Leadership is a complex and multifaceted process. Despite being a leader does bring many advantages, it still has a lot of challenges as well. In this paper, different challenges, both internal and external, are described.
Internal Challenges
Leadership can challenge both leader’s abilities and internal personal skills. And no matter how good or mature a person is, these challenges hardly can be avoided. For example, one of the most difficult challenges for a leader is to find a balance between a “stick” and a “carrot”. It is a great question how to be liked and respected at the same time. Most frequently, many people use “being respected” issue to justify themselves for not being liked. However, why do we have to choose only one?
Another important balance to be established is between the people’s needs and requirements of the organization. This balance is hard to maintain but if people do not feel any support from their leader, they will not be willing to produce the expected results. For the same purpose, leaders should know about people in their teams as much as possible. No matter, if a leader is a team manager, a company boss or a member of the parliament.
It is also essential for a leader to get used to setbacks and do not let them break everything down.
External Challenges
So, all of the challenges mentioned above are internal. However, there are also many external ones. For example, an ability of a leader to cope with the lack of resources or money a company he or she leads has at its disposal is an external issue. Besides, those can depend not only on the organization but even on the whole country or a part of the world. Here are three challenges an individual can face in Asia.
The first one is the religion. According to the research made by Cann (2014), approximately 56% of 1200 experts “doubt religious leaders’ ability to play a constructive role in addressing global problems” (para. 3). The obvious way to get through this challenge, if it is present, is to leave the religion aside. Otherwise, such kind of a leader can be soon replaced by another one.
The second possible challenge is cultural. As Bersin (2014) claims, nearly 40% of all Asian companies “believe that Asians should lead Asians” as far as leadership styles and tasks are local (para. 4). Therefore, leaders from other countries and parts of the world can face difficulties. However, the very same problem can be found nearly through the world. Besides, real leaders never give up. So, if there are difficulties with one company, it is worth trying another.
The third challenge to overcome is the lack of talents. During the last decades, Asian countries have been developing faster that their Western neighbors. Numerous new organizations have appeared, and all of them need high-qualified and talented employees. So, naturally, there is a lack of them. Nevertheless, the one who seeks will always find.
Surely, it is difficult to draw general conclusions about Asia, since economies of most of its countries are growing fast, nationalities and religions vary widely. Nevertheless, many of leaders’ challenges, both internal and external, are still very similar to other countries.
In conclusion, leadership indeed can be the cause of many challenges. However, overcoming them only makes a person stronger and strengthen their leaders’ skills.
References
Bersin, J. (2014). Leadership And Talent Challenges In Asia. Web.
Cann, O. (2014). Crisis in Leadership Underscores Global Challenges. Web.