[January 1, 2017] A New Year is upon us and one that brings new and more difficult challenges. Leaders in particular will see more complex problems requiring, more than anything else, greater use of their social and intellectual talents to solve. Below I’ve listed some of those challenges that leaders can expect to test them when working at doing the right thing.
Being a good leader means being a good person. Stan Slap said that “humanity” is the starting point of leadership. What he means, I think, is that successful leaders recognize that humans are imperfect; prone to error but also biased toward good rather than evil. I also like to think people don’t grow up seeking evil.
Here are a dozen challenges/obstacles to good senior leadership we can expect to see more of this New Year:
- Disrespect and a lack of caring about others.
- A lack of moral courage to do the right thing when things get difficult.
- Not accepting criticism, refusing help, and rejecting coaching/mentoring.
- Refusing to delegate authority.
- Failure to have passion for what you do and the ability to inspire others.
- Believing that more or better leadership is not needed.
- Ignoring the mistakes of other leaders.
- Losing the trust and confidence of others.
- Failing to adapt/change.
- Forfeiting one’s integrity.
- Not having the right attitude or acting like people owe you something.
- Thinking it’s not your problem.
No one here should be surprised at anything on this list and I could have added another dozen easily. Note that all are leader-centric. Failures of any leader rarely occur due to something outside their influence.
The bright spot for 2017 will be that great leaders will rise to the top and our lives will be better for it. Happy New Year 2017 !!
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