5 Common Leadership Challenges and How to Deal with Them

Every leader will face some difficult times during their career. Being the boss doesn’t mean that everything falls into place, and you know how to handle things all of the time.

 

If you want to be a good and successful leader, you need to be prepared for some of the common challenges that are bound to crop up. Here are five of the problematic issues you're likely to have to deal with as a leader. 

 

1.    Challenging People

 

Whether they’re on your team, elsewhere in your organization, a colleague, or a client, you can be sure there will always be someone around who can be challenging to deal with. They may even have a reputation for being ‘difficult.’ 

 

When you’re the leader, this is your challenge to overcome. It would help if you were prepared and have strategies to handle whatever difficult people you face. Don't let this challenge catch you off guard.

 

2.    Demands and Pressure

 

Pressure is another perennial challenge for all leaders. Everyone will want a piece of you, everyone’s issue is their top priority, and they want it to be your top priority too. 

 

Learn to manage pressure gracefully and strategically. Don’t let other people’s expectations draw you off course. Learn to manage priorities and to delegate. 

 

3.    Firing People

 

Letting staff go is something that can be fraught with emotions and bad feelings. Develop strategies, and even a script of sorts, to help you manage these situations calmly and constructively. Don’t fire a staff member in the heat of the moment. Make a measured decision in the best interest of the organization and try to depersonalize it. 

 

4.    Giving Bad News

 

There will be times when you have to deliver bad news to your staff, your board, your client. Projects can go off course, timelines will blow out, or a product may be a flop. Frequently something may fail for reasons outside your control. Regardless of how the situation came to be, a good leader has to deliver bad news in a calm, clear way that will minimize the impact on their listeners while still delivering the message. This is not a time for blame or recriminations. Keep it factual and calm. 

 

5.    Dealing with Change

 

It is a simple fact that nothing stays the same. Your organization, the field you're working in, the job you started, the world's problems can all change seemingly overnight. Good leaders know how to anticipate change if they can roll with change when it arrives and help their staff, colleagues, and clients manage the change as well as they can.