Get Rid of Your Leadership Pain Points — Is Your Leadership Style Contributing to or Eliminating Your Pain Points?

Leaders trying to leave their mark in the ever-evolving corporate world encounter multiple challenges. The so-called leadership pain points can be worrisome and even dangerous for your company, especially if not addressed in a timely manner.

?To prevent their evolution into large problems, you should learn how to identify and resolve them with minimal damage. The following article defines the most common leadership pain points and offers several ways you can deal with them.

What Are Leadership Pain Points and How to Identify Them

A company can’t operate without the human component, and each person brings their own emotions, beliefs, and motives to the fold. As a result, conflicts and other issues arise, and the leader needs to know how to handle them.

?The leadership pain point definition is simple — they are recurring problems affected by your leadership style. Often, these unsolved issues can cause great damage to an organization.

?Identifying them requires putting yourself in the spotlight and exploring your own weaknesses. Although uncomfortable, it's a necessary step to resolving these issues and creating a healthy and thriving working environment.

Most Common Pain Points

Although many leadership pain points exist, most of them are connected. Below are some of the most common issues you’ll likely encounter as a leader.

Low Morale

Having a negative mindset will kill your company faster than anything else. You won’t be able to convince people to follow you, let alone face the issues and tasks head-on with a firm resolve. Your team will mimic the behaviour, be apathetic, and achieve very little in the process. As a result, the whole company will follow suit and stagnate or regress.

Communication Breakdown

Communication is the backbone of any company, as it binds people and ensures seamless workflow. On the other hand, the lack of it can have disastrous effects on a business and its employees. Clear expression, understanding, receiving and giving information with fidelity ensure success. A leader with soft skills like conflict resolution, active listening, and negotiating can organize and lead a team of people and create a prosperous and healthy setting.

Lack of Trust

Employees who don’t trust their leader or manager enter survival mode and become defensive. It’s an automatic response to a hostile work environment that yields more problems and leads to a full-on breakdown.

?An untrustworthy leader often causes employees to make mistakes, increases anxiety, and adds more pressure. In this atmosphere, people don’t work well together and put in less and less effort. In the end, resentment grows, minimizing productivity and workflow in the process.

Disunity

Employees that are at odds with one another can create disunity throughout the company, which might be the most significant pain point. When employees and leaders have unity and good communication, they are set up for success. Anything that contradicts this prevents the company from developing further.

?Any underlying issues or unresolved arguments that have piled up over time threaten progress. Once disunity takes over, all other pain points begin to surface, which makes the entire ordeal more challenging to overcome.

How to Get Rid of the Pain Points

If you’ve recognized yourself in any of these pain points, you should take action and start working toward resolving them immediately. Although they sound big and scary, these pain points can become a turning point and help you develop yourself and your company. Below are a few pointers you can follow to start eliminating your problems and building a stronger leadership style.

Focus On Your Core Values

Focus on your core values – let the core values of your business impact all your decisions – who you hire, what you make/sell, how you make/sell it, set long term goals, set shorter term goals that support your long term goals and your core values.?Every daily decision, every action needs to be done in support of the core values, otherwise, what is the point.

?Practice Empathetic Listening and Take Appropriate Actions

Workforce expectations and needs change constantly, and leadership styles must adapt accordingly. Finding the right way to show your employees they matter instills trust and a better sense of well-being. It also positively influences productivity, engagement, and a work-life balance.

?Enhancing the ability to truly listen to what your employees are saying drives alignment with business expectations, priorities, and practices. Staying up to date on employees’ needs and conducting regular check-ins and surveys helps create a healthier work environment.

?On top of that, practice working from an “and” position. Avoid using “or” in sentences. This simple yet powerful move helps you view your employees as partners, not opponents. The “or” mode says, “it’s either your opinion or mine,” while looking from an “and” perspective creates harmony and balance in the workspace.?

Be Creative

When you’re trying to solve a problem without getting to the root of it, you’ll likely create a bigger issue. So, let go of the pressure and think of new and creative ways to deal with pain points and problems. If necessary, bring in third-party consultants or use brainstorming tools that will help you develop new ideas.

?Leaders who constantly work on how they resolve conflicts serve as inspiration to their employees and drive them to do the same.

Build a Flexible Workplace

While creating a smooth workflow and increasing productivity is essential, you also need to articulate how employees should manage their workload. For instance, remind them to do some exercise or take a break to minimize stress and prevent burnout.

?At the same time, explain to your employees how they should react to bullying, discrimination, or microaggression. Build a relationship on trust and create a safe place where they can talk without expecting a negative outcome.

?Leaders always say great things but rarely do them. So, set an example and stick to it. Others will recognize it and respect you more. Once you’ve reached that level and built a strong relationship with your employees, other factors (productivity, communication, harmony) will follow suit.

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?This blog is not meant to provide specific advice or opinions regarding the topic(s) discussed above. Should you have a question about your specific situation, please discuss it with your GBA advisor.

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