LEADERSHIP CHALLENGES

Leadership Challenges

Abstract

This paper provides a discussion on approaches and models of leadership that reflect progressive thinking that will equip leaders for creating and mobilizing significant, positive change. The term leadership is used in many different contexts in the English language; this paper approaches leadership as a process or activity in which people are mobilized to create positive change. Rather than understanding leadership as a position or an inherent trait, leadership is understood as an activity or process that involves the development of certain skills or capacities (Cashman, 1998). While leadership differs in many ways from management, it is imperative that both functions exist and complement one another. Leadership is ultimately what will lead to innovation and positive change, and management assists in this process.

To address the complex and adaptive challenges society is facing today and will face in the future we must find new ways to view leadership and engage in leadership in our organizations. A number of progressive leadership models and perspectives were presented, reflecting leadership as a process, highlighting the leader-follower relationship, recognizing the role of the larger system, stressing the importance of collaboration, emphasizing the role of ethics, and serving the ultimate goal of creating positive change.

What are the “top” leanings' from the course?

The concept of leadership is understood, like many progressive leadership models, as an action or process. Heifetz and colleagues (2009) describe adaptive leadership as “the practice of mobilizing people to tackle tough challenges and thrive” (p. 14). They use the word thrive to portray the process by which an organism successfully adapts to changing conditions. This evolutionary metaphor of a living system needing to adapt to survive is applied to organizations. Organizations exist within the larger system or environment of our global society (Avolio, 2005). Like living organisms, they must learn to adapt to changes in the larger environment. There are many examples of organizations that have failed to adapt and survive due to changes, such as economic downturns, in the larger society.

Organizations face a number of challenges; Heifetz and colleagues (2009) distinguish between technical and adaptive challenges. Technical challenges are those that are easily seen and understood; there is a clear understanding of the problem and what needs to be done to remedy it (Chan, 2008). Adaptive challenges, on the other hand, are not as easily seen or understood, have not been faced before, and do not have clear answers; they must be addressed by viewing things in new ways, adopting new beliefs, and trying new behaviors (Heifetz et al, 2009). People are often resistant to change and look for quick fixes to problems, which often results in responding to adaptive challenges with technical solutions.

For example, the adaptive challenge of having a younger generation of employees entering the workforce who are more community oriented and technologically savvy could be approached in a number of different ways (Cashman, 1998). A technical response would be to continue to run the organization as it has always been run, trying to assimilate the different generation ...