One of the most difficult challenges as a leader is to admit the need for advice, support or help. But I have found that it is in the moment of vulnerability when I have had to seek assistance that I have found I have the most personal growth. At the time, it can be overwhelming to think of anything but the crisis, the situation, the "failure looming". As a team leader; dealing with the challenge of bringing "it" together can be a daunting task.
In thinking of your past "challenges" what did you learn from the experience, or how did you face this challenge?
In thinking of my challenges, I reflect on my first 6 months at a new building. It was my first real "test" of being a leader of people who had no pre-knowledge of who I was, and what I was all about. I found myself being a quieter more cautious leader, who took decisions and pondered on making them.
In retrospect, this approach left my team wondering, and apprehensive. I failed as a leader to recognize that they were accustomed to a leader who was highly involved in all decision making; and subsequently my approach did not work for several of the team members and they floundered. It took speaking to their previous leadership to get feedback on why were struggling. It was a difficult discussion to admit that we were not succeeding as a team. It was a very difficult conversation for both of us; she had high expectations about what we could do; and what I was capable of as a leader.
After this discussion I had a very open/honest meeting with the team and admitted my failure as a leader to recognize their individual needs to be successful and lead. It was probably the most difficult conversation I have ever had as a leader. I would love to say that as a team we found great success; but in reality the "team" did come together, but we still struggled with communication of needs and trust at times. It was not my "best success" story. The lesson I learned from this experience has stuck with me r/t team development and the need as a leader to really know what the individuals need from you to help find their success which can lead to team success and confidence. Jana
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Challenges are numerous, but letting go of employees has to be one of the harder issues any leader faces.
One of the harder challenges with terminations is dealing with the remaining staff. On countless occassions, I have heard lines like "but she was a really good nurse" after an employee had clearly been terminated. Mind you, the same employees had lined up outside my office to complain about the same employee(s)tardiness, absenteeism, attitude, etc...but once that employee is let go, it is a entirely different ballgame.
I face these types of challenges by maintaining integrity in that you do not discuss the termination with other employees under any circumstances (not to mention the legal implications), and by knowing that while at times, it may be difficult, termminating that employee is/was something that needed to be done for the greater good of the department and/or organization.
The really tough terminations are those where the employee was trying hard and had a great attitude, but simply wasn't performing to expectations. Having said that, I know I am not helping that employee by allowing them to stay when they are not capable of performing the job (and if it is is a nurse, you need to consider patient safety).
Terminating employees is never easy.....comes with the territory.
Melissa
I responed last night and I know it was there. Some how it was deleted. What happened??
Mariann
When I was asked to set up a new quality system for compliance to the Automotive companies standard (QS-9000) I thought that I could learn what was needed through reading the manuals and guidlines. I found that there was a great deal more knowledge needed than could be found in the written material available. Subsequently, I ended up hiring a consultant to aid in the development of the Quality System. This proved to be a wise choice as I learned many of the insights necessary to set up an effective system. The consultant was expensive but resulted in saving a great deal of my time and effort to sort through the difficulties in applying the standard to our unique situation. I would recommend seeking outside expertise whenever a task is encountered that requires knowledge and expertise that is beyond ones own scope of experience. It may be more costly upfront but probably less costly in the long run.
Gary
My most memorable moment of vulnerability and recognition of the need to ask for help was when I was first asked to write a grant proposal to the Department of Defense. Since our organization had never applied for funds before, I suggested we contact others who had won the grant in years past, and also ask the DoD for advice in the preparation. Other members of the grant prep team nixed this idea, afraid of looking too inexperienced, and that would decrease our chances of winning. We submitted our proposal and did not receive funding. Our proposal was torn apart by the reviewers. Coincidently, the most vocal opponents to assistance left before the next year's grant proposal was due. This time two of us took a three-day class, we talked to former grant recipients, and we actually went to Washington and sat down with the grant program manager. Everyone we talked to was happy to help. We still didn't get any money, but the reviewers thought our proposal had merit and was well-prepared. Lesson learned: Ask for help!
All of my managerial challenges come from the role of supervisor. One of the unique things about being a supervisor is communicating with different stakeholders in the company. As a supervisor I found that I had to be ready to speak with customers, managers, directors, and employees that both reported to me and one’s that didn’t. Not only did I have to communicate to these stakeholders, but I had to be ready to speak confidently and knowledgeably.
With this in mind the biggest challenge as a supervisor and analyst is communicating possible process or procedure changes. There isn’t one single event that comes to mind, but anytime an employee delivers an idea involving process and procedures changes it is quite challenging to get that idea implemented. The thing I learned is the idea could be a good one, and can be proven to be beneficial to the company but the idea may not be used. There are several reasons the idea may not be used but most often I have learned that it may not be the proper time for the idea to be implemented, and it should be broached again in the future.
The challenge for anybody is to be able to negotiate changes to the idea, because nobody likes seeing their idea changed, sometimes to the point of it being barely recognizable. The other challenge is being persistent in presenting the idea again if it gets turned down the first time. Sometimes an employee needs to present an idea several times before being implemented. Its kind of ironic that the biggest challenge in my mind is communication, the very thing that we’re hired to accomplish in a managerial role.
Chris
I think that many times, when we are faced with difficult challenges, we try to 'fix' the problem at hand before we seek counsel/advice from anyone else.
I know, in my experience, I have faced many such challenges. One that comes to mind is when, as the Engineering Director of the Chrysler group at a tooling supplier, I was faced with having to lay off about 50 of the 175 people who were in my charge.
This was a very difficult challenge for me, because most of the people I was working with had been together for a couple years and we had become a close knit group of people.
I tried to reduce the number of people that had to be let go by reducing spending in other areas, but at best I could only reduce the number by 5. I went to HR to get some advice on how to do this in the most gracious manner. The advice I got was less than acceptable. I was told that "It was business, and I shouldn't take it so personally." I was told that I should just call everyone who was being let go into a conference room and let them know they were appreciated, but that we could not afford to keep them any longer.
The problem is, that it is always personal to the one being laid off. I decided to do it individually. 50 people, one at a time. That proved to be very draining, and I'm not sure it was any better, because whenever I called anyone to my office, their immediate thought was they were being laid off. It brought about a deep funk in the engineering room.
When it was all done, I was drained, and I didn't know how the management/employee relationship would survive, let alone the personal link I had with each individual. It did, and life went on.
That was really the first time I felt the 'burden of leadership.'
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