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Business leaders face plenty of challenges depending on their industry. These challenges can be related to logistics, technology, or negotiations. However, some leadership challenges are common in all industries are environments. In this article, we will identify the five most common leadership challenges and explore them in detail. We will then list solutions for them that are applicable regardless of the industry. We will also evaluate if an employee monitoring software can help you in overcoming those challenges.
Here are the most common challenges that business leaders typically face.
Leadership vs management
Leadership and management are widely used terms in the business world but they are qualitatively different. A good manager may not be a good leader, but a good leader is necessarily a good manager.
Management revolves around controlling and allocating resources for a specific goal. A manager’s task is to handle employees working for them, and planning for the future. On the other hand, a leader not only allocated resources for a specific goal but envisions that goal in the first place.
Similarly, while employees are sub-ordinates of a manager and complete their tasks according to their requirements, a leader encourages and inspires employees to believe in a vision and work to achieve it. In other words, a leader inspires action while a manager oversees it. Management and leadership constitute of different characteristics, but they both go hand in hand. Distinguishing between the two will help you inspire your workforce for improved business success.
Micromanagement
Micromanagement refers to a set of behaviors that involve close monitoring of work processes and employees.
Micromanagement is probably the best way to lose your employees. If you want to increase your employee loyalty, here are 15 ways to do so. While concern and attention to detail are admirable qualities in a leader, they have to be balanced with liberty. Employees work best when their innate talents are utilized to achieve a specific goal.
Micromanagement can result in low employee morale, hamper teamwork, and damage trust. Instead of laying down details on how a task is to be performed, use a set of guidelines, expected results, and a time-frame to your employees. This gives your employees the space to use their creativity and talents to achieve goals. After all, that is why they were hired in the first place.
A balance between liberty and accountability drives innovation and helps your business prosper.
Maintaining and improving brand image
Your brand’s image is among the chief reasons why your business will succeed or struggle to grow. While you may have invested considerable time, energy, and financial resources to build your brand, it is also important that you need to make sure that the image is maintained. On the other hand, a change in your brand may also be a requirement if public opinion or industry norms begin to shift. Recognizing when to do so is of critical importance.
One way of maintaining your brand image is to have a uniform manner of communication with your clients. This uniformity can include language, your organization’s purpose, and even design elements such as the logo. In other words, your brand’s identity and its image go hand in hand.
Furthermore, changing your brand’s image is important because public opinions shift along with social norms. This can range from an awareness of environmental concerns to adopting a progressive outlook on political matters. Make sure that your organization is capable of identifying and adapting to these trends. Your brand image will be based on what you do in the digital world, especially social media, so make sure you continue to invest in a clear social media strategy.
Scaling up
The kind of policies and strategies you used to set up and start your organization worked if your business begins to grow. However, there comes a point where there is a clear need to scale up. This can range from expanding your outreach, hiring new employees, or both. At this point, it is important to recognize that the same policies and strategies may not give you optimum results. Take time to consider whether your business needs a full-time employee or a contractor to perform a specific task. Evaluate the details of the task and review the resources you are willing to invest in it. Failing to make an accurate choice can result in thousands of dollars in losses at the end of the year, and this can be a factor in whether you successfully scale up or not.
Office design
Office design is often overlooked by leaders, especially after the company has seen growth and new employees are hired. It is natural that as a leader you tried to cut down on costs when you started, and office space represented one way of doing so.
However, once the number of employees increases, and there is a significant jump in activity at your office, you need to re-consider how your structure the physical space of your office. Aspects like light, color, furniture, smell, space, seating structure, and other factors can make or break employee productivity and satisfaction.
However, the office design also reflects your organization’s image and values, so be sure that you do not overlook this crucial element.
Company culture
The work culture of a company is composed of values, behavioral expectations, priorities, and relationships among employees. Each company has its own distinct culture, so creating one for your company can be a difficult task. Employees who are unable to settle into a work culture can perform poorly, so productivity and employee retention declines. Morale also takes a direct hit. Create a culture by outlining the values, priorities, and organizational aims of your company. Design the workplace following those values. This may require you to introduce new policies such as remote working. Candidates seeking employment will take note of that and seek to join. This way, you will attract the kind of talent that works for the company’s goals.
Adapting to the future
Introducing change doesn't necessarily means it will affect your business culture. Adaptability and innovation lie at the heart of a successful business.
Policies that worked in a different time and environment are not always suitable. While technologies and policies can be created with intense research and development, their shelf-life is not always very long. Even minor events in other parts of the world can rapidly change your business environment. Similarly, new technologies and changing consumption patterns represent trends that can make your products or services uncompetitive. This is a challenge if you envision further growth.
However, adding flexibility and contingency plans for your policies can help your company absorb immediate shocks. Similarly, continuous research can help you improve your company and its services by recognizing technological and consumption trends. Adapting to the future should thus be an important goal for you as a leader.
Conflict management
Many organizations follow a haphazard system of managing conflict. These conflicts can be between employees, managers, even senior leaders of the company. Business leaders often adopt a more hands-on approach to these issues, by openly communicating with the parties involved in the conflict.
However, this haphazard approach is inconsistent in terms of conflict resolution. Instead, create a clear set of policies that involve diagnosing and acknowledging conflict based on concrete principles. For example, a conflict regarding personal beliefs can be managed following principles related to how the company handles personal belief related issues. This rules-based system is also applicable on other violations of company or employee conduct policies.
In addition to these changes, you can also introduce an employee monitoring app to improve your ability to handle these challenges. Bear in mind though, that you would need to obtain the consent of your employees before installing the app on company-owned devices. Let’s take a look at one of the most advanced employee monitoring app and how it can help you effectively manage the aforementioned challenges.
Use effective monitoring
In addition to these changes, you can also introduce an employee monitoring app to improve your ability to handle these challenges, for instance Xnspy—a sophisticated employee monitoring app. It offers a broad range of features that you can use to stay on top of things happening at your company. For example, XNSPY can generate complete reports on an individual’s use of the device. This report can detail top callers and most visited websites.
Employees using company devices for non-work related purposes can be identified, so workplace productivity can be improved. Similarly, you will not have to micromanage your employees if you are using XNSPY. The app will collect data such as exchanged messages, call logs, installed apps, and GPS location. Your employees can have their liberty to perform a task, while you can stay aware of exactly what is happening. Install XNSPY on company-owned devices and you can help create a culture of transparency if you feel it is important.
Final Thoughts on How to Overcome the Most Common Leadership Challenges
There are plenty of challenges that business leaders face but there are some that are common to all industries. These challenges include difficulty in distinguishing between management and leadership, micromanagement, and unclear company culture. Difficulty adapting to the future or managing conflicts are among these challenges as well. There are many things you can do to handle these issues, but using employee-monitoring software such as XNSPY can help.
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