Challenges and Improvements in Leadership Development Programs

This article discusses the challenges faced by leaders in organizations due to lack of effective leadership skills and the need for improvements in leadership development programs. It provides recommendations for coping with the challenges and improving the quality of leadership development programs. The challenges faced by leaders include external and internal forces, innovation, managerial ineffectiveness, managing internal stakeholders, guiding change, motivating others, cultural differences, technology advancement, globalization, and demographic shifts. The article suggests that effective leadership training, developing a sense of awareness, focusing on practical aspects, connecting with others, recruiting positive people, reporting problems, coaching and mentoring, and influencing behavior can help in improving the quality of leadership development programs.

Running Head: Leadership 0
Leadership
(Student Name)
9/5/2018

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Introduction
Leadership plays a significant role in the contemporary business world with a high
degree of uncertainty. The supervision remains a critical factor for the success of any
organization in the world of business (Fairhurst & Connaughton, 2014). Most of the
organization fails to achieve the target because of a lack of effective supervision skills
(Antonakis & Day, 2017). Supervisors greatly impact the behavior of endeavor, motivation,
employees and the performance by utilizing effective leadership skills (Tourish, 2014).
Leadership is an important tool which is required by the organization that helps in the
maximization of profit and the achievement of the goal (Northouse, 2018).
Leadership is the art of influencing people to work in a more effective manner,
willingly and enthusiastically towards the achievement of the goal (Raelin, 2014). It is an
important function of management (Daft, 2014). For a good leader, the person requires an
adequate knowledge and skills in leading people. It is the process of influencing others to
achieve the organizational goal effectively and efficiently (Craig, 2016).
(Source: Inventiva, 2017)
In the recent competitive world, customers mostly concentrate on the quality of the
product, which may be needed by every organization, the effective leader of the supervisor to

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operate the function efficiently and meet the expectation of customers while keeping the
focus on the organizational objective (Leithwood & Azah, 2016).
Most of the organization faces the challenges of leading an organization (Rosenbach,
2018). In the following context, there will be a detailed discussion on the issues that are faced
by most of the organization which requires some changes to cope up with the challenges
faced by most of the organization. In the end, there are certain recommendations that are
needed to improve the quality of leadership development programs.
Challenges in leading an Organization
In the recent world, the leaders face certain challenges of leading an organization.
Being a leader is in itself a challenge (Cawthorn, 2017). There are certain challenges such as
external, internal and other forces which are faced by an organization. The challenges are
explained in below points (Johnson, 2017):
(Source: Stidworthy, 2016)
 External challenges

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External challenges are those challenges which occur from external force and there is
no control on such forces such as social, political and economic forces which affect the
organization as a whole (Community Tool Box, 2018). Such external challenges are:
a. The criticism of public which involves uninformed criticism of the group or mission.
b. The issue of crises which include financial crises, politics, public relationship, programs,
legal concern, and issues related to spirituals such as low morale, loss of enthusiasm.
c. Hospitality from powerful forces such as local government, business groups, and an
influential organization.
d. The windfall of political and financial which can be harder to handle.
e. the issue of collaboration with another group or organization which create boundaries for a
leader within which he can operate and balance between the need of own group and
collaborative initiative as a whole.
 Internal Challenges
The attitude and tendencies towards the work by the leader include in internal
challenges. Leaders are a human being, one of the greatest challenges of leadership is facing
by the leader is the personal issues (Terhoven & Fataar, 2018). Such of the internal issues are
explained below:
a. Most of the people are facing the issue of insecurity. Insecurity of that sort, keep the
individual from being proactive from following the vision which can be crippling to both a
leader and the organization as a whole.

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b. the issue of defensiveness found in most of the individuals which show an inability to
handle or take criticism. An individual or leader resist changing the idea, plans or assumption
even the current plan shown to be ineffective which create a direct impact on the
organization.
c. Sometimes the leader was not able to make decision making quickly and effectively which
create a challenge in leading the organization.
d. Some of the leaders feel bad to give negative feedback to their employees, which make
them letting things go that make the situation worse.
e. Some of the leaders are impatient which made a rash decision and often make the situation
worse rather than better.
 Innovation Constantly
Innovation is the key factor for the success of the organization and there is an
unpredictable environment which needs strong decision making and constant innovation. In
today world the fluctuation in internal and external factors of the environment has been
increased. Therefore, it would be difficult for the leader to cope up with such issues and make
innovative idea constantly which is the great challenge faced in leading the organization
(Center for Creative Leadership, 2018).
 Managerial ineffectiveness
The challenge of developing managerial skills such as strategic thinking, time
management, getting more effective at work and prioritization are faced by the leaders in
leading the organization.
 Managing Internal Stakeholders

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The challenge of managing the relationship with internal stakeholders is faced by
most of the leaders in the organization. The challenges that may face by the leaders are
gaining managerial support, managing up, and getting buy-in from other departments, group,
or individuals.
 Guiding change
The challenge of mobilizing, managing, understanding and leading change is faced by
the leader in guiding change. Guiding change involves knowing how to mitigate
consequences, overcome resistance to change and deal with employees reaction change.
 Motivating other
Motivating or inspiring other is the great challenge faced by the leader in leading the
organization. To ensure that the employees are satisfied with their job and working smart is
the tough task for the leader because every employee has different nature.
 Cultural difference
The main challenge faced by the organization is handling of employees because of the
huge cultural difference. The leader has to manage the employees which found difficult and
create a problem in leading the organization (Marques & Dhiman, 2017).
 Advancement of technology
The business leader may find it difficult to adjust to the prominent change in
technology. The leader faces challenges in adopting new technology which creates a problem
in leading the business.
 Globalization

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The work of an organization is expanded globally, the work of the leader has also
been stretch which increases their responsibility and the risk such as external and internal has
also been increased. The leader is facing the issue of risk that is needed to handle, which
create a direct impact on leading the organization efficiently.
 Demographic shifts
In the recent business world, along with the globalization, there is a huge shift in
demographics which create a great challenge in leading the organization.
Need for changes
The leader is facing certain issues in leading the organization. Therefore, there is a
need to change the frame to cope up with the challenges faced by the leader (Tian & Wang,
2018). There are certain points to cope up with the challenges are explained below:
(Source: EBR, 2017)
 Be Proactive
The leader has to be proactive towards the situation with the right strategy. It is
important for the leader to do something. This will help the leader to meet the challenges in a
more efficient manner.

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 Active Communicator
It is important for a leader to be a good communicator but it is critical to be an active
communicator all the time. During the time of change, the leader should inform and allow the
employee an open environment in which to express concern and query. It is effective in
managing during the time of change.
 Provide feedback for improvement of performance
The leader should give feedback to the employees regarding the performance which
has a direct link with the performance appraisal. It will help in cope up with the internal
issues faced by the leader and motivate employees to work more efficiently and effectively,
which is needed for leading the organization properly and efficiently (Northouse, 2018).
 Know the organizational priorities
The priorities of the organization should be clear in the mind of leaders. A leader has
to develop a rapport with key people within each boundary by learning what is important to
them as individuals and as a group within the respective culture.
 Flexible Nature
The leader has to make a flexible attitude which helps the leader to adapt and learn the
changes happen in an organization that helps the leader in leading the organization more
effectively.
 Thorough
For the benefit of the organization, the leader must explore the possible outcomes.
Strong leader runs the change idea through every potential worst and best case scenario.

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 Adaptability
The effectiveness of the leader depends on the nature of adaptability by the leader. It
requires the ability to anticipate and cope with the unexpected situation. The strong indicator
of adaptability includes
Proactive nature,
Optimism
Collaboration
Purposefulness
 Start from the top level
The successful change management initiatives start at the top with a well-aligned
group of individuals which is effectively supported by CEO. The alignment cannot take for
granted, rather the work must be done in advance to ensure that every individual in the
organization agrees and adopt the changes which help in successful implementation of the
changes.
 Focus on target
The leader must focus on the organizational goal and set a target to achieve the
desired goal of the organization. Different strategies must be applied to run the organization
effectively and efficiently, that would help in leading the organization more smoothly.
 Technology Advancement

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In the recent world, the advancement of technology has been increased which create
inefficiency for the leader to adopt changes. Therefore, proper training should be provided to
the leader to adopt the changes easily and effectively.
 Managing Complexity
A leader must have a quality of problem-solving that can make effective decision
making under rapidly shifting circumstances. Learning to lead in the complex environment is
a vital skill for any leader. A leader must have a capability to choose an appropriate course of
action.
 Promoting Teamwork and building an effective team
Building a team is essential for leading a diverse and different group of people with
distinct personalities, motivation, and skills that help the leader to remove the issue of
cultural difference and leading the organization more effectively.
 Motivating Employee
Most of the organization faces the issue of forcing an employee to reach the desired
goal. Therefore, the leader must have a quality to motivate employees to strive
wholeheartedly for the goal of the company which would help the leader to run the
organization more efficiently.
 Managing Stakeholders
Managing stakeholder is an important and tough task for a leader. Most of the
organization faced the issue in managing stakeholders. Therefore, Proper strategies must be
adopted by the leader to handle such issues which are necessary to satisfy the stakeholders of
the organization.

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Improvements
Leadership development program is the program associated by the organization to
grow leaders to achieve the desired goal in the organization. Most of the organization neglect
to identify the capabilities and attributes of their own leaders. Improvement in the framework
for leadership development is required to achieve the organizational goal (Pardey, 2016).
There are certain points to improve the quality of leadership development programs which
are explained below:
(Source: Pappas, 2016)
 Effective Leadership Training
Leadership development and the program can be redesign using different strategies
for mastering small interventions. Proper training should be provided to develop leadership.
Leadership is a daily intervention and the summation of multiple minor tasks. Therefore,
proper training should be provided to develop an effective leadership program.
 Develop Sense of awareness
To improve leadership development program, the leader must develop a sense of
awareness. Every leader has a blind spot in which it covers the catapults individual
development successfully.

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 Focus on Practical Aspect
The individual should avoid such programs that focus on leadership platitudes which
cover the mission and vision rather focusing on deliverable, practical and achievable tasks to
work more efficiently and effectively.
 Connecting with others
Leaders should be engaged in knowing about their employees, what motivate them
and support with feedbacks and specific rewards which are customized to the individuals and
more efficiently.
 Recruitment of positive people
Those individuals should be recruited, who provide motivation and satisfaction to the
team. It helps in to create a healthy relationship environment.
 Report problems
The leader should report problems while facing issues in development programme to
cure the problems effectively and efficiently.
 Behavior of influencing
The leader should know how to influence and persuade their peers. An effective
leader communicates with empathy while pitching a new idea or trying to change the things.
Therefore, the influencing behavior would help in improving the leadership quality.
 Coaching and Mentoring
Proper mentoring and coaching should be arranged to expose high potential leaders to
another part of the business.

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With all the points, which are explained above play a vital role in the development of
leader and leadership. In the recent world, most of the organizations are facing the issues and
challenges of leading the organization. The issues that faced are due to of lack of leadership
skills in the leaders such as:
 Lack of communication skills in the leadership cause fail to share information to their
employees about the company policies and procedures that directly effect on the performance
of the employees.
 Mismanagement in the organizations which has a direct impact on the productivity and
drastically lower the morale of employees.
 Most of the organizations are facing the issue of lack of focus by the leaders in the
organization.
 The vision of the organization which is poor, tunnel, fickle r a non-existent will cause the
failure of leaders in the organization.
 Lacks the performance of the leaders causes a non-achievable target of the organization
which creates a great negative impact on the organization.
 Most of the leaders are not accountable for their performance which creates the organization
more in danger because of the carelessness of the leaders.
Therefore, the issues that are faced by the organization can be cure with the
improvement in leadership quality; the organization can achieve the goal with the help of a
strong leader which is required for every organization. Different approaches should be
adopted by the leaders to achieve the targeted goal.
Conclusion
From the above context, it can be concluded that leadership plays an effective role in
the world of business. Effective leadership help to achieve the desired goal of the

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organization. Leaders need to be active and honest, have a capability to track the record of
success. The leader should be fluid in approach and should have an excellent communication.
If these traits are not possessed by any leader then the organization has to face the rocky road
in the path of success.
Most of the leaders in the organization are facing the issues in leading the
organization effectively. The main challenges faced by the leaders are internal and external
forces, the issue of handling stakeholders, improper decision making, fluctuations in the
market, and change in technology and so on. These challenges create a great negative impact
on the efficiency of the organization such as loss of customers, stakeholders, employees.
There is a need to change the concept of leadership. In the sense, the organization
needs to be more focused towards the leadership skills. Certain measures should be taken by
every organization to cure the issues of leadership. The organization requires improving the
quality of the leadership program to enhance the quality of leaders. Certain steps should be
taken by the organization for the improvement such as the arrangement of effective
leadership training, the focus of leader on the target, motivational steps by the leader, develop
a sense of awareness, report problems and so on. These measures would help the
organizations to cope up with the challenges and achieve the targeted goal.

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