Obstacles to Effective Leadership.

 

In any setting, being an effective leader is a challenging task. Even with a clear definition of leadership and what makes a leader effective, being effective is not easy. Meanwhile, organizations pay a heavy price for ineffective, incompetent or unethical leadership.

 

The keys to becoming an effective leader are knowledge, experience, practice and learning from one’s mistakes. Unfortunately, many organizations do not provide environment in which leaders can practice new skills, try out new behaviors and observe their impact. In most cases the price for making mistakes is so high that new leaders and managers opt for routine actions.

 

Without such practice and without failure, it is difficult for leaders to learn how to be effective. The experience of failure, in some cases, may be a defining moment in the development of a leader. The question is, therefore, what are the obstacles to becoming an effective leader? Aside from different levels of skills and aptitudes that might prevent a leader from being effective, several other obstacles to effective leadership exists:

 

• First, organizations face considerable uncertainty that creates pressure for quick responses and solutions. External forces, such as voters and investors, demand immediate attention. In an atmosphere of crisis, there is no time or patience for learning. Ironically, implementing new methods of leadership, if they are allowed, would make dealing with complexity and uncertainty easier in the long run. Therefore, a vicious cycle that allows no time for the learning that would help current crisis continues.
   

• Second, organizations are often rigid and unforgiving. In their push for short-term and immediate performance, they do not allow any room for mistakes and experimentation. The rigidity and rewards systems of many institutions discourage such endeavours.

• Third, organizations fall back on old ideas about what effective leadership is and, therefore, rely on simplistic solutions that do not fit new and complex problems. The use of simple ideas provides only temporary solutions.
   

• Fourth, over time, all organizations develop a particular culture that strongly influences how things are done and what is considered acceptable behavior. As leaders try to implement new ideas and experiment with new methods, they may face resistance generated by the established culture.
   

• Finally, another factor that can pose an obstacle to effective leadership is the difficulty involved in understanding and applying the findings of academic research. Researchers sometimes do not clarify the application of their research, making the research inaccessible to practitioners.