The challenge of leadership today

Running head: The challenge of leadership today 1
The challenge of leadership today
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The challenge of leadership today 2
Authentic leadership presents various challenges since it places great demands on people
(Rabinowitz, 2019). For instance, leaders are held responsible for a group’s mission and vision,
representing the group in various aspects and upholding the standards of the group. The
responsibilities can be shared, but when a single individual takes the burden, it becomes a
challenge. In addition, challenges regarding leadership may spring out from both internal and
external factors. To begin with, external factors stem out from situations within or without the
organization that presents challenges. The factors may include issues such as lack of resources or
funding, interpersonal problems, or opposition forces from the community (Rabinowitz, 2019).
Secondly, internal factors expose the limitations that a leader may exhibit. The factors may
include issues such as lack of confidence, intolerance, fear, impatience, and insecurity.
Challenges of leading an organization in today’s world.
Leaders across the world are presented with various conventional challenges that may
impact an organization positively or negatively depending on how the challenges are handled. To
begin with, we have the challenge of developing managerial effectiveness. Most organizations
hold various skills such as decision making, strategic thinking, prioritization, and time
management in high regards (Center for creative leadership, 2019). This is because the skills
ensure effectiveness in work operations and management. Nonetheless, achieving such
effectiveness is a fair global challenge since the skills may take time to develop or even achieve.
Secondly, we have the challenge of developing employees. Employees have diverse
needs and therefore, being able to address the needs effectively through training and
development may assure organizational efficiency. However, both identifying the needs and
addressing the needs is particularly challenging for leaders. For instance, traditional training
methods adopted by major organizations cannot work with millennials (Sabina, Virginia,

The challenge of leadership today 3
Cristina, & Elena, 2015). Millennials are technology proficient; nonetheless, they tend to lack
essential skills such as relationships building, diplomacy, and communication. Therefore, it may
be challenging for leaders to provide training and development to multiple generations in the
workplace due to their differences.
Thirdly, we have the challenge of guiding change. Organizational change may have
different forms such as the introduction of new technologies, creating new procedures and
systems, and the rebranding or elimination of services and products (Brunsson, & Olsen, 2018).
In addition, other changes such as the close of business operations, mergers and acquisitions, and
bankruptcy or layoffs may as well affect an entire organization or its business units. Therefore,
leaders are faced with the challenge of understanding, mobilizing, leading, and managing such
changes. Consequently, since guiding change may involve the leaders knowing how to overcome
resistance to change, mitigate consequences, and deal with employee reaction to change, leaders
may lack the right resources or skills to effectively address the problems hence ensuring
increased organizational performance and success (Center for creative leadership, 2019).
Fourthly, we have the challenge of managing internal stakeholders. Internal stakeholders
may involve investors, boards of directors, managers, and employees. For instance, leaders may
be faced with the challenge of keeping investors engaged and committed to the organization
since investors may be in need of actual and informed results (Palmer et al., 2017). Therefore, if
a leader cannot meet these obligations, the performance and operations of an organization may
be affected. In addition, internal stakeholders may desire a particular amount of transparency and
accountability from the leaders. However, achieving a certain level of accountability or
transparency may be challenging for leaders due to the size of an organization or chain of
management in an organization (Hodges, & Howieson, 2017).