Leadership Challenges: Overcoming Obstacles in the Business World

This essay delves into the multifaceted challenges confronting leaders and managers in today's dynamic business environment. It examines the impact of increasing competition and globalization, emphasizing the need for effective change management to ensure business sustainability. The essay highlights key challenges, including managing change resistance, addressing employee mental health concerns, resolving conflicts, and adapting to the expectations of Generation Z employees. It also explores the difficulties managers face, such as skilled worker shortages, employee retention issues, and fostering innovation within teams. Furthermore, the essay underscores the pivotal role of leaders in overcoming these challenges through effective communication, employee engagement strategies, training programs, and transparent leadership. The conclusion reinforces the critical need for leaders to navigate these complexities to drive organizational success and create a positive work environment.

Leadership Challenges 0
Enterprise Leadership
Student’s Name
6/30/2019

Leadership Challenges 1
Introduction
The role of the leader is to effectively lead its team and integrate the efforts towards the
achievement of the common goals. Due to the increasing complexities in the business
environment, the role of the leaders and the managers gets evolve and develops the emerging
need to effectively manage their challenging role. The persuasive thesis statement will reflect
upon the challenges faced by the leaders and the managers and the role of the leader in
overcoming the challenges. It becomes imperative to effectively implement change for the
sustainability of the business enterprise (Maranga and Sampayo, 2015).
Challenges of leader and manager in the business environment
With the increasing competition, it becomes imperative for the organization to implement
change in the organization. The management of change and leadership are interrelated
challenges. It becomes difficult for the leader to effectively implement change in the
organization and manage the resistance of the employees towards the change. The employees
resist accepting the changes in the current working environment (Watkins, 2012). Due to the
changes in the current business environment, it increases the anxiety and depression among
the employees which in turn affects the productivity of the company and lowers the morale of
employees. This creates a challenge for the leader to manage the mental health of the
employees (Robbins, Bergman and Coulter, 2018).
Another challenge that the leader's faces are the difficulty in resolving the conflicts and
internal politics. It becomes a challenging job because the leader cannot be at a part of his
team and in turn, creates a more complex situation for the leader. The leaders are not able to
understand the skills and the talent of the employees and do not provide them with the

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opportunity of professional growth which in turn creates dissatisfaction among the employees
(Nienaber, 2010).
The leaders face the challenge of managing the Gen Zers because they have the new working
style and the expectations from the organization are different. However, it creates difficulty
for the leader to manage generation Z and live up to their expectations. The job role of a
leader is very complex because of difficulty in managing the diverse workforce and
effectively listening to all to make the decision that is free from biasness and is in support of
the employees as well as the organization. The leader faces difficulty in communicating will
all the employees and develop strong inter-personal relations with them (Ready, 2004).
Challenges faced by the management
The manager plays a major role in the proper functioning of the departments and motivates
the employees to work efficiently. It is analyzed that the manager also faces the challenges in
managing the departments and the employees. The managers in today’s world face the
challenge of shortage of skilled workers because the organization requires the workforce who
effectively manages in the business environment (Liao, 2017).
It becomes difficult for the managers to retain the best employees due to the high rate of
dissatisfaction and the expectation of the employees and in turn leads to high labour turnover.
Another challenge faced by the managers includes the difficulty in the creation of the
innovative teams because the employees are not committed towards the organization because
of lower morale and involvement of the employees (Adner, 2016).
The main challenge faced by the employees in difficulty in managing with the diverse
workforce and the increased risk due to the encouragement of globalization. The manager
faces the challenge of developing coordination and understanding among the diverse

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workforce and overcoming the risk associated with doing international transactions. The
engagement of the employees becomes a challenge for the manager (Liao, 2017).
Role of a leader in overcoming of challenges
To overcome the challenges the leader must focus on effectively communicating with its
team members so as to develop the understanding of the employees and in turn providing
them the opportunity of the professional growth. The leader plays the major role in reducing
the resistance of the employees by designing effective reward programmes and engaging
them in the decision making to provide the intrinsic motivation and making the employees
committed towards the goal of the organization (Vidgen, Shaw and Grant, 2017).
The leader focuses on providing training to the employees so that they can perform complex
job roles and reduces the anxiety of the employees. It will help in creating a positive working
environment and protection of the mental health of the employees. To avoid the resistance of
the employees towards acceptance of the change the leader focus on communicating the
importance of the change and developing an open communication system so as to develop
strong interpersonal relationships with the employees. The leader must induce transparency
with its employees and will communicate the actual position to make the employees feel
more valued in the organization and decrease their resistance in the adoption of change
(Adner, 2016).
The leader will focus upon taking the feedback from the employees and treating all the
employees equally. This will create satisfaction among the employees and will focus on
providing the proper guidance to perform a particular job role and support the members at all
the levels. The leader plays a major role in overcoming of the challenges faced by the
organization and will create an upward movement for the organization (Vidgen, Shaw and
Grant, 2017).

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Conclusion
From the above discussion, it is critical to note that the leaders and the managers face
complex challenges due to increasing completion and globalization of the business. It creates
difficulty for the leader to implement change in the organization and make the employees
more committed towards the organization. The leader faces the challenge of illness of mental
health of the employees and difficulty in managing of the generation Z. It is analyzed that the
manager also faces the challenge of management of the departments and diverse workforce. It
becomes difficult to retain the best employees and coordinate the activities of all the
employees. The leader plays the major role in overcoming of the challenges and successful
functioning of the organization.

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References
Adner, R., (2016) Navigating the leadership challenges of innovation ecosystems. MIT Sloan
Management Review, 58(1).
Liao, C., (2017) Leadership in virtual teams: A multilevel perspective. Human Resource
Management Review, 27(4), pp.648-659.
Maranga, K. and Sampayo, J. (2015) Management and leadership in the global environment,
Journal of management policy and practice, 16(1), pp.83-88.
Nienaber, H. (2010) Conceptualisation of management and leadership, Management
Decisions, 48(5), pp. 661-675
Ready, D.A. (2004) Leading at an enterprise level, MITS loan Management Review, pp.87-
91.
Robbins, S., Bergman, R. and Coulter, M. (2018) Management. Australia: Pearson
Vidgen, R., Shaw, S. and Grant, D.B., (2017) Management challenges in creating value from
business analytics. European Journal of Operational Research, 261(2), pp.626-639.
Watkins, M.D. (2012) How managers become leaders: the seven seismic shifts of perspective
and responsibility, Harvard Business Review, pp. 64-73.