Dilemmas and Issues of Becoming and Being a Leader

Dilemma: Hard-to-resolve but important issues in theory and practice. Logical dilemmas arise when formal analysis (including critique) reveals more than one (usually two) possibilities, each of which contradicts a starting contention or proposition. Action dilemmas arise when someone (such as a leader) has identied more than one (most often two) courses of action, none of which is acceptable in practice.

Why leaders all face dilemmas? The essence of a dilemma is that there is no satisfactory choice that suggests itself on the evidence available. This is a position leaders nd themselves in, all too often. Each action seems to carry with it undesired consequences (including the action of doing nothing, and waiting to see what happens). This can be explained by saying that leadership decisions in general and strategic decisions in particular, have to be taken under conditions of uncertainty. There is incomplete information about the consequences of the decisions. Even the sophisticated methods of probability and risk analysis are unable to provide more than indications of what might happen, assuming that there are no unexpected surprises concealed in current uncertainties.

Types of Dilemmas:

Dilemmas of coordination and boundaries in project team leadership:

It shows that how project leaders deal with the dilemmas of leading projects in practice. Leadership is observable and primarily concerned with what leaders do to ensure team members direct efforts to achieving the goal. The approach works well if the broad project task is unchallenged, and is easily divided into simpler and non-interacting tasks. These conditions apply only for simple projects. However, the principle of interdependence in action of team members is a characteristic of project teams whose work involves uncertainties of resource management (who should do what, when and how). This is where the leader faces the dilemma of coordination. The greater the need for handling unexpected deviations from the project plans, the greater the need for a response to the dilemma

Dealing with the dependency dilemma:

The resolution of the dilemma is through the encouragement of what is variously described as self-directed learning or active learning. In our context, we saw the challenge as providing the means through which we could offer a leader (or would-be leader) an encounter with their own wished-for leadership future. Dilemmas can be defined as hardto-resolve but important issues. Every leader faces dilemmas, because leadership involves tough decisions, for which there are no obvious answers. We argue that anyone can prepare for tough decisions, in ways which make for better informed decisions. This is the basis for personal leadership development. The preparation is a form of mental rehearsal or visualization.

Consequences of Charismatic Inuence:

A leadership theory that states that the followers make attributions of heroic or extraordinary leadership abilities when they observe certain behaviors. How do charismatic leaders actually influence followers??

The evidence suggests a four-step process. 1. Vision

2. Vision statement 3. Next the leader conveys through words or actions 4. Finally they engages in emotion-inducing

Thus there is often a dilemma which states that whether it is really due to the charismatic nature that the people follow the leader.

Trusting your Judgment:

Our suggestion is that dilemmas call for careful map-reading, -testing and -making. As you become skilled, you gain condence as you tackle one of the fundamental dilemmas of leadership: Do I trust this expert or do I trust my own judgment?

The Departure Lounge Dilemma:

The Departure Lounge Dilemma serves as an example of a dilemma which could be poorly handled by many inexperienced leaders.

Issues under Leadership:

Developing Leaders for diverse workforce Developing ethical leaders Developing leaders with global competence Leadership Types Transformational Leaders Transactional Leaders Charismatic leaders Level-5 Leaders Authentic leaders Ethics and leadership

Trust and leadership