The Challenges Leaders Face Today

More Similar than Different

Dr. Butera Bazimya

Institute of Capacity Building
Mount Kenya University
Kigali Campus
Kigali
Rwanda

Contents
Overview 2
Introduction 3
Main Finding: Six Common Challenges across Seven Locations 4
What Can Be Done to Help Leaders Overcome These Challenges? 5
Develop Managerial Effectiveness 5
Develop Relationship Skills 8
Develop Skills to Enact Change 10
Develop Skills to Cope with Organizational Politics 11
About the Research 15
Endnotes 16

Overview
What are the challenges of those who are leading from the middle and executive levels of organizations?
Many people speculate about them. Our research at the Institute for Capacity Building (ICB) has found
out what these challenges are from a proven and reliable sourcefrom the words of those leading from
the middle and executive levels of organizations facing these challenges every single day. We gathered
data from participants of leadership development programs from different places and although they come
from all parts and institutions, these leaders consistently face the same six challenges:

Developing Managerial Effectiveness

Inspiring Others
Developing Employees
Leading a Team
Guiding Change
Managing Internal Stakeholders and Politics

We explain what these six challenges are, and the ways that leaders can cope with them. We also implore
those who design and implement training and development initiatives to understand these challenges. If
you understand the challenges leaders face, you will be better able to design initiatives aimed at their
development.
Why look at these challenges?
The life of a modern-day leader clearly is not easy. Inside their organizations, they need to lead and
motivate a diversified group of people, work across organizational boundaries, improve not only
efficiency but also effectiveness, and achieve growth. Externally, they face a complex and globalized
environment; they have to manage the requirements of government, keep up with competitors, and meet
the expectations of other stakeholders. And within this harsh and competitive global environment, there
are many social, economic, political, technological and cultural considerations leaders must face to be
effective. They must work across geographical and cultural boundaries and alongside others who, at
times, are very different from them and have different ways of getting work completed.
These are difficult challenges, and many leaders feel ill-prepared to tackle them. Developing leaders who
can face these challenges is tricky indeed. Of course, some training needs and content can be derived
from organizational strategy and planned change initiatives. Yet many leaders have other needs and
challenges that strategy or change initiatives do not cover
So what are those challenges, and how can a company ensure that training actually is designed to meet
the development needs of a specific leader?
To help companies clarify these issues, we investigated the main challenges leaders face around the
region and whether the challenges differ depending upon geographic location. The findings will not only
help practicing leaders understand what they and others around are going through, but also inform
training and development initiatives to ensure that developmental opportunities are appropriately targeted.
Our research examined data from 76 participants of leadership development programs from the five East
African Community countries (Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, and Burundi.). Through their own
words, the most significant challenges these leaders face are relatively similar across all five
countries. In this paper, we review each of these challenges and ways leaders can effectively deal with
them.
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Main Finding
Six Common Challenges across the five countries
Looking across the countries, there are six main categories that comprise more than half of all challenges.
In addition, these six are ranked among the Top 10 challenges leaders face in each country. In order of
frequency, they are:
Developing Managerial Effectiveness
The challenge of developing the relevant skills such as time management, prioritization, strategic thinking, decisionmaking, and getting up to speed with the job to be more effective at work.
Inspiring Others
The challenge of inspiring or motivating others to ensure they are satisfied with their jobs; how to motivate a
workforce to work smarter.
Developing Employees
The challenge of developing others, including topics around mentoring and coaching.
Leading a Team
The challenge of team-building, team development, and team management; how to instill pride in a team or support
the team, how to lead a big team, and what to do when taking over a new team.
Guiding Change
The challenge of managing, mobilizing, understanding, and leading change. How to mitigate change consequences,
overcome resistance to change, and deal with employees reaction to change.
Managing Internal Stakeholders and Politics
The challenge of managing relationships, politics, and image. Gaining managerial support and managing up; getting
buy-in from other organizations, departments, groups, or individuals.

The findings display the frequency and rank of the top 10 challenges common to all of the countries. It
may be surprising to find so much consistency in these challenges, given that leaders came from all
corners of the region, as well as different industries and organizations. It seems that, overall, these six
challenges are inherent in the role of being a middle/senior manager regardless of the context one
needs to fulfill this role. Thus, the challenges should be core focus areas for managerial
development, everywhere in the region, and in all organizations.
Develop Managerial Effectiveness
The biggest leadership challenge is what can be done to help leaders overcome these challenges. In
addition to targeted, planned, formal development initiatives and training so that leaders can deal with and
overcome these challenges, other means that rely on learning in a more social and informal ways are also
appropriate. In the sections that follow, we give some helpful tips for leaders who are facing these
challenges. The most frequently mentioned challenge for the countries in question is developing
managerial effectiveness. This reflects the challenge of leaders to have a range of very specific skills such
as prioritization, time management, and decision-making. Though this sort of skill development has been
noted for decades, it still seems to be one that is relevant in todays world of work.
I am definitely going to take a course on time management . . . just as soon as I can work it into my
schedule. Louis E. Boone, Poet and Novelist
Workload is very challenging at times. Lots of different critical projects and activities going on with
limited resources in the group. Juggling priorities is always at the forefront. (Manager from the United
States of America)
Goal-setting is important
Be proactive in setting goals, and with setting the timelines and deadlines required to meet those goals.

Delegate more
Delegating can, in fact, make you more productive. The act of delegation can also empower the people to
whom you have given work.
Work on tasks that maximize your unique value-add
Among all the organizational priorities, there will always be important tasks that only you can do. These
are the tasks on which you should focus. As a result, you will maximize your specific value to the
organization. Everything else, try to delegate.
Gain some role clarity
Understand what your work does and does not entail. With that, you may have to practice and be
comfortable saying no. So what can a leader do?
Here are some recommendations to develop relationship skills
My biggest leadership challenge is that: Three of the challengesinspiring others (top challenge in all
five countries), developing employees (top challenge in one), and leading a team (top challenge in another
are all related to the relationship-oriented part of leadership. This is more important in todays context of
work, where organizations are encouraging leaders to pursue and participate in relationships that develop
their direct reports and team members. The division between task- and relationship oriented leadership
has been around for decades; leaders must focus on production, as well as demonstrate behaviors that tap
into interpersonal concerns. So leaders need to build and maintain relationships by inspiring others,
developing others, and leading their team.
Outstanding leaders go out of the way to boost the self-esteem of their personnel. If people believe in
themselves, it is amazing what they can accomplish. Sam Walton, businessman known for founding
Walmart and Sams Club
To motivate a group of staff who have been working with the organization for more than 10 years. Some
of the staff have been in the same position without promotion for more than 6 to 8 years. (Singaporean
manager)
Qualify my direct reports to fill in for me in the tasks previously done by myself, mainly on two fronts,
1st to develop their business knowledge and sense of perfection which will, and 2 nd , help them gain their
team members trust and dedication. (Egyptian manager)
Creating a really collaborative team in a newly established unit. (Spanish manager)
Take an active role in mentoring, coaching, and developing others
Provide challenging opportunities for others, promote your employees to upper management (i.e., trumpet
their successes), and empower others to increase their area of competence. Support your employees by
providing guidance and feedback. Assume roles such as being a sounding board, role model, or shoulder
to lean on, while ensuring that organizational structures and systems enhance collaboration and
accountability.
Meet the needs of your employees
It is not just making sure that your employees have the right software or enough office supplies. You also
have to meet their psychological and social needs. Many people need to be validated by others and desire
to be part of something much more exciting. A leader must try to meet the differing needs of the many
individuals with whom they work on a daily basis.

Manage team effectiveness

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Make sure your team has a clear purpose, strong support, and effectively shares information among the
group and with important stakeholders outside the group. While developing relationships with others is a
huge challenge, here are some things to consider:
Develop Skills to Enact Change
Guiding change is a top challenge for leaders, particularly in the developing countries. Organizations exist
in a world that is very volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous. Leaders need to be adept at
managing, mobilizing, leading, and dealing with change because change is quite permanent.
Incorporating change management and enhancing resourcefulness should be at the forefront of leadership
development initiatives. Here are some suggestions to develop your change leadership skills even further:
The nature of the global business environment guarantees that no matter how hard we work to create a
stable and healthy organization, our organization will continue to experience dramatic changes far beyond
our control. Margaret J. Wheatley, writer and management consultant
Try it, you might like it. This old television commercial slogan can help you incorporate change. It is
natural that people do not like change. Leaders should try to transform their own thinking, and be more
open to fresh ideas. If leaders are able to do that, they can be an example to others to embrace change as
well. People may witness that shift in attitude and embrace it.
Embrace emotional reactions to change. Human cognition and emotion are integrated systems. When
convincing people that change is needed and desirable, it is not enough to use rational arguments. Leaders
also need to be sensitive to employees emotions and show empathy. Engage people emotionally by being
visionary, passionate, and authentic.
Since you cannot be clairvoyant, be clear.
Nobody can tell others what the future will be, but you definitely can tell others about the present and
what you are doing to reach the desired future stage. Let people know what is going on. If you reduce as
much ambiguity as possible, control over the situation increases, enabling people to become proactive
change agents. They will feel like masters of their own destiny.
My biggest leadership challenge is
Leading the organisation through a business-wide transformation programme as part of the executive
team. This involves the consolidation of product offerings, driving customer centricity, well-managed
agendas, substantial outsourcing and headcount reduction. (Manager from the United Kingdom)
Develop Skills to Cope with Organizational Politics
Another frequent challenge that is in the Top 10 for all countries in our study is managing internal
stakeholders and politics. This goes to show that no matter where you are in the world, organizations are
inherently political. To more effectively manage internal stakeholders and politics, leaders need to
develop and enhance their political skill and savvy, defined as the ability to effectively understand others
at work and to use such knowledge to influence others to act in ways that enhance ones personal and/or
organizational objectives.
Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesnt mean politics wont take an interest in you.
Pericles, Greek statesman, orator, and general, my biggest leadership challenge is:

The ability to convince and influence othe stakeholders to follow the regional and global direction.
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(Manager from India)

How to enhance the department position in the organization to add more value to the organization in
both operational and strategic perspective. (Manager from China)
Mingle strategically and build strong networks and relationships with people.
Map out your network by writing your name in the middle of a sheet of paper. Put the names of those
with whom you have a strong relationship close to you, and those with whom you have a weak or distant
relationship farther from you. Then ask if some of your close connections can help you meet with your
distant connections.
Manage up
Keep your boss informed. Be proactive in telling your b would like to know about yourself if you were in
your bosss shoesand purposefully manage this perception of yourself. You can do this by enhancing
some of the characteristics and talents your boss might consider the most important ones for the company,
while making sure you keep your authenticity.
Read the situation
Observe and gather information from others and the environment. Do this by actively listening to others,
paying attention to the verbal and especially, nonverbal behaviours of others to understand what is really
being said.
Leave people with a good impression
Being politically savvy is not being manipulative. Having integrity and being authentic are of the utmost
importance. Get feedback on how your message and behavior really come across to others. Avoid
gossiping. Keep confidences. Deliver on the promises you make.
There are several ways leaders can enhance their political savvy so that they can navigate inherently
political environments and manage internal and external stakeholders:
Conclusion
Human beings are more alike than unalike, and what is true anywhere is true everywhere . . .Maya
Angelou, poet, memoirist, novelist, and civil rights activist
There is no doubt that the work of modern-day leaders is complicated around the world. And our research
shows that the challenges these diverse leaders face are more similar than different. Even though they
may feel alone with the problems and challenges they have, it is likely that one leaders challenge is the
same as the others several time zones away. So leaders out there, take solace in the fact that you are not
alone. Help others who probably have the same challenges. At the very least, listen. Give peer feedback if
you are asked for ityou probably have some great advice since you probably went through it (or are
going through it).
For those who work in training and development, knowing the challenges leaders face can be the catalyst
for developmental initiatives aimed at helping leaders. Developmental initiatives are more effective if
they are in line with the challenges leaders face. So, we suggest that a majority of the content could be
the same no matter where the training is taking place or who is going through the training. However, we
also recognize that there may be a cultural appropriateness or awareness of how to do certain things;
what is accepted in one culture may be unacceptable or taboo in another. As the second part of the
aforementioned Angelou quote goes . . . yet I encourage travel to as many destinations as possible for
the sake of education as well as pleasure.
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Some behaviours may be the norm in one country but different in another. One does not know unless one
is educated about or knows the culture. In developing training and development initiatives aimed at
helping leaders with these challenges, it is essential to be aware of the cultural nuances. With leaders
around the world having the same challenges across six areas, those designing training and development
initiatives can more appropriately align developmental initiatives to help managers solve problems around
developing managerial effectiveness, inspiring others, developing employees, leading a team,
guiding change, and managing internal stakeholders and politics.
Endnotes
1. Gentry, W. A., Harris, L. S., Baker, B. A., & Leslie, J. B. (2008). Managerial skills: What has
changed since the late 1980s. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 29, 167-181.
2. Gentry, W. A., & Sosik, J. J. (2010). Developmental relationships and managerial promotability in
organizations: A multisource study. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 77, 266-278.
3. Yukl, G. A. (2006). Leadership in organizations (6 th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ:
Pearson/Prentice Hall.
4. Stiehm, J. H. (2002). The U.S. Army War College: Military Education in a Democracy.
Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.
5. Mintzberg, H. (1985). The organization as a political arena. Journal of Management Studies, 22,
133-154.
6. Ferris, G. R., Treadway, D. C., Kolodinsky, R. W., Hochwarter, W. A., Kacmar, C. J., Douglas,
C., & Frink, D. D. (2005). Development and validation of the political skill inventory. Journal of
Management, 31, 126-152. Page 127.
7. Ferris, G. R., Davidson, S. L., & Perrew, P. L. (2005). Political Skill at Work: Impact on Work
Effectiveness. Mountain View, CA: Davies-Black Publishing
8. Gentry, W. A., & Leslie, J. B. (2012). Developing Political Savvy. Greensboro, NC: Center for
Creative Leadership.
9. Boyatzis, R. E. (1998). Transforming Qualitative Information. Thousand Oaks: Sage.
10. Due to the high number of categories, a computation of Kappa statistics is not applicable.
11. Gentry, W. A., Eckert, R., Munusamy, V. P., Stawiski, S. A., & Martin, J. The needs of
participants in leadership development programs: A qualitative and quantitative, crosscountry
investigation. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies.