Contrary to popular belief, being a leader can be extremely challenging, and sometimes it isn’t beneficial.
To become a leader, your skills must stand out, and your mind and heart should intersect. If you’re not balanced as a person, then chances are, you won’t be a good leader. Instead of leading others towards success, you may end up hurting yourself in the process.
Even good leaders can sometimes be unaware of how their actions affect others. This self-awareness is what distinguishes good leaders from excellent ones. To become an excellent leader, you must understand what could turn you into a poor one.
As a leader, there are many obstacles to overcome, and without the right mindset, failure can occur. To help you avoid that outcome, we’ll go through seven specific challenges that often come with being a leader, and how to rise above them.
People are unpredictable
Being a leader means constantly working closely with different types of people. But when you’re not flexible enough, you could start taking things personally. Most people don’t react as we predict, and that could set you off.
Using the same type of leadership strategies that work with some people may not work with others, so as a leader, you need to start learning about character typologies. This, of course, requires an open mind und time.
Solution: Take the time to read a psychological article each day, and ask yourself questions about the people around you. Start thinking about the reasons behind their behaviour and actions. Try to empathize with their individual situations.
After that, start applying what you’ve learned. When you meet those people, actively listen to what they have to say. Ask questions, and start figuring them out. Be curious and take note of how they react to different stimuli.
You must work on your skill set
Leaders must constantly challenge themselves if they want to thrive. If you stay in your comfort zone, you won’t be able to make any real changes. While falling into a specific routine is easy, you must keep yourself from doing so. If your life becomes exhaustingly monotonous, you may never work on improving your skills. You might become comfortable with where you are and allow personal growth to pass you by.
Solution: Never settle for less than you desire, even when others tell you that it’s OK. Don’t take their word for it! Experience things for yourself, make mistakes and learn from your so-called failures in order to improve. Be comfortable enough with where you are to love yourself, but continue to think of strategies to improve your skill set. Brainstorm, brainstorm, brainstorm. Get out of that comfort zone, if you want to excel as a leader.
You need to make a major time commitment
Some people prefer to be led than to lead, because of one obvious reason: time. Building up a leader’s character might take several months, if not years, so of course, time is an important investment to make. If you “lack time,” it means you don’t want it bad enough—and that’s OK. Nobody should blame you for that. But if you do want to become a real leader, you’ll need to get your priorities straight.
Solution: Don’t be discouraged if you don’t thrive at first (or even at second). Be patient and kind to yourself as you’re learning. Being born a leader is a big lie, so don’t fall for it. It takes commitment and self-love to learn how to lead yourself, so you can later lead others. Read self-development books, start meditating, do Yoga, learn how to fight; do whatever it takes to align your thoughts, emotions and actions. Once you’re able to do that, you can commit to a life of leading others through compassion.
Management can be complicated
Being a leader means mastering management. If you lack this skill, you’ll probably find yourself stressed out and overwhelmed by your tasks, so cultivating your management abilities is a must. However, managing people, projects, tasks, deadlines and your personal time, all at once, can be emotionally triggering.
When they come to understand how difficult this process is, many leaders step down from their positions, only to switch to a life devoid of worries and responsibilities. If you feel called to do that, no one’s judging you—that’s perfectly normal, so do it! But if you want to remain a successful leader, here’s the solution.
Solution: Leadership is a balancing act. You must learn how to balance everything in order to become successful at it. At first, that might look impossible, but the more you practice, the better you’ll become at managing everything at work and in your personal life.
Keep an organized schedule of your daily tasks, and set weekly goals. Track your results and, at the end of each week, analyze what you could’ve improved. Throughout the next week, be sure to improve it, and keep this process up until management is a piece of cake for you.
A healthy dose of self-confidence is required
Being liked is one thing, and being respected is another. Leaders should never strive for being liked, but for being respected. If you’re respected, it means you’re doing your job right. Of course, that doesn’t mean you should be rude to your team or get upset all the time. If you can find internal balance, you’ll eventually be able to find external happiness, and along with that will come self-confidence.
A low level of confidence and a leadership position is a bad combination, as you can’t effectively handle people, tasks and projects without being confident. Low self-confidence can be an impediment to successfully achieving goals, which can be damaging to your mental health in the long run.
Solution: Start attending empowering conferences and seminars on personal development, and begin seeing a confidence coach. Be open to introspection, keep a journal and talk to your friends about your values and desires. Do anything it takes to get to know yourself better than you know anyone else.
You can’t blame others
As a leader, you can’t blame others for what’s happening to you, because you’re in charge of everything that’s happening. Therefore, being unable to take personal responsibility for your actions won’t benefit you or your team members. If you don’t like taking responsibility, then a leadership position could even harm you, psychologically.
Solution: If you tun want to be a leader, you must understand that making hard decisions is your responsibility, and you can’t protect yourself from determining the outcome of a situation. You need to understand that everything comes with risk, and that taking that risk is your job only. Recognize that as a leader, you’ll have to make decisions, determine outcomes and draw conclusions, all while taking responsibility for what you choose.
You’ll have very little free time
If you like to have endless free time, you really can’t be a leader. It’s as simple as that. Leaders build empires by putting in constant effort and never settling for less than what they know they deserve, so an unwillingness to fully do that will set you back.
Solution: Take breaks and time for yourself to avoid burning out, but instead of being spontaneous with these “free” periods, plan them in accordance with the tasks you need to complete. Make sure you know where you’ll be and when, and how much time you’ll spend relaxing. While relaxing, stop thinking about work and be where you are. But when you come back, focus solely on the tasks at hand. In a nutshell, be present.
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