Leadership Struggles and How to Fix Them

Becoming a leader can be a challenging but rewarding experience. However, just simply being put into a leadership position does not make you a great leader. When people are promoted leadership positions they require leadership training. If they don’t receive this they can find the role more challenging than it should be.

There are different leadership styles. However your leadership style may not match up to the way your team requires to be led. Let’s take a look and see what works for different employees. You’ll also learn how you can best motivate them and leverage their strengths.

The following are some common problems that new leaders may face. 

1. My employees are spending too much time on social media during work

This is a “problem” that is only going to become more prevalent as people that grew up on smart phones enter the workforce. However you use social media, there are people for whom it as regular as drinking water or eating.

However, if you have someone who uses social media this much, don’t be afraid to use that to you advantage. Ask yourself; how good is our social media currently? If you either don’t care, or it is underperforming, then this may be your key to success. And the upside, you don’t need to hire a new person! 

Ask if they have any ideas for social media, and if they would be interested in running your social media. Turn that time that they were “wasting” into research, and get people coming in and interacting with your brand online. It’s free advertising, and it will keep your business on the pulse of what trends are happening.

2. My employees aren’t responding to my motivation techniques. What am I missing?

 If you are in a leadership position, you were probably good at your job when you were at a lower level. However, what motivates one person may not motivate all. Just because it helped you hone your craft, doesn’t mean it is the only way to succeed in that role.

 Think of any field outside of yours and look at the most successful people. Do they all have exactly the same traits?

 It can also be hard when you have preferences on how things should be done. If you think the only way to be successful in business is to rule with an iron fist, then how do you explain Bill Gates or Warren Buffet? Each personality has strengths and weaknesses.

 Look at your team and look at their strengths. Are they more likely to respond to fun, or direct, specific tasks and regiments? Are they more likely to respond to incentives that involve free time, more money or something else? Is there a way they can add more of their own flair to their work and make it their own?

 Trusting them in this way wilt only make the experience more rewarding for both of you, and also motivate them to take initiative.

3. I’m struggling to connect with my team. I want to enjoy going to work, but I feel cold and distant from my employees.

If going to work is becoming harder by the day, it can be really draining on not only your work-life, but your home life as well.

 Luckily, this can be the easiest one to fix out of the three problems listed in this article. When it comes to relationships with your team, you only get out what you put in. How much effort are you putting in to get to know your team and learn their personal goals? How much effort are you putting in to make them feel comfortable? How much team-building are you doing?

 This is a crucial part that motivates employees. Many articles have pointed out recently, the workforce is in the midst of a “great resignation”, a shift built around bad working environments. Some companies think that just because they pay their employees, those employees should be delighted to come to work. Well, there are many options for competent employees out there on the job market, so what makes your place of work desirable outside of a pay-check?

 Simply putting in an effort outside of work to connect with your employees will be something that pays dividends.

 When employees see you putting them before the bottom line and seeing them as more than just a role, you will have a better relationship and be able to better manage them.

In Conclusion…

 I’m sure I don’t need to tell you, leading people is hard. I hope this article can make that a little easier for you. And remember, anyone can be a good leader, you just have to give your employees space to be their best selves.

For more information on Leadership, follow us on social media. Our theme this month is Coaching to Grow More Leaders, and so we will be providing resources on all of our social media platforms regarding that.

You can also check out this podcast we did for more information on Leadership in the Workplace