Challenges of Leadership

The importance of Effective Leadership in achieving success

Service Leadership issues seem to have been largely ignored, as changes have taken place in the running of service operations over the last 5 years; specifically the way operations and staff are managed. Technology may have vastly improved the ability to manage, but except for a few enlightened cases where the resolution of these issues has brought significant success, but still the ability of the leadership/management will determine how successful the operation is.

Defining something as complex and elusive as leadership risks the possibility of being open to the criticism that some aspects have been left out. The difficulty here lies in identifying where management ends and leadership begins.

Effective leaders can make a big difference to any operation within the business, and in the service operation, where success is measured on profitability, customer loyalty and cost effectiveness, it is inevitable that links be made to the personal effectiveness (leadership) of the manager in charge. This is not to say that leadership is a more effective form of management; the two are different, leaders and managers do different things.

Ideally, managers have both administrative competence and leadership capability – however this combination is rare. Generally, it is easier for a leader to find an administratively competent manager to backfill their deficiencies than it is to find a genuine leader to support an administrator.