barriers to leadership

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Essay on Barriers of leadership

Encumbrance to leadership: A quandary unraveled

An essay on my personal barriers to leadership and my plans to resolve them

Manasvini Vimal Kumar

7/3/2014

MADS 6709

Creativity, Change, and the 21st Century Leader

DR. SYDNEY SCOTT

FAIRLEIGH DICKINSON UNIVERSITY

This essay reflects on my personal barriers to becoming an acceptable transformational leader, and the solutions that I devised to confront them, while in the position of Manager Communication with a reputed printing and graphics company in New Delhi, India.

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Encumbrance to leadership: A quandary unraveled

To create a vision is surely unconventional, but, to be able to persuade a team to follow

him or her on an un-treaded path is the actual challenge for a leader, as the very existence of a

leader is because of his or her followers. Making the connection between a leader's vision, which

is the shared vision of the organization and hence of the employees too, and the path, is the basic

role of the leader. In other words, to drive away apprehension, to see beyond the wall and

encouragingly help people to follow, by extending full support as a mentor and a friend, is the

picture of an ideal leader. As the businesses are getting diversified and creating a niche for

themselves at the same time, the concept of authority is changing from managing an office to

leading a team (Maxwell, 2013). The 'sole' is uniting with the 'whole' and 'competition' is

evolving into 'completion' requiring the perspicacity of a true visionary. But, the stumbling

blocks in the process are multifarious. This essay reflects on the barriers to leadership,

concentrating on my personal barriers and proposed solutions to overcome them.

With a vision of being a transformational leader where the growth of an individual and

the organization would be coequal, I could not attract substantial support for my idea as the

management of my company would rather agree on the customary way of doing things. Besides,

my idea of bringing about changes in the working style was met with strong abhorrence and left

me with a feeling of alienation. This was my first lesson as a leader- the realization that despite

all my efforts and good intentions, I was unable to align my people in support of my vision. It

was not the conviction that was missing, it was the hiatus of apprehension that was making them

uncomfortable and this was a colossal barrier as I felt completely stuck .This was an external

barrier physically, but it made me ponder on my internal weaknesses as a transformational

leader. And then I realized that this was actually an opportunity as transformational leadership is

Solutions to my barriers

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actually the best way to resolve problems associated with changes (Bass, & Riggio, 2006, pages

6-8). It was important to me because I had wanted to nurture my team and raise them to a

platform where we could grow the company into an institution. However, the feeling was hardly

mutual. But, I was resilient and tried to meditate upon the reason and the solution. Part of the

meditation included reading articles on alignment of the work force and break the dogma of

assumptions by driving away the established negativity in the minds of the workers, against the

management. I discovered the best way was to talk to people and let them vent out their

negativity, and that, was challenging .

So, my new challenge was to be able to find a way of cutting through this barrier and

make the management and my team at least see things from my perspective. The anticipatory

anxiety was to be calmed through explanation of a detailed plan for execution and making each

one feel, that they had important roles to play. The key was to go from 'me' to 'we' (Maxwell,

2013). I had to change my style from' I can help you do that' to how could they help me do a task

and what is it in the idea that benefits them and makes them feel they have accomplished

something. Also, I understood that if the change would come from the top instead of the

middle, it would be more likely that it is accepted (Navickaite, & Janiunite, 2012). So, then, I

had to be able to show my planning on paper and draw a roadmap for successful completion of

the project and be able measure progress with appropriate yardsticks.

Further, the second complication to my idea of transformational practices was my

inability to draw the interest of machine operators and graphic designers towards company paid

training needs after assessing the required needs. It felt like a lost battle when I spent USD 500

in getting the training needs assessment by a professional organization, surveyed the market, got

the best discounts possible, and after deciding the beginning date, I was faced with sheer


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disinterest and lassitude from the employees. Clearly, I was a failure on the inspirational

motivation part of transformational leadership (Bass, & Riggio, 2006, pages 14-16). But I had

tried my best on intellectual stimulation and I was doing all this for their benefit, at the cost of

the company, so where had I gone wrong?

Interestingly, the answer to this was found when I looked into my inner circle, as they

were the ones who would determine my success (Maxwell. 2013). Upon discussing with my

closest well wishers in the company, I understood that I was constantly communicating but, was

not connecting with any one yet (Maxwell,2013). What I had not appreciated still, was that I was

only saying, not listening yet. It was not that I did not intend to, it was just that my team was too

used to listening to orders and following them as commands, that this was nothing new to them. I

thought I was innovating, but actually, I was thinking linearly. I had an idea that leadership was

all about change and I had a very helpful personality and was a great philanthropic in putting

extra time into official planning from home too, but, there I was- lacking in individualized

consideration. I had failed to feel the need to ask the designers what did they think they required

training in? I was completely oblivious to the fact that they also wanted to learn and grow but

they had their own ideas and plans which I failed to notice. Similarly, I got the same response by

the machine operators when I tried speaking to them. Surprisingly, they had so much to say and I

was a fool to have spent so much time and energy while the energy was waiting to be explored

within the creative minds of young, semi-literate but innovative people of my great team.

Thereafter, I decided to modify my plans to incorporate their interests and expertise. It dawned

upon me that my people were consciously unskilled but ready to get skilled, but in their areas of

interest and what they only needed was affirmation and help in combating negativity.


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Worse than any of the above, my greatest barrier has been my inability to work

persistently. Though I have tried to be resilient and positive, I have to admit that either due to

logistical problems, or due to rampant corruption, I have had to face downturns very often. Or,

maybe it was just another barrier that taught me that actually, I was yet to develop connections in

the industry and that India, was not America and professionalism was only left for the Tatas and

the Birlas (two famous business houses). This was the time for self discernment and I was once

again advised by my well wishers in my inner circle that , to be successful, I needed to do in

India as the Indians did. Although this barrier was substantial, however, crossing to the other side

was not as challenging. A series of meetings over about a month and sharing relevant

information, delegating responsibility to subordinates to distribute business to vendors, and then

taking bi-monthly reports solved the problem to a considerable level. So much so that even after

coming to Canada, I was informed that the company was still doing business with the same

vendors and the going was smooth.

Overall, it was a learning experience and I understood that in my three years of service as

a Communications Manager, I had a lot to learn. Whereas I had gone in with an idea of bringing

about a change, what had actually happened was that I had changed myself. I had comprehended

John Maxwell's teaching that ''The goal is larger than the role"(Maxwell, 2013) and Bob Davids

teaching that "The rarest commodity is leadership without an ego” (Davids, 2012).

In conclusion, I believe I am too humbled after experiencing the change within me, the

transformation from a manager to a leader. And, I impress that I am proud of this change. I am

proud because not only can I practise this in my professional life, but, I can now also, be able to

help my colleagues and subordinates become leaders in their areas and together, we can redefine

teamwork, perseverance, positive attitude, communication and the importance of listening. These


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barriers to becoming a leader were actually opportunities on the other side of the coin, I just

needed to change my perspective.

Now, given the fact that I have moved from my expert level of development as a

manager, to the next level of achiever as a leader, there was a lot of learning to be done.

I believe that the best way to be a better leader, would be to start developing my people skills

better. I understand that the basic problem perhaps is not what I communicate, but, it is how I

communicate. Jumping to conclusions, undercutting the conversation, listening half heartedly

and action centered listening behaviors would not get me far enough. I think it is beautiful how

providence plans things for us- as I realized my weaknesses, I found myself right in the middle

of an opportunity- one that my mind was closed to, yet. But now it became clear- I am in Canada

and the local culture demands that a person pays respect to the other person who is talking to him

or her, by listening actively and intently and so, interaction with people alone has started

teaching me so much. I have joined Peer Advising Group which specifically teaches us active

listening and empathizing with people. I also went to an open house of a club called

Toastmasters, that teaches people to respectfully listen yet at the same time be conscientious

speakers and value one's own as well as the words of others. I humbly accept that I have a habit

of interrupting people while they speak and present myself as the most desirous problem solver-

happy- to- help kind of a person; but sometimes people just require some observed silence to be

able to vent out feelings, just listening, would help. Then, as I learned the I-frame approach and

put myself in the shoes of people who wanted to be listened to, I did realize that I have quite

some work to do on my communication skills. So, now I am trying to be a leader in

communication, as opposed to being a manager of communication


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References

Campbell, A. (2003).Strength from within: Overcoming the barriers to workplace literacy and

development. The Conference Board of Canada. Retrieved from:

http://www.conferenceboard.ca/temp/47a25630-c972-4650-8b10-836c48d2f0b1/412-

03overcomebarriersrpt.pdf

Navickaite, J & Janiunaite, B. (2012). Barriers of school principal’s transformational

leadership in change process: Case study of Lithuanian schools. Social Sciences. 3(77)

52-64. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.ss.77.3.2771

Bass, B.M., & Riggio, R.E. (2006). Transformational leadership (2nd edition). Mahwah, NJ:

Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Davids, B. (2012). The rarest commodity is leadership without ego. Personal collection of Bob

Davids, at TEDxESCP. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=UQrPVmcgJJk

Maxwell, J. C. (2012). The 21 irrefutable laws of leadership. Personal collection of John C.

Maxwell, at Team Success Group Channel. Retrieved from:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70skQqbGtPs


barriers to leadership

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