Leadership Challenges and Solutions - Essay Example

Leadership Challenges and Solutions By Introduction Leadership entails planning, organising, delegation of responsibilities and decision-making processes in an organisation. It involves defining a team’s direction and communicating it to the relevant individuals in the team. In addition, leaders in an organisation promote hard work among employees by inspiring, empowering and motivating them. Leadership requires an individual to focus on achieving the objectives of the organisation effectively. It entails encouraging employees to work effectively in order to maximise productivity in the organisation. Leadership qualities include pro-activeness, commitment, clear vision, skilfulness and the ability to set clear goals for the organisation. In addition, leaders should have the ability to adapt to new working environment as well as the portrayal of high levels of patience when handling their subordinates (Connor, 2003). The World Health Organisation is an agency of the United Nations that specialises in promoting international health. The organisation was established in 1948 and is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. The main responsibility of the World Health organisation is to assist individuals with medical problems across the globe. W.H.O also assists individuals affected by various medical calamities in different parts of the world such as hunger issues and infectious medical situations in various countries (Connolly, 2008). Leadership in the World Health Organisation entails the process of establishing appropriate management approaches to promote the availability of health facilities and services in the world. The World Health Organisation ensures that all its employees across the globe promote good work ethics in their designated positions. In addition, the leadership of the organisation promotes equality in its services to various countries worldwide (Nielsen, 2001). The leadership is also responsible for maintaining good public relations in the world regarding the quality and distribution of their services (Powell, 2000). A team leadership position at the World Health organisation is quite challenging for an individual. Leadership challenges encountered by fresh team leaders include Technological developments, changing perceptions, the changing environment, increasing expectations and changing workforce in addition to cultural diversity and increasing pace of change (Dickenson-Hazard, 2004). Leadership Challenges and solutions Leaders experience challenges when handling the needs of an organization and its team members. Team leaders have the responsibility of promoting productivity and work ethics among team members. In addition, the leaders should ensure that all the members of the team adapt to organizational policies in order to achieve the objectives of the organizations. They are also responsible for promoting unity among the team members, which is crucial in attaining the goals of the organization. There are various leadership challenges faced by a new team leader in the World Health organization (Denton and Vloeberghs, 2003). Increasing Expectations Expectations refer to the idealization of the team members regarding their leaders’ skills and aggressiveness. The team members expect a leader to implement new strategies of achieving the objectives of the team. In addition, the leader also expects to manage a unified team in order to increase the team’s productivity and activeness in achieving the organization’s goals. Expectations increase among various members of the group and the leadership due to changes in leadership positions in the team. In addition, the team leader faces challenge of implementing their strategy in the group. This challenge affects the leader’s involvement in managing the group. The group members expect the leader to promote unity and hard work as well as enable the team to adjust to changes in leadership. Heightened expectation is among the greatest challenges that new team leaders experience especially in a new organization (Drinka and Clark, 2000). The team members expect the team leaders to implement a complete overhaul of the team’s composition. The expectations of the team hinder the team’s leadership from engaging in other activities regarding the achievement of its objectives. Increased expectation among team members poses challenges in establishing a team that works towards the achievement of a common goal. The leadership experiences trouble in managing the operations of the team in light of scheduling and the dissemination of information (Eims, 2012). This challenge in managing the team is attributed to the expectations of the team on leadership approaches. The dissemination of information regarding the policies of the team is challenging to the management (Fisher et al., 2001). There are various solutions to increasing expectations among the team members and its leadership. During the first thirty days, the leader should embrace the differences in the team. This embracement enables the leader to know various members of the group. The leader should also identify the weaknesses and strengths of the group members. The identification of the weaknesses and strengths of the group members is essential in the delegation of duties (Fisher, 2000). It also helps to reduce the expectations of the team leader regarding the abilities of various members in the team. The leader should also promote unity among group members. This idea of promoting unity espouses good relationship among team members and its leadership, which is essential in facilitating a good working environment. In addition, the team leader should establish an effective criterion for evaluating previous performances in the team (Giuliani and Kurson, 2002). Changing Workforce The workforce entails the composition of the team and the skills of various team members. Changing workforces is a major challenge facing new team leaders in the World Health Organization. The World Health Organisation performs various functions in different parts worldwide. The workforce should, therefore, comprise of highly qualified and responsible individuals able to perform the tasks delegated by the top management. Team leadership faces the challenge of changing the composition of team members. The team members comprise of individuals with varied skills (Hawkins, 2011). The leadership should implement changes in the team in order to achieve the goals of the team effectively. In addition, adjusting the composition of the team enables the leadership to acquire members who are effective in promoting productivity in the team. It also enables job rotation among the team members, which is crucial reducing responsibility monotony in the team. Monotony at the workplace reduces productivity, which limits the team from achieving its objectives. The challenge of changing workforces arising from inability by the new team leader to appoint members of their group without facing critics from top management and team management (Howe, 2004). The team members are employees of the World Health Organisation, which makes it difficult for the team leader to adjust their positions in the organisation. In addition, changing the workforce can lead to disunity in the team, which affects the performance of various team members. A change in the workforce is a challenge to a new manager provided their limited information regarding various team members. This limitation regarding employee details prevents the leader from creating an effective team for the group. There are various solutions to the challenge of a changing workforce in the group. The leader should study the performance of various group members in order to establish the most effective members of the team. In addition, the leader should formulate the preference list regarding the composition of the team and present it to the senior management in the organisation (Huszczo, 2004). Developing a list enables the leader to obtain permission from the management to change the composition of the group. The leader should also establish appropriate reasons for changing the workforce in the team in order to maintain good rapport with the group members. The promotion of a good rapport in the team enhances productivity, which is essential in enabling group members to achieve the objectives of the organisations (Institute of Leadership & Mana, 2012). Technological developments Advancements in technology present a significant challenge to a new entrant in the circle of WHO leadership position. A tremendous technological development acts as a major driving tool for modern change. Communications and technological advancement has also led to the emergence of new and different forms of communication identity and dialogue. There is also a greater need for any leader to be abreast with any information technology fluctuation in this era of globalization. As an organization with an important public interest, there should be an effective policy training to sharpen consistency and effectiveness in the human capital. The training enables any leader to manage a position efficiently with the latest innovations and technology (Kerber and Buono, 2004). Team leaders are expected to be more than ready to adapt to any change in technology for the sake of direct interactions and engagement with the targeted members of the society. Engagement with other employees requires one to cope up with the emerging trends in technology. The organization of various public services under the umbrella of WHO requires majority input which utilize technology for proper coordination. As an instrument for change, the growth of ICT presents a great challenge to many lives hence a life changing organization like world health organization needs to acquire proper team leadership to embrace these changes for the betterment of humanity (Kim, 2009). Proper information technology team is a backup for the operation and leadership of any organization in modern world. A World Health Education team leader should set the perfect example in technological operation to ease and increase performance (Lencioni, 2002). Changing perceptions The Information and technologically oriented organizational governance affect a great change in the public perception. Many activities, which used to take long periods, have revolution and easiness. Procurement, recruitment and other forms of information and duty dissemination have enhanced transparency and a great reduction in corruption cases. The transparency in different operations directly affects any team leader. Public perception on the other hand affects leaders’ privacy. This has a direct link to how a leader operates in terms of confidentiality and the ability to deliver results (Lorange, 2002). In spite of the risk engrained in private life, a team leader needs to show a stern position when it comes to leadership qualities. This reduces the perception of leniency hence low risks of exposure to poor performance by individuals under their management. Personal relations with the surrounding parties need scrutiny to avoid such negative perceptions. In this respect, World Health Organization team leaders should be ready to soldier on with both personal and organizational goals to achieve a leading position in management (Maxwell, 2004). Proper adherence to public policies also reduces the risks ascribed to perception (Rosenzweig, 2011). Leaders in the managerial position need to follow the right direction to win public preference in and out of the organization by doing the right thing. The level of public involvement and services offered blurs the image of the customer led service models instead of being direct consumers. The use of technology has also led to the increase of service delivery (Persily, 2013). Leaders should responsibly understand that humanity services are always aligned with the need of each member of the society. The revolution of the ever-changing work force and citizen empowerment seek to transform public perception regarding team leadership (Oakley and Krug, 2006). Changing Environment Adaption to changes in the environment has a direct influence in both today’s leaders in the present and future. Direct emphasis is applicable to various international organizations, which absorbs citizens from different parts of the world. A team leader in the world health organization should be ready to adapt to any environmental change due to the interactive nature of the organization (Topchik, 2007). The organization’s main goals deal with the interests of the public in disregard to their originality. The change of expectations due to globalization brings along complexities in both the organization and the public. Prevailing disasters and migration from one point to the other causes environmental changes, which attracts different ethics and philosophies of work (Timperley, 2005). A local cohesion for growth and adaptation to any environment brings a challenge on the resources needed to achieve a certain target. Leaders need not spend any resources in the fight for uncontrolled parameters of the environment. They greatly need to poses qualities and skills required for the smooth control of the activities involved in the right leadership position. An adaptive and transformational form of leadership is the key to counter environmental changes. Any leader with such qualities easily corresponds to any challenge and fits well in the society inside and outside an organization (Weiss, Molinaro and Davey, 2007). Proper collaboration of employees and the society plays a perfect role in team leadership not only in the world health organization but also worldwide in terms of the perspective of the right form of leaders. Political leadership influences any negative factors resulting from the environment and assists in the transformation and proper training of present and future leaders to adapt to any environmental factors hence making them universally acceptable (Barr and Dowding, 2012). Cultural diversity The cultural diversity of various members of the team poses a challenge to the new team’s leadership. The World Health Organisation employs individuals from different cultural backgrounds. The organisation operates in various countries worldwide which contributes to cultural variance among its employees. A new leader faces the challenge of uniting individuals with different cultural backgrounds. Managing a group of individuals with varying cultural backgrounds challenges the leadership in implementing team policies. Cultural differences among group members translate to varying social and work ethics among team members. In addition, the differences affect the performance of the team due to lack of unity. The leader should embrace the cultural differences among group members in order to enhance efficiency in the team. In addition, the leader should enable group members to appreciate their differences and utilise them in enhancing performance. Social and cultural factors influence an individual’s work ethics, which affects the performance of the team. Some cultures embrace hard work in society, which is essential in establishing good work ethics among group members. On the other hand, various cultures limit certain genders in the society from performing specific tasks. This stalls the effectiveness of the team’s performance (Zaccaro, 2009). The leader should, therefore, examine the cultural backgrounds of its team members. This evaluation process enables the leader to establish appropriate approaches of delegating duties to various individuals on the team. In addition, it enables the group leadership to promote unity among the members regardless of any existent cultural differences. The leader can utilise cultural differences among the team members to promote operational efficiency. Allocating duties to suitable individuals based on their qualification and cultural background is essential to facilitating productivity among the group members (YACH, 2007). Increasing pace of change Change entails transforming operation strategies in an organisation. Change also entails a complete overhaul of the human resource in the organisation. The World Health Organisation implements changes in various departments regularly. This regular transformation in the human resource department promotes efficiency by reducing job monotony. The organisation also transforms it operations criteria in order to enhance productivity among various departments and branches in various countries worldwide. Transformations initiated by the management affects various teams in the organisation. Most of the teams are unable to adjust to the changes that make it difficult for them to accomplish their objectives. The pace at which operations and human resource transformations takes place in the organisation poses various challenges to team leaders (Zaccaro et al., 2009). The transformations affect the strategies of the team, which hinders them from achieving their objectives. Drastic changes in the human resource department affect the team’s composition. The new leader experiences trouble in establishing a new group due to the limited carried by group members. In addition, exposing a new team leader to tremendous changes in human resource affects their organisation and task delegation characters, which influences their performance. The various solutions to drastic changes in the organisation include improved adaptability and the development of flexible group strategies (YACH, 2007). The leader should adapt to any changes occurring in the organisation to suit the strategies of the group. In addition, the leader should ensure that all group members adapt to any implemented changes. The leader should also establish flexible strategies in their group to minimise the effects of drastic changes in the organisation’s operations (Rosenzweig, 2011). Conclusion Team leadership is a crucial tenet to organizational prosperity. It requires preparedness and the ability to tackle different situations. In a public organization like the World Health Organization, there are many responsibilities associated with any position. Appropriate leadership skills and flexibility count as key factors for consideration in terms of organizational leadership. As a leader, an individual is bound to encounter various challenges, which require perseverance and persistence to solve. Some challenges in the position of a team leader are controllable while others are completely out of human control. To emerge as an excellent leader, any individual who is a team leader should be more than ready to assume responsibility and learn appropriate approaches for the dissemination of duties. 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