Learning Outcomes

The essay gives an overview of the major leadership challenges in the modern world. Leadership on a constant basis presents challenges to the leaders and the abilities. The challenges lie in rising to a different level, testing oneself, improving the process and showing one’s ability of accomplishing something that seems impossible or difficult (Daft, 2014). However, the life led by the leader of a modern world is not easy since within the organization they not only have to lead but at the same time motivate a diverse group of people, work across the organizational boundaries, enhance efficiency and growth. The external environment also makes the leader face a globalized and complex environment. Here, they need to manage the government requirements, be at par with the competitors and at the same time meet stakeholders requirement.  Besides, to be effective, the leaders take into account cultural considerations. Leaders of the modern world, needs to work across the cultural boundaries where they need to apply different means for getting the work done. Some of these are real difficult challenges that become difficult for the leader to tackle. The essay will discuss about the challenges of a leading an organization in the 21^st century.  The essay also puts forward a discussion on the change of the ways to leadership if a leader has to deal with the challenges of the uncertain and complex times. The essay also mentions recommendations for the improvement in quality of the leadership development program. The essay also tries to mention how the recommendations helps in addressing some of the limitations of the approaches used until date for developing both the leaders and the leadership.

According to Gentry et al. (2016), the revolution in the digital world, not only ensured the evolution of technology but also the business. This has also made the leadership challenges more dynamic. A survey was conducted across seven different countries for gauging leadership challenges the challenges faced by the leader in the modern world. The countries include Hong Kong/ China, India, Egypt, Spain, Singapore, United States and United Kingdom. The study carried out in the different countries helped in categorizing the present day leadership challenges into six categories.

Salicru (2017) stated that the first challenge lies in the development of the managerial effectiveness. This involves development of the managerial skills like prioritization, time management and decision-making, strategic thinking and pacing along the speed of the job. Possession of the mentioned skills makes them more efficient at work.  The second challenge lies in the inspiring others. This helps in ensuring whether the employees are satisfied with the jobs. This also implies motivating a worker to perform in more a smarter manner. The third challenge lies in the development of others that also includes topics around coaching and mentoring. The fourth challenge lies leading a team that is the challenge of team development, team building and management of teams. It also involves instilling pride within a team or supporting a team, ways of leading a bigger team and things to be done when taking over a newer team. The fifth challenge lies in guiding a change that implies the challenge of mobilizing, managing, understanding and leading a change. Here, the leaders need to know the ways of mitigating the consequences of changes, overcoming the resistance to the change and dealing with the reaction of the employer in incorporating changes. The sixth challenge lies in managing the internal politics and stakeholders. This involves the challenge in the management of the relationships, image and politics. It also involves gaining of managerial support and ways of managing ‘buy in’ from individuals, groups or departments.

Leadership Challenges in the Modern World

According to Bagozzi et al. (2013), however, great leaders have first priority for the people and then for the strategy. They get the right people on bus along with removal of the wrong people to ensure the effectiveness of the business. As per Nesbit (2012), leadership should consider that a business is affected by liberalization, globalization, technology, revolution, and privatization. Business needs to functions based on changing political, economic and social workforce environment. Therefore, the organizations need to change on a constant basis. In this scenario, the ultimate challenge before a leader lies in implementing measures that helps in putting an organization along a lasting transformation pathway.  According to Collins & Jackson (2015), great leaders represent immensely capable individuals who contribute effectively to the team members. They are also competent managers who undertake effective leadership and play the role of an executive.

According to Baumgartner (2009), the idea that the effective leaders should guide and influence using their direction and vision ensures that they should have classy personality characteristics. According to Giberson et al. (2009), leadership is a form of art that has association with vision and personality management with the routine, structure and methods. The personal attributes such as creativity associated with leadership represents additional value that the leadership brings to the management. According to Prati et al. (2009), there are five nuances of leadership; providing direction, providing inspiration and building teams. However, the ability of providing direction and building teams represents management responsibilities and skills thereby ensuring a symbiotic relationship between leadership and management practice. The other three nuances of leadership relates to the personality of the individuals and the interpersonal relationship they have with the others. Vogelgesang, Clapp-Smith & Osland (2014) defined two kinds of leadership which includes enabling leadership and inspirational leadership. Enabling leadership is a management trait that has an association with the operational roles at the middle and the junior level. These categories of leadership are the facilitators, supporters and the motivators. On the other hand, inspirational leaders adopt less prescribed behavior such as integrity, initiative and likeability.

Bolman & Deal (2017) stated that to ensure that the leaders deal with and overcome certain challenges they should not only undergo planned, targeted, formal development training and initiatives but also depend on the process of learning in an informal and social manner that seems appropriate. In this section, the essay provides an insight into the changes in way of leadership necessary for meeting the challenges of the complex and the uncertain times. Leaders should undertake a review of their leadership in the times of uncertainty and change.  However, based on the business environment guaranteed Wheatley (2012), said, that organization  will experience changes beyond the control of an individual no matter how hard he tried in creating a healthy and stable organization. It appeared that individuals lives in a period of transformational change and uncertainty which Johansen (2012) described as the VUCA horizon that stands for volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity.

Foundational Capabilities for Effective Leadership

The nature of the changes is however a debatable aspects since they are more unpredictable and complex. Therefore, Johansen (2012) made a claim that VUCA has also become increasingly threatening compared to before. In the period of the next twenty years, the world will become a more complicated place and so the leaders should also undergo adaptation otherwise the organizations will become more irrelevant and obsolete. There are certain key capabilities that the leaders needs to adopt for providing them with necessary guidance in dealing with complex and uncertain times. The capabilities adopted are however not new and has been the part of the system for quite some time. These capabilities however require adaption and review on a constant basis. The essay however tries to portray the actual foundational capabilities that help in unpinning the practice that helps in enhancing the ability of navigation in times of uncertainty instead of turning the leaders into the superheroes of the changes taking place.

Therefore, guiding the change remains one of top challenges for the leaders of the United Kingdom. Organizations exist within a VUCA world that is volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous. Thus, the leaders need to get adapted to mobilizing, managing, dealing and leading the change (Cumberland et al., 2016). Incorporation of the change management and enhancement of resourcefulness are the vital areas of initiatives undertaken for leadership development. To deal with the complex and uncertain times, leaders should adopt the following leadership skills.

The leaders should remain open to newer ideas (Gentry et al., 2014). This skill helps the leaders in incorporating changes. It is however a natural phenomenon of people to accept a change easily. Leaders should however be different and try to not only transform their thinking but also remain open to the aspect of change. If the leaders remain successful in doing that then they can act as an example for the others in embracing change. The attitude of the leaders will encourage the others in embracing change.

They should embrace the emotional reactions towards change (Huy et al., 2014). It is to be noted that the human emotion and cognition represents an integrated systems. Rational arguments are not enough in convincing people about the need for a change. Besides, the leaders should not only be sensitive towards the emotions of the employee emotions but also show certain amount of empathy. Therefore, in such instances, the leaders emotionally encourage people by being authentic, visionary and passionate.

Change Management and Resourcefulness as Vital Areas of Leadership Development

Leaders should express clarity about present (Zhang, Wang & Pearce, 2014). It is not possible for a leader to predict the future but he can always speak about the present and the activities performed for reaching the desired stage in the future. Here, the leaders must inform the people about the ongoing activities. Reducing ambiguity leads to an increase in control over a situation thereby enabling leaders in becoming the proactive agents for change. This will enable them to have a feel like the masters of their destiny.

In today’s organizations leadership development program are an omnipresent activity (Tourish, 2014).  It is found that close to ninety percent of companies have certain leadership development programming with two thirds having structured and regular programming. However, they faced with a challenge of the perceived effectiveness. It is only the seven percent of the leadership development programs demonstrates an overall success. The perception problem has resulted in an important outcome for the Learning and Developing (L&D) leaders and the organizations. L & D teams has made headway in implementing greater innovative technologies and adapted towards changing workforce through focusing on the leadership capabilities that ensures addressing engagement, complexity and integrity. In spite of the fact, most of the organizations still does not commit towards the role of the leadership development as the strategic need due to various reasons. Business managers need to be convinced by the L&D leaders about the difference that the program makes.

There are four key recommendations for improving the leadership development programs. Firstly, the leadership development programs must have an impact on the organizational results and should be a strategic priority. Secondly, the programs should benefit from the C-suite support. Thirdly, the programs should be offered at all the levels instead of keeping them restricted to the senior management. Fourthly, the programs must develop a stronger pipeline for the internal candidates thereby leading to the creation of the opportunities from within.

Besides, key talent management function also plays a vital role in the leadership development program (Day et al., 2014). It however remains well supported via technology platform based on unified talent management. The functions include recruitments that help in sourcing the leadership talent. It also includes assessments for evaluating both the internal and the external leadership capabilities. Then there is performance management for monitoring and undertaking the course correction for the development of leaders.  Succession planning is also a function for avoiding the gaps of the future leaders while career planning enables employees in understanding the leadership options. Further, it also focuses on the development for the creation of a roadmap that helps in filling the gaps. Thus, a successful leadership development programs starts  with aligning the leadership development with the company strategy and a clear understanding of the kind of leadership style necessary for the execution of a strategy.

Leadership Skills for Navigating Complex and Uncertain Times

Seven recommended steps need to be followed for the fulfillment of the current and the future leadership. The first step includes determination of the best style of leadership for an organization. The second step includes the identification of the potential and the current leaders within the company. The third step represents the identification of the gaps in leadership. The fifth step includes the development of the goals of career planning for the potential leaders. The sixth step represents the development of skills roadmap for the future leaders. The seventh step involves the development of retention programs for the present and the future leaders.

The learning and the development executives faces demands for the change in addressing the threats from technology and global competition (Sosik & Jung, 2018). There is also the necessity of engaging in multigenerational workforce with possessing different working styles. There also lies the imperative in cultivating a newer generation of leaders who will not only be able to meet the needs but also thrive. The recommendations mentioned above will help in addressing the limitations of the approaches.

The recommendation on the determining the best leadership style will help in identifying the appropriate style of leadership for the organization. According to the theory of situational leadership, the best style of leadership is determined  with the help of situational  variables which puts forward that  there will exist no appropriate leadership styles that acts suitable for all the workplace situations.

The recommendation on the identifying the potential and current leaders within a company will help in the determination of the expected leadership competencies and skills. This recommendation will also helps in the identification of the internal leaders. In addition to this, recommendation on identification of the gaps in leadership gaps will help in assessing the leadership gaps for both organization and individuals (Argyris, 2017)). Therefore, in order to recognize the leadership gaps companies should not only determine the current and the future requirements of leadership but also compare the requirements with the present leadership team. It will also involve identification of the leaders who remain at the risk of leaving along with the recognition of the succession plans. Besides, it is also necessary to look at development pipeline of leadership along with identification of the gaps in the skills.

The recommendation on the developing succession plans for the critical roles should not be restricted to the executive roles. Through this, companies will be able to evaluate the critical roles of leadership as a part of leadership development program. To ensure greater efficacy, succession planning have technology support.

The recommendation on developing goals for career planning will help in determining responsibility of the individual. Recent research puts forward that the companies that are in support of career planning of the employees develops an upper hand in employee engagement, retention and protection of leadership pipeline. Also, the recommendations on the developing the roadmap of skills for the future leaders will help in the identification of the high potential employees.

Lastly, the recommendation on developing retention program for the future and the current leaders will help in drawing various monetary rewards used for improving employee retention with particular focus on the future leaders and the high performers (Aguinis, Joo & Gottfredson, 2013). The other means of retaining and motivating the future leaders will lie in involving them in the process of decision-making.  

Conclusion:

On a concluding note, one can say that modern day leaders play a very complex role across the world. Through the essay, one can find that the challenges faced by these leaders are also quite dynamic and complex in nature. Although a particular leader might find himself alone with their individual challenges and the problems, but their problem is similar to the challenges of leader who is far away in different time zone. Developmental initiatives acts more effective if they remain seem to align with the challenges faced by the leader. The essay also tries to portray that a properly designed leadership development program acts as the key for attracting, filling, identifying and retaining of the corporate leadership. Through the essay, one is also able to understand that the elements of leadership development program must involve a strategy along with an outline of the seven-step procedure. One can also find that leadership development represents a crucial aspect for the attainment of the optimum level output from the organizational talent management along with the efficient execution of various practices related to talent management. Applications of technology not only help in the process of recruitment, performance management, career planning and succession, assessments and the development of the programs. Therefore, from the essay one draw the benefits of optimized leadership development program. This includes, the benefit of the pipeline of leadership talents aligned with the corporate goals. The benefits also include increased retention, improved morale and leadership skills and the constant measurement through performance management and development. Thus, even in all organizations strong leadership defines the success of the organization.

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