerging competition.
- Untested leadership skills, no track record.
- Including fresh, young blood on the team.
- Finding time for reflection.
Challenges bring out your best when they:
- Inspire humility.
- Motivate preparation.
- Drive connection.
- Fuel growth.
Success requires humility, preparation, connection, and growth.
Leadership growth represents organizational potential.
How to grow into challenges:
You grow a little on your own, but exponential growth happens in community, while facing challenges together.
- Determine if you’re committed to personal growth and improvement.
- Stop dragging the past behind you. Cut the rope and start fresh. Connect with those who release you from past failure.
- Identify an important leadership challenge. What are you trying to accomplish?
- Paint an alluring picture of the win in conversation with power players, colleagues, subordinates, and customers. What does the win look like?
- Determine leadership skills – in behavioral terms – that move yourself and others toward the win. (One to three skills, no more.) Leadership success begins with you but always ends with influencing others. What behaviors take you there?
- Invite key players to participate in your growth. Include them in steps 2 – 5.
- Set quarterly milestones for evaluation. How are we moving toward the win?
- Establish frequent feedback structures.
- Celebrate improvement.
- Adjust strategies where progress is slow. Start again.
Essential: Personal and organizational progress must be defined in behavioral terms. If you can’t see it, it doesn’t matter.
What is on your list of top leadership challenges?
How can leaders grow into challenges?
>> What is on your list of top leadership challenges? <<
Staying constructive when interpersonal relationships breakdown, then navigating MUTUAL restoration…
(combating blame, betrayal, paranoia, all those ugly head games)
Thanks Ken. That’s a big one! I see the big MUTUAL. When only one wants restoration, there is no restoration.
Exactly Dan. In more times then not, most of my experiences where there has been a lack of restoration it boiled down to an inability to face and address dishonesty in the relationship.
Without honesty, there is no ‘true’ restoration.
Top of my list are #1 and #10.
Grow into them though taking risk, willingly stepping into vulnerability and exercising discipline.
Earning the Respect from our peers strikes as a major challenge constantly having to prove our value. Then again if you want to Lead you have to be prepared, for the unexpected at which point you show your Leadership expertise.
My top 3 list is: Untested leadership skills and then emerging competition and 3rd facing turbulence.
How can leaders grow: Determine leadership skills…and then adjust strategies….and finally Celebrate improvement….adjust strategies….determine new skills….
Thanks !
Dear Dan,
“Certainty is the symptom of ignorance” is truly virile concept. When we predict the consequences of our action, we make mistake. Many times, we also make safe assumption in our favor that if we do this we get that. And I think it is always true. So, Leaders do not look for certainty, rather they look for process. They make make process that work for everyone and ensure proper execution.
One thing that leaders should know in its process of development- when to quit. Many times, leaders develop affinity to the position in the organisation. They do not want to leave when other competent people can sail it smoothly. They should know, how to hand over legacy to other competent people. But, I think the most powerful leadership challenge is about leadership style itself. Leader should question itself whether he or she is inclined to personal growth or people growth. If the answer is people growth, then we can say that it is true reflection of leadership. But when the answer is personal growth, then it is the real reflection of selfishness, and it is not leadership.
Thats a very relevent post – something we all need. I can relate to point 1 and 5 in the challenges a lot. I think leaders also have to do a lot of reading – the answers they need to lead in todays world may be in oout there – but in domains they are not trained to look into (mytholofy/ history/ design etc.?)