Leadership: 5 Barriers to Your Success

As a leader you are measured on your ability to deliver results.  Continually delivering results can be challenging and without doubt you will encounter many obstacles along the way. Some of these barriers might be obvious, others not.  So what are 5 barriers to your success as a leader?

Barrier 1: No clear vision

As a leader you need to be able to clearly articulate your vision and then sell it to others.  This requires you to define what success means for your organisation, team or function and why it really matters.  If you have no clear vision it is going to be pretty tough to achieve anything.

Barrier 2: Lack of belief

It is no use having a clear vision and be able to explain it to others unless you totally believe that it can be achieved.  Gone are the days when you could come up with a nice set of words and hope that no one will see through their doubts.  Your belief is the fuel that drives the organisation, especially through those challenging and difficult times.

Barrier 3: Absence of goals

Goals or outcomes set a clear destination.  When you focus on goals, you are in the driving seat.  When you are in the driving seat you focus on results and when you focus on results you achieve more.  Results provide the reinforcement and motivation to aim for more and better results.

Barrier 4: Resting on your laurels

You may be doing really well at the current time but resting on your laurels is dangerous.  As a leader you need to be continually be proactive, anticipate the need for change and stay ahead of the game whenever you can.  If you want to succeed don’t take your foot off the gas.

Barrier 5: Fear

Everyone has fears.  It might be fear that something will not work, the request for funding will be rejected or the grand turnaround will fail to materialise.  At the root of all of this is fear of failure.  If you fear failure and are not willing to address it, you will stop taking risks and when you stop taking risks, you don’t get results and end up stagnating.

Bottom Line – Being a leader is not easy.  Being aware of and being willing to address your barriers to success is essential.  So what barriers do you need to overcome to prosper as a leader?