10 Barriers to Great Leadership

great leaderI always ask myself: what stops me from becoming a great leader? Or in other words, what are the things or behaviors I should avoid to become a great leader. How can I grow? Or develop myself? These are just few questions that every person should ask him/herself if he/she wants to become a leader. Well, there are 10 barriers to great leadership that were beautifully presented by Brian Evji on Inc.com here they are really interesting to avoid. Read along and discover them.

 

Here are the 10 barriers to great leadership:

 

1. Believing that it can’t happen to you

Every leader needs to be aware of things that might prevent, delay, or stop growth. To do this, you need to start with a couple of basic insights: that leadership growth is not inevitable and that certain things can stop or derail it. In too many cases, leaders are unable to figure out what’s blocking their growth, because they’re in denial about the need to do so.

 

2. Ignoring the usefulness of mistakes

Mistakes are necessary for growth. They are signposts on the learning journey. I worked with a client who was experiencing a series of difficult and upsetting events, and he wanted to move past them as quickly as possible. When you find yourself feeling low about your leadership, don’t push it into the background.  Rather, embrace the opportunity for growth, reflect on how to avoid similar potholes in the future, and learn how to scramble out of the next pothole a bit more adroitly.

 

3. Refusing help

We all need help in order to learn.  For a variety of reasons, usually rooted in personal insecurity, many leaders refuse help.  Use a coach and commit to your development.

 

4. Not asking for the right things

Are you assuming a new leadership role?  If you have a boss or a board you need to answer to, you have a limited window in which to come up with a plan and ask for what you need.  A fine article by Harvard professor Linda Hill (“Becoming the Boss”) emphasizes the need to “create the conditions for your own success.”

 

5. Not letting your team do its job

This blocker has many names: micromanaging, control freak, inability to delegate, etc. True leadership requires the ability to create and maintain an environment where others can succeed. This means you have to get out-of-the-way and let your team do its work.

 

6. Lack of functional credibility

If you are leading a functional group, you must have enough expertise in that function to be credible–especially in a new role or with a new team. People become quite uneasy when a leader does not understand the fundamentals of the work.

 

7. Lack of leadership process credibility

In a broader leadership role, expertise in every function is not possible or needed.  What is needed is the highly competent execution of the leadership process, such as selecting the team and organizing and defining goals, priorities, decisions, resources, accountability, and options. Leaders must keep the wider view in balance.

 

8. Not enough courage to let go of yesterday’s tools

When leaders use less functional expertise and more leadership expertise, they engage in the psychological act of setting down the tools of the past and picking up new tools for the present.  This process can be difficult. It requires courage, and not everyone succeeds.

 

9. An inability to face the power dynamics of leadership

Many leaders are uncomfortable with the power they hold over others. The pressures of this responsibility can cause even good leaders to hold back from fully embracing their role.  If you are uncomfortable with your higher status as a leader, you must face this unease and learn to use power effectively and ethically.

 

10. A good memory. Too good

Leaders need to forget a great many things. A really bad day must give way to trying again in the morning.  Many mistakes by others must be treated as forgive-and-forget. Issues that can distract and misdirect are best ignored. Sometimes, the best things to remember about leadership growth are what needs to be forgotten in order to move forward.

So simply put, avoid these 10 barriers to great leadership.

 

If you like this article please like or share. All your comments are also welcome. You can always subscribe to my newsletter here to receive regular updates on interesting posts and articles.

Leave a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

%d bloggers like this: