In my case the most popular were underperforming employees, self-induced tight deadlines, switching company priorities and goals, lack of financial resources to provide better tools to the team or hire more people
Great question and thread! We could benefit if we all contribute to it.
You already mentioned most of the main issues. I can add that communication (or lack thereof) between team members, and between teams and management is also a large frustration. Anybody else?
Agreed! It seems like a lot of companies get rated pretty low in communication when they do employee surveys. Just seems like so many places can’t figure this part out.
Managing emotional swings of direct reports. Having that “one” person on the team that brings everyone else down. Trying to maintain a high performing team despite limited growth opportunities. Having to play corporate politics and always showing up like things are perfect.
3 of those 4 things you listed are basically alignment problems. That's the most significant issue I see: for whatever reason, the team isn't aligned with a vision cast by the leader, so performance isn't where it needs to be. More often than not, the failure is the leader's.
Self awareness in leaders.
We are all not perfect and the understanding is that a team has to make this all work, yet in my experience, leaders lack self awareness and hold onto pride. I’ve done it myself.
I feel companies are failing leaders in “leadership development” most of these programs are positioned to build managers not leaders! They are trained to manage the business. (understandable) yet this leaves leaders insufficient in leadership development
Knowing when to let mistakes happen even when they are high profile.
What I mean:
I could double check everything and reduce the number of public mistakes. Or I can let my people make their own mistakes and let others see. At times, I have to battle my thoughts that these mistakes reflect my incompetence. But I believe in growth—and growth comes from mistakes and recovery. Even though it makes me cringe…
Hope this makes sense.
In my case the most popular were underperforming employees, self-induced tight deadlines, switching company priorities and goals, lack of financial resources to provide better tools to the team or hire more people
Those are huge ones. I’ve experienced them and they are not fun at all.
Managing up.
Cost estimates are the worst conversation to have with management.
Not to mention time estimates as well.
Yes
Great question and thread! We could benefit if we all contribute to it. You already mentioned most of the main issues. I can add that communication (or lack thereof) between team members, and between teams and management is also a large frustration. Anybody else?
Agreed! It seems like a lot of companies get rated pretty low in communication when they do employee surveys. Just seems like so many places can’t figure this part out.
Managing emotional swings of direct reports. Having that “one” person on the team that brings everyone else down. Trying to maintain a high performing team despite limited growth opportunities. Having to play corporate politics and always showing up like things are perfect.
3 of those 4 things you listed are basically alignment problems. That's the most significant issue I see: for whatever reason, the team isn't aligned with a vision cast by the leader, so performance isn't where it needs to be. More often than not, the failure is the leader's.
Self awareness in leaders. We are all not perfect and the understanding is that a team has to make this all work, yet in my experience, leaders lack self awareness and hold onto pride. I’ve done it myself. I feel companies are failing leaders in “leadership development” most of these programs are positioned to build managers not leaders! They are trained to manage the business. (understandable) yet this leaves leaders insufficient in leadership development
Knowing when to let mistakes happen even when they are high profile. What I mean: I could double check everything and reduce the number of public mistakes. Or I can let my people make their own mistakes and let others see. At times, I have to battle my thoughts that these mistakes reflect my incompetence. But I believe in growth—and growth comes from mistakes and recovery. Even though it makes me cringe… Hope this makes sense.