Leadership Challenge Paper: Strategies and Interview Report

This report delves into the multifaceted realm of leadership, exploring the various challenges leaders face in today's dynamic environment. It begins by defining leadership and highlighting its importance in fostering organizational culture and enhancing team efficiency. The report then identifies key leadership challenges, including inspiring employees, establishing effective communication, managing change, and navigating internal stakeholder relationships. Following the identification of challenges, the report presents actionable strategies to overcome them, such as promoting open communication, extracting the best from team members, developing personal effectiveness, and guiding change. The report also includes an interview with a manager, providing real-world insights and practical examples of how these strategies are applied. The interview discusses specific obstacles faced and how they were overcome, emphasizing the importance of participative leadership and open communication. The report concludes by emphasizing the significance of understanding employee behavior, utilizing their skills effectively, and fostering a supportive environment to achieve organizational goals.

0
Leadership Challenge Paper
Student Name:
Student Id:
Tutor’s Name:
Word Count:

1
Table of Contents
Part 1..........................................................................................................................................2
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Leadership Challenges...........................................................................................................2
Strategies to Overcome Leadership Challenges.........................................................................4
Open Communication............................................................................................................5
Extracting the Best Out of the Team Members..................................................................5
Develop Personal Effectiveness.........................................................................................5
Guiding Change.................................................................................................................6
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................6
Part 2..........................................................................................................................................6
Interview....................................................................................................................................6
References................................................................................................................................11

2
Part 1
Introduction
Leadership has been defined as the process of influencing people that enables them to
take up their responsibilities and face the challenges that comes in their way (Agarwal, 2012).
It is a practical skill to set the strategies and adopt the appropriate method to attain the
corporate goals. Bush (2016) in his work has defined leadership as the ability of an individual
to guide others towards the right track. Leadership promotes culture for the team. In a number
of researches it has been found that appropriate leadership skill is necessary to create
organizational culture as well as to improve the efficiency and productivity of the team
(Bystydzienski & Thomas, 2017). According to the point of view of the scholar Bush (2016),
leadership not only enhance the organization’s performance but also enables the team to take
opportunities to meet the objectives of the organization. Agarwal (2012) emphasized in his
work that as there are a number of challenges faced by an organization in terms of gaining
competitive edge in the industry, both in the national and international market, a leader must
act in that way which would enhance organizational credibility.
Leadership Challenges
Leadership becomes a challenging task when the managers do not understand their
employees. Egri and Herman (2010), in their work have emphasized that employees could
not be forced to work by compelling them. In addition to this, managers must encourage the
employees to take up their responsibilities and overcome the hurdles. As a leader, they must
inspire the subordinates in any situation (Genovese, 2009). Sometimes it becomes difficult to

3
inspire others to ensure they are satisfied with their work and act smartly in any challenging
situation.
Another challenge faced by leaders developing the employees by open
communication (Herbst & Maree, 2018). It is an evident fact that establishing communication
with the team members is an essential task for the leaders. Moreover, not all employees are
the same and may not have similar perspectives. It is essential for the leaders to communicate
with the individuals according to their perception level. This becomes challenging
sometimes, when dealing with a novice. Thus, the leader is required to communicate with the
team effectively so as to understand their point of view with regard to any matter that they
come across. The common policies must be discussed with the other members so that the
information would reach the desired form.
According to the point of view of the scholars Lingam et al (2014), leading a team is
one of the major challenges of team-building, team development, as well as team
management. Kohanov (2015) emphasized that definite challenges consist of how to instill
pride, provide support, lead a big team, and things to be while taking over an entirely new
group or team In addition to this, it has been found from the research of Kotter (2008),
guiding change to the team is also a challenge for the leaders which involves mobilizing,
managing, supervising, accepting, understanding, as well as leading the change (Gill, 2002).
It is an evident fact that guiding change take account of the matters with regard to mitigating
the consequences, overcoming the resistance to change, together with dealing with the
reactions and resistance of employees’ to support change.
Change management as well as leadership management have been considered as the
two most interrelated challenges faced by most of the companies at present (Gill, 2002).
Change management is defined as the consistent process to shift from one work environment

4
to another. It is the duty of the leader to consistently put their efforts to accept and implement
change, whenever there is a need for change. In addition to this, they are also required to
inspire others to accept the changes that are necessary and in the best interest of the
individuals as well as for the organizational success.
Change management has become a significant hurdle for the leaders when the majority of the
team members resist change. Inspiring by providing them with the knowledge of the
importance of such change is also a huge challenge for the leaders. It is significant for the
leaders to have an appropriate strategy for managing change. According to the point of view
of the scholar Bush (2008), most leaders try hard for change management as a consequence
of lack of proper implementation strategy. This in turn makes it more difficult to inspire
others to impalement change.
According to the scholars Andrews and Boyne (2010), internal stakeholders such as
the employees are an important asset for an organization. In order to attain the organizational
objectives, it is essential for the management to understand and establish relationship with
them. Managing internal stakeholders is another challenge for the leaders as it involves
managing relationships, politics, as well as image. In addition to this, it includes gaining
providing managerial support, and along with it also getting buy-in from other individuals,
groups or department of the company.
For any organization, finding a good leader has been considered as one of the desired
achievement since every successful organization needs a great leader at distinct levels of
authority. In addition to this, Kotter (2008) in his work have emphasized that many
productive organizations have invested a lot of time as well as money for the purpose of
shaping a leader for their employees that as a result helps in improving the overall
organizational performance.

5
There are a number of strategies that have been taken up by corporations to overcome the
challenges of leadership.
Strategies to Overcome Leadership Challenges
Open Communication
Communication is found to play a most crucial role to overcome the leadership
challenges. It strengthens the bond among the employees and the leader. The top managers
are required to communicate with their subordinated as well as guide them when needed.
According to the point of view of the scholars Schalock and Verdugo (2012), effective
communication is found to be most significant step towards overcoming the challenges of
leadership. Text messages and emails are major sources in communication, but face-to-face
communication is always considered to be a significant source of pen communication that
encourages the employees and creates a sense of belongingness.
Extracting the Best Out of the Team Members
It is obvious that an individual always likes to be praised. Along with a huge
remuneration package, being recognized for an achievement, improved performance and goal
attainment, is the fundamental desire of the employees (Schalock & Verdugo, 2012). Without
taking up the personal issues, grudges and the weakness of the employees in front of others it
is better to extract the best out of the team. In addition to this, apprising the team members for
their efforts always inspire them to take their responsibilities and make informed decisions.

6
Develop Personal Effectiveness
According to the point of view of the scholars Hitt and Tucker (2016), it is an evident
fact that to become an effective leader, you need to discover and leverage the power of goal
setting, prioritization, as well as delegation. These elements improve leader effectiveness and
enable them to overcome the challenges that they might face in their day-to-day activities. In
addition to this, working on tasks that maximizes the unique strength of the leader must be
prioritized and rest of them must be delegated. Moreover, being intentional about the goal
that must be set before taking up any plan and strategy, helps in overcoming the challenge of
establishing long term relationship with the team, understanding the team as well as guiding
them towards the right direction.
Guiding Change
In today’s globalized world, change is a new norm. Hitt and Tucker (2016) suggests
that having skills to manage change is considered an asset. It has been found out that one of
the major reasons to resist change is for the reason that people are not involved in the change
process. Guiding change within the organization is an essential task of a leader. Therefore, in
order to overcome resistance to change, the leaders must make the employees involved in the
plan for making any change and provide them with the reasons and strategy to bring changes.
Conclusion
The team members feel special when they get a good leader within the organization.
In order to reach the concrete strategy of the organization, a leader must take the
responsibility to analyse the challenges and work on the planned approach to overcome these
challenges (Andrews & Boyne, 2010). For taking any major decisions, the leader should
discuss every aspect with the employees. A good leader must know their employee's

7
behaviour as well as extract the best of their skill and knowledge. This will help the leader to
select the best-performed employees for the right job. Communication is an effective tool that
helps the leaders to overcome the communication gap and any misconception of the team. It
will motivate their team members to support the organizational management and overcome
resistance to change.
Part 2
Interview
I am manager at SUP Inc, working with the company since 2009 with trust and honesty in all
my actions. I have done the specialization in project management and gained a 5 years’
experience in the project leadership. In future, I want to enrich the experience of capturing
the executive key. In my 10 years of experience, I have focused only on the career that will
add the value to the companies in terms of brand recognition and leadership capabilities. In
my professional journey, I have had communicated with top leaders of other companies that
helped me in making my career and encouraging growth in the future. I always focus on the
contributions in the coming years and thus having a positive influence over the company as
well as the industry. Moreover, I have overcome many challenges in my career path. For the
company, I have followed the C-A-Rs Challenge-Actions-Results as a strategy that will set it
apart from the rival companies in the industry.
As a leader, I have faced a number of obstacles while guiding others towards the right path.
First of all, guiding people remained a great challenge for me at the beginning, however, by
implementing open communication and improving my listening skills, I have been able to
overcome these challenges. In addition to this, another obstacle was managing organizational

8
restructuring. It was in the year 2014 when the management team was about to plan for
horizontal amalgamation with an IT company for the raw materials. Whereas, my opinion
was to implement vertical integration strategy, and take complete control over the production
of the raw material that is used in the finished goods. However, due to lack of funds, the
management ignored my suggestion. However, I illustrated them the concept of vertical
integration with videos and examples of diverse companies practicing this strategy. This open
communication had inspired them to work as per the strategy suggested by me.
I always follow a process when a task is needed to be done. I follow participative style
leadership rather than autocratic style. This encourages friendly environment and helps
establish long term relationship with the team. It is probably due to this reason as I always
facilitate open communication with the team memebrs. This communication system, I believe
helps to open up others and make them more comfortable to work. This as a result, brings out
the best from the team members. I always delegate and find their strengths for other team
members. I also use the best policy and encourage team effort which helps us to deliver the
results with a great significance as the part of my work. Moreover, as a leader, I always
divide the task into small parts and categorize them into the required segments. Participative
leadership style helps me in encouraging the team to develop a sense of belongingness. They
feel much more responsible for their task and take up the right path towards attainment of
organizational objectives.
The effective leadership characteristics which I value in the employees are:

9
1. Honesty: I believe every employee should be honest and follow their leaders. For any
wrong decision, they have a right to pinpoint the mistakes.
2. Communication skills: It is essential for the mangers to clearly communicate with the
members with regard to the priorities. To be a great leader, one must possess excellent
communication skills, both verbal and written.
3. Decisiveness: Employees can work themselves and additionally they can routine their
decisions for all the managers. In order to take u their responsibilities, they must first
understand the importance of making informed decision and then communicate the same with
the leaders. In addition to this, their determination and commitment towards their work will
define their career.
4. Confidence: The employees should have enough confidence over their work and skills.
They must also possess a convincing power where they can handle a difficult level of the job.
The candidates who have good confidence in their work will influence other team members.
The challenges which I face in day-to-day dealing with the employees are guiding the
newcomers, establishing effective communication with them, always pressure for performing
as the new leader for the new recruits. In addition to this, guiding them towards the right
option is sometimes difficult when it comes to choose between the benefit of the employees
and the interest of the company. However, I do prioritize working in the best interest of the
company, however, I also keep in mind not to hurt the sentiments of the team members, or it
may dismay them and lower down their morale in future.

10
Decision making process is one of the challenging tasks which I think every leader must have
faced in their career while dealing with their follower and colleges. Well, for taking
successful decision, I follow segregation of the task into teams. It is because it will enhance
the productivity and performance at large. Then after this I will try to find out the major
issues in the team if any. The next step is to prioritize the problems in accordance with the
deadline or in any other terms. It is important to understand the problems with correct
analysis process. If required I also use appropriate strategies and tools in order to make
correct decisions. Whenever any staff brings any type of problem to me, at the very first
instance, I look into their commitment towards the activities they are assigned. Thereafter,
analyse the hurdles that they face in taking a step ahead. The problems are resolute, no doubt,
because I have trained and guided my team to take up their responsibilities in handling minor
problems by themselves. Then, I guide by providing them with the options that they can take
up as an effective tool to overcome the problems and challenges that they face. Taking
informed decisions is an art of effective leadership, however, having control over what we do
is an important aspect. This makes the employees more accountable when facing any similar
or unknown consequences.

11
References
Agarwal, M. (2012). Leadership and values-based project management. Values-Based
Management, 2(2), 1-6.
(2019). Retrieved from
Andrews, R., & Boyne, G. A. (2010). Capacity, leadership, and organizational performance:
Testing the black box model of public management. Public Administration
Review, 70(3), 443-454. Retrieved from (2019). Retrieved from
(2019). Retrieved from
Bush, T. (2008). From management to leadership: semantic or meaningful
change?. Educational management administration & leadership, 36(2), 271-288.
(2019). Retrieved from
Bush, T. (2016). School leadership and management in England: the paradox of simultaneous
centralisation and decentralisation. Research in Educational Administration &
Leadership, 1(1), 1-23. (2019). Retrieved from
Bystydzienski, J., & Thomas, N. (2017). The leadership role of college deans and department
chairs in academic culture change. Studies in Higher Education, 2301-2315. (2019).
Retrieved from
Egri, C. P., & Herman, S. (2010). Leadership in the North American environmental sector:
Values, leadership styles, and contexts of environmental leaders and their
organizations. Academy of Management Journal, 571-604. (2019). Retrieved from

12
Genovese, M. A. (2009). Women in Power: The Personalities and Leadership Styles of Indira
Gandhi, Golda Meir, and Margaret Thatcher. Political Psychology, 327. (2019).
Retrieved from
Gill, R. (2002). Change management--or change leadership?. Journal of change
management, 3(4), 307-318. (2019). Retrieved from
Herbst, T., & Maree, K. (2018). Thinking style preference, emotional intelligence and
leadership effectiveness. Empirical Research, 34(1), 32-41. (2019). Retrieved from
Hermann International. (2018). Transforming Leadership with Whole Brain® Thinking.
Retrieved 12 23, 2018, from
Hitt, D. H., & Tucker, P. D. (2016). Systematic review of key leader practices found to
influence student achievement: A unified framework. Review of Educational
Research, 86(2), 531-569. (2019). Retrieved from
Kohanov, L. (2015). The power of the herd: A nonpredatory approach to social intelligence,
leadership, and innovation. (1st ed.). New York: New World Library. (2019).
Retrieved from https://books.google.co.in/books?
hl=en&lr=&id=uoMxCgAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP7&dq=Kohanov,+L.+(2015).
+The+power+of+the+herd:+A+nonpredatory+approach+to+social+intelligence,
+leadership,+and+innovation.+(1st+ed.).+New+York:
+New+World+Library&ots=lOAAmwrf7a&sig=M2ozFNC3gZYX-
zEUXPZuVJJnZ50#v=onepage&q=Kohanov%2C%20L.%20(2015).%20The
%20power%20of%20the%20herd%3A%20A%20nonpredatory%20approach%20to
%20social%20intelligence%2C%20leadership%2C%20and%20innovation.%20(1st
%20ed.).%20New%20York%3A%20New%20World%20Library&f=false

13
Kotter, J. P. (2008). Force for change: How leadership differs from management. New
York:Simon and Schuster. (2019). Retrieved from https://books.google.co.in/books?
id=CN3XeWDVyWkC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Kotter,+J.+P.+(2008).
+Force+for+change:+How+leadership+differs+from+management.
+New+York:Simon+and+Schuster.&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj4kru9ufvgAhX4_
XMBHXipDQ0Q6AEIKTAA#v=onepage&q=Kotter%2C%20J.%20P.%20(2008).
%20Force%20for%20change%3A%20How%20leadership%20differs%20from
%20management.%20New%20York%3ASimon%20and%20Schuster.&f=false
Lingam, G., Lingam, N., & Raghuwaiya, K. (2014). Challenges for Rural School Leaders in a
Developing Context: The Case of Solomon Islands. International Journal of
Humanities and Social Sciences, 1-9. (2019). Retrieved from
Schalock, R. L., & Verdugo, M. A. (2012). A Leadership Guide for Today's Disabilities
Organizations: Overcoming Challenges and Making Change Happen. Brookes
Publishing Company. PO Box 10624, Baltimore, MD 21285. (2019). Retrieved from