WOLLEGA UNIVERSITY

COLLEGE OF BUSINESS & ECONOMICS

DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION AND DEVELOPMENT
MANAGEMENT

CHALLENGES IN LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT

PREPARED BY

GIRMA KUSA JARA (ID. NO: WU1403672)

ADVISOR: DR. KANNAN AMBALAM

(ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION)

March, 2023
Nekemte, Ethiopia
CONTENTS
1. Introduction
2. Concept Of Leadership Development
2.1. Types Of Leadership Development
A. Horizontal Development
B.Vertical Development
3. The Major Challenges In Leadership Development
3.1. Personal Challenges
1. Emotional Intelligence
2. Social Judgment Skills
3. Self-confidence
3.2. Organizational Challenges
1. Organizational Culture
2. Lack of Continued Investment in Leadership Development
3. Lack of Higher Management Support
4. Size of budget
5. Lack of Synergy between Organizational Strategy & Leadership
Development Strategy
6. Lack of accountability for the application of new skills and
knowledge to the job
7. Needs much greater focus on innovation in leadership
development methods
8. Balancing long-term and short-term business requirements
9. Conclusion
References
1. INTRODUCTION

The 21st century presents a culture of change and leaders need to have a sound understanding
of the complex organizational change process to lead a successful change.

Change is an inevitable feature of organizational life that is

made by the pace of global, economic, and technological
development (Golembiewski, 2018).
To face these challenges, organizations must be more flexibility
in their structure (Sharma et al., 2010). For sustained
survival of the organization, there is a need for leaders to
continually assess their strategic position and align the
organization’s idealistic purpose with the organizational
overall mission, goals, and objectives (Kolzow, 2014).
CONT….

In recent years organizations recognized that they

cannot be assured the job stability of their employees.
There are many factors like illness, retirement,
attrition and more attractive job offers which may
cause instability in an organization’s
workforce(Andrew & Jr, 2022).
Therefore, in today’s competitive economy, where human capital is scarcer than
financial capital, a business’ competitive advantage lies in its ability to manage
and allocate its talent; guaranteeing the future stability of these organizations
becomes so vital for this unstable organizational environment, and thus,
organizations are trying to ensure that their key positions stay skillfully staffed.

As a result, leadership development appears as an important concept that

becomes more and more vital for organizations (Armstrong, 2015; Bratton &
Gold, 2017).
 2. CONCEPT OF LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT

The old traditional idea which considered employees as

the greatest asset is changing by new ideas in many
organization;

these organizations arranged an investment in the future

of their employees by establishing a strategic plan to
develop the capable candidates for replacing the key
staffs as their positions become vacant.
.
Having the right people in the right place and at the right time
generates the need for organizations to implement a strategic
plan(Bratton & Gold, 2017).

Many organizations are on this believed that the growing of

leaders is the only way to certain them about the existence of
executive talents whom they need in the future’s competitive
world(Bolden, 2010; Sharma et al., 2010; Greening, 2019).
CONT….

Moreover, leadership development programs will be ineffective

without an overarching culture of support for learning and
continuous development(Armstrong, 2015).

Such an organizational environment enables and recognizes the

need for decisions to continue investment in leadership
development even during difficult situations. It also helps to
facilitate difficult staffing and other strategic decisions that are
in the organization’s (and the leader’s) long-term
interest(Abbas & Asghar, 2010).
2.1. Types of Leadership Development

There are two different types of leadership

development–horizontal and vertical. A great deal of
time has been spent on “horizontal” development
(competencies), but very little time on “vertical”
development (developmental stages).
The methods for horizontal and vertical development
are very different. Horizontal development can be
“transmitted” (from an expert), but vertical
development must be earned (for oneself)(Lubušký
et al., 2017)
• In metaphorical terms, horizontal development is like pouring water in to an empty glass. The
vessel fills up with new content (you learn more leadership techniques).
• In contrast, vertical development aims to expand the glass itself. Not only does the glass have
increased capacity to take in more content, the structure of the vessel itself has been
transformed (the manager’s mind grows bigger).
• From a technology perspective, it is the difference between adding new software (horizontal
development), or upgrading to a new computer (vertical development).
• Most people are aware that continuing to add new software to an out-dated operating system
starts to have diminishing returns(Petrie, 2011).
3. THE MAJOR CHALLENGES IN LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT

3. The challenges in leadership development are including:

1. Personal Challenges

2. Organizational Challenges

3.1. Personal Challenges

 3.1.1. Emotional Intelligence

 Emotional Intelligence (EI) is a field that emerged during psychological

and behavioral research(Goleman et al., 2002;Boyatzis, 2009). The concept
of emotional intelligence comes from term "social intelligence", which is
defined as the ability to deal with people intelligently in human
relationships(Mayer et al., 2008; Serrat, 2017; Majeed et al., 2017).
\
Cont…

•When leaders have poor Emotional Intelligence (EI), working

relationships may suffer(Hunt, 2017).

Emotional Intelligence (EI) encompasses the following five

skills:
(a)self-awareness,
(b)self-regulation,
(c)motivation,
(d)empathy, and
(e)social awareness (D Goleman, 1998; Daniel Goleman et al.,
2002).
These five main competencies of EI can be grouped into two main
categories:

1.personal skills and

2.social skills.

Simplify the categories of EI with (a) personal competence consisting of

self-awareness, self-regulation and motivation skills and (b) social
competence that includes social awareness and empathy or
relationship-management skills(Skipper & Brandenburg, 2013).
 A. 1. SELF AWARENESS

 Self-awareness is having a clear understanding of your strengths,

limitations, emotions, beliefs, and motivations.
 Leaders who are adept at recognizing and managing their emotions
are better equipped to perceive others’ feelings and know how to
motivate employees(Matt, 2019).
 Those who don’t could see a slip in performance: Research in the
Harvard Business Review found that teams with individuals who
lack self-awareness make worse decisions and are less effective at
conflict management(Matt, 2019).
 Problems associated with lack of self-awareness in leaders
impacting not only the individual but also organizations.
 A lack of self-awareness generally explains overconfidence; poor
judgment and the inability to learn from mistakes build teams or
relate to others.
B. SELF-REGULATION

• Self-regulation refers to how you manage your emotions, behaviors, and

impulses.

• The more self-aware you are, the easier this becomes. If you can recognize what

you’re feeling and why, you can respond appropriately.

• A leader with poor self-regulation skills may lack self-confidence and

self-esteem and have trouble handling stress and frustration.

• If you acknowledge your emotions and give yourself time to process

them, you can carefully craft how you respond and avoid doing
anything that could jeopardize the goodwill you’ve worked hard to
build.
 C. EMPATHY

Empathy concerns one’s ability to interact with others (Ott, 1998; Goleman,

1998; Serrat, 2017).

 It means being participative and sensitive to others’ needs and assumptions (Leake,
2019),
 having genuine concern for others (Ioannidou F, Konstantikaki, 2008),
 participative warm- heartedness, and feeling for others (Maibom, 2009).
 By actively listening to your employees and taking the time to understand their
wants and needs, you can boost engagement, build trust, and more effectively
coach them through challenges.
 D. MOTIVATION
Motivation refers to your ability to inspire both yourself and others
to action. Here, it’s essential to lead by example.

Self-motivated leaders care more about hitting organizational

milestones than monetary awards. They set goals, take initiative,
rise to the challenge, and stay optimistic during turbulent times.

The more positive you are, the more confident your team will feel.

Your intrinsic motivation will permeate the organization, and you’ll

have a better understanding of how to empower employees.
 E. SOCIAL COMPETENCE

Social competence includes social awareness and relationship

management.
Social awareness refers to individuals recognizing others’
emotions and behavior while attempting to understand
their situation; it is an outward focus using observation
skills instead of focusing inward.
However, leaders should not fear making tough decisions and
providing negative feedback when needed.
Performance feedback, even when negative, is important for
employees so they can be fully aware of such things as goal
progression and if course changes are required.
 RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT

• Relationship management is the culmination of the other EI skills.

Leaders who understand and manage their own emotions, have an
awareness of their strengths and weaknesses, control their impulses,
exercise empathy, and listen well to others tend to have better working
relationships (Goleman, 2015).
• However, the inverse is also true: a deficiency in the areas of self-
awareness, self-management, and social skills can result in poor working
relationships between leaders and their employees
• Leaders who lack in personal and social competence are at risk for
experiencing leadership failure(Hunt, 2017).
3.1.2 Social Judgment Skills

• Social judgment skills refer to “seeing the big

picture”, or taking a perspective, which have
been described by many authors as one of the
key leadership competencies, whether in a
domestic or an international context (Jokinen,
2005).
CONT…
Social judgment skills are also referred to in terms such as:
• awareness of different constituents, ability to switch perspectives and
understand global interdependences (Pusch, 2009),
• political awareness (Hartley & Fletcher, 2008),
• social and organizational awareness (Druskat & Druskat, 2006),
• drive for a broader picture (Levy et al., 2007),
• ability to understand cause-effect chain reactions, and long term orientation
(Jokinen, 2005; Shahmandi et al., 2011; Morrison, 2000; Hassanzadeh et al.,
2015).
3.1.3. SELF-CONFIDENCE
• The most evident variable in the realm of capacity to lead is self-
confidence(Popper & Mayseless, 2007; Oliver et al., 2011).
• This attribute was found to be positively associated with leadership in the
reviews reported by Bass (1985) in chapters 4 and 5 of his book
• Tavakoli & Teimouri ( 2010)results indicated that supervisors who lacked self-
confidence were significantly less willing than self-confident supervisors to hold
face-to-face discussions with subordinates and more often attempted to solve
problems by using administrative rules or by referring subordinates to a
superior for a decision.
• According to Tran et al. (2016), self-confidence weighed
heavily in distinguishing general managers who
performed effectively from those who did not.
• The effective ones were seen as personally secure, communicating their
confidence to others, and decisive, while the ineffective managers were
characterized by personal insecurity and unwillingness to make tough decisions
or risk making enemies. Moreover, self-confidence affects the way of influencing
others.
3.2. Organizational Challenges

3.2.1. Organizational Culture

• Organizational or corporate culture is the pattern of

values, norms, beliefs, attitudes and assumptions that
may not have been articulated but shape the ways in
which people behave and things get done.
• The concept of a leadership development culture closely parallels the idea of a
learning organization( e.g. Beck, 1992; Senge, 1990 as citted by Tavakoli &
Teimouri, 2010).
CONT….
• A learning organization facilitates change, empowers organizational members,
encourages collaboration and sharing of information, creates opportunities for
learning, and promotes leadership development (Reilly, 1998).

• Such a learning culture will reward leadership development and hold its
members accountable for the effective development of others (Mathewson, 2014).

• The most effective leaders teach others to be effective leaders of themselves and
others(Surji, 2015; Hawkes & Spedding, 2022).
3.2.2. Lack of Continued Investment in Leadership Development

• Leading organizations are investing heavily in leadership development programs

with remarkable long term support from the CEO, underlines the importance of
it to business development and growth.

• But the lack of a clear return on investment for leadership development in many
organizations perpetuates a myth among senior management professionals that it
is not a valuable investment for an organization (Abzari and teimouri, 2009).
3.2.2. Lack of Continued Investment in Leadership Development

• Leading organizations are investing heavily in leadership

development programs with remarkable long term support from
the CEO, underlines the importance of it to business development
and growth.

• But the lack of a clear return on investment for leadership

development in many organizations perpetuates a myth among
senior management professionals that it is not a valuable investment
for an organization (Abzari and teimouri, 2009).
 3.2.3. Lack of Higher Management Support

• One of the most common reasons why talent development plans

fail is that they lack the support of managers and senior leaders.

• In order for any strategic plan to succeed, all parties need to be

held accountable, which means accountability must come from
the top down.

• Even if your senior leaders are not involved in the day-to-day

execution of your talent development plan, they should be
interested, informed, and invested in the process.
 3.2.4. Size of budget for Talent Development

• For many HR professionals, the high turnover rate is a headache(Mamun

& Hasan, 2017).

• Thus, talent management(TM) has taken as managing people as

indispensable human capital that provides a high value corporate
asset(Rinaldhy, 2021).

• It involves the proactive and systematic utilization of HRM activities to

attract, develop, and retain individuals with high levels of human capital,
consistent with the strategic direction of the company and in the context of
a dynamic global environment(K, 2021).
 CONT….
• In order to tackle such challenges, talent development is very important. Talent
development involves identifying the key skills for the future of your organization and
identifying those that already exist within each team in order to take the necessary
actions.

• In view of this information, human resources run learning courses for employees
combining their wishes and the company’s needs, organize people reviews and set up
effective performance evaluation tools.

• At the intersection between career growth, performance management and training

pathways, talent development thus plays a major role in companies’ competitiveness.

• Thus, Talent development can get expensive. It might take some time, but those are all
resources you already have.
 3.2.5. Lack of Synergy between Organizational Strategy & Leadership Development Strategy

 There must be a fit between organizational strategy and

leadership development strategy; and a fit among the elements
of the leadership development strategy.
 In the context of inconsistency of organizational strategy and
leadership development strategy, the unfitness between them
will likely lead to organizational conflict.
 Literature found that some leadership styles that worked in the
past may no longer be appropriate for this new age, while for-
profit companies are investing large amounts of money in the
search of leadership success(Leskiw & Singh, 2007; Dopson et
al., 2019).
 Similarly, it leads to ambiguity that can interfere with
individual performance and organizational effectiveness.
 3..6. Lack of accountability for the application of new skills and knowledge
to the job

• Talent development requires accountability. Leaders need

to hold candidates accountable to their development
goals, and organizations need to hold leaders accountable
to their commitment to develop talent
3.2.7. Needs much greater focus on innovation in leadership development
methods

• There are no simple, existing models or programs, which

will be sufficient to develop the levels of collective
leadership required to meet an increasingly complex
future.
• Instead an era of rapid innovation will be needed in
which organizations experiment with new approaches
that combine diverse ideas in new ways and share these
with others
 The challenge of our current situation, The Methods we are using to Develop Leaders Have Not Changed

• In the Current Situation the environment has changed which

means it is more complex, volatile, and unpredictable.
• The same is true that the skills needed for leadership have
also change that means it is more complex and adaptive
thinking abilities are needed.
• However, the methods being used to develop leaders have not
changed (much).
• This indicates that the majority of managers are developed
from on-the-job experiences, training, and coaching/
mentoring; while these are all still important, leaders are no
longer developing fast enough or in the right ways to match
the new environment(Lubušký et al., 2017).
• Here, the Challenge is ahead
 7. CONCLUSION
• As a matter of fact, the major challenges in leadership developments are
derived from both personal challenges and organizational challenges. The
challenges including Emotional intelligence: self-awareness, self-
regulation, empathy, knowledge and high motivation and self confidence
to lead as personal challenges leadership development whereas
organizational culture, lack of continued investment in leadership
development, lack of higher management support and lack of synergy
between organizational strategy and leadership development strategy are
considered as organizational challenges leadership development.

• The lack of a clear return on investment for leadership development in

many organizations perpetuates a myth among senior management
professionals that it is not a valuable investment for an organization.
Thank You!