In today’s fast-paced world, effective leadership is more critical than ever. Leaders must accurately identify and respond to a variety of challenges. But what happens when the biggest challenge is internal? Our latest Insight Series Report, based on an analysis of 1,532 coaching conversations, reveals a finding we should address: many leaders are struggling with their own development journey.
We asked leaders, “What is currently your biggest leadership challenge, and how are you approaching it?” The responses paint a clear picture – 29.1% of leaders identified challenges specifically relating to ‘Leading Self’. Drilling down further, 12.5% of the total sample specifically cited difficulties in managing their own development journey.
This isn’t just a minor issue; it’s a signal for leadership development professionals and leaders themselves. If nearly a third of leaders are grappling with self-leadership challenges, and over one in ten are struggling with personal development, it highlights a critical area where support and interventions are needed.
One telling statistic from our deep dive analysis: 36.6% of all ‘Uncertain’ responses – where leaders struggled to articulate their approach to the challenge – were related to self-development. This suggests that without external guidance, individuals can truly struggle with navigating their personal growth. For leaders who shoulder challenges alone, it can be considerably harder to articulate the actions needed to move forward. In fact, 52.3% of these ‘Uncertain’ respondents used only self-referring pronouns.
The analysis also showed that 3O.7% of ‘Technical’ approaches were directed towards self-development challenges. This approach, while effective for technical problems, often falls short for adaptive challenges that require shifts in mindset and behavior (see Technical vs. Adaptive Challenges: A Quick Guide below).
These insights underscore the need for widespread and targeted leadership development efforts. It’s not enough to focus on external challenges; we also need to equip leaders with the skills and capabilities to navigate their internal landscapes and personal growth effectively.
Want to dive deeper into these findings and get practical inspiration to help yourself or leaders you work with for creating greater clarity around challenges and prioritizing self-development?
Download the full Insight Series Report – Why leaders struggle with self-development (and how we can help them) – here.
Technical vs. Adaptive Challenges: A Quick Guide
Technical challenges are well-defined problems that can be addressed using established procedures, expertise, and existing knowledge. Troubleshooting a computer issue by following a step-by-step guide is a technical challenge and approach. If you follow the instructions, you’ll resolve the problem.
Adaptive challenges are complex and ambiguous problems that require adaptive shifts in mindset, values, and behaviors. Implementing a new company-wide software system, for instance, is an adaptive challenge. It requires navigating the complexities of user adoption, training needs, resistance to change, and integration with existing workflows – it’s rarely a straightforward, “follow the instructions” scenario.
Interested in learning more? Carl Sanders-Edwards shares his perspective on Growing adaptive mindsets in this quick read article.