Present a Challenge
Of the 3 aspects of leadership, challenge is the one that is practiced most widely by managers as they ask their employee's to set increasingly higher goals. Human nature is such that most people do not want to leave their comfort zone and therefore are inclined to suggest small, incremental improvements in their objectives. In today's competitive environment, such small improvements often are insufficient. Improvements of 30%, 50%, or even several hundred percent sometimes are required. There are many ways in which leaders can challenge their employees. They can:
• Share their vision, inspiring them to believe that more is possible.
• Set very high goals, forcing people to leave their comfort zones to find ways to achieve them.
• Ask challenging questions that lead people to reconsider their assumptions about what is possible.
• Use benchmarking to reveal the best practices of others and use these as a challenge.
• Provide a wide variety of assignments. Many firms make it a policy to expose their employees to a wide range of aspects of the firm. Each new position is a new challenge that develops the employee further.
Once success is achieved, it is important continue raising the bar in order to fight the temptation to rest on one's laurels.