The Top 3 Challenges Executive-Level Managers Face and How to Overcome Them

If you’re an executive-level manager, you know all about the challenges a manager faces. You’re responsible for leading your team and meeting the demands of your position, but you also have to find time for yourself. Many managers find themselves in over their heads as they try to balance the demands of their position with their personal lives. They need to be able to handle pressure, lead by example, and make tough decisions. Juggling work and personal responsibilities can be difficult, but it’s not impossible. In this blog post, we’ll discuss the top three challenges managers face in the workplace and offer advice on how to overcome them.

Ensuring diversity

Diversity, equity, and inclusion are important for any workplace. Not only is a diverse workforce the right thing to strive for, there are also many business positives from including a wide range of voices in your decision making process. As a manager, you have a responsibility to ensure that your team is diverse and inclusive. But it can be difficult to know how to move beyond platitudes and good intentions into useful actions. Statistics show nearly 80% of companies are merely going through the motions when it comes to DE&I initiatives, with few accountability measures in place.

Here’s how to overcome the challenges managers face in managing diversity. 

• Needs assessment: One way to create effective DE&I initiatives is to start with a needs assessment. This will help you identify the areas in which your workplace requires improvement. Once you know where you need to focus your efforts, you can develop specific goals and objectives. 

• Allocate resources: It is also important to create a budget to use in achieving these goals. Alongside this budget, create a plan that includes who will be responsible for each task, what resources you will need, and when you hope to achieve your objectives. Without a clear budget and subsequent plan, it will be difficult to make progress.
• Take action: Don’t stop at generating ideas and brainstorming, hold your team accountable to taking action on DE&I initiatives. This may include things such as developing training programs, revising policies, and increasing communication. Again, it is important to tailor your actions to the specific needs of your workplace. What works for one organization might not work for another.

Promoting wellbeing

The workplace is one of the most important arenas in which we foster our wellbeing. Our careers can have a profound impact on our overall health and happiness, so it’s crucial that we create an environment in which we can thrive. Not just that, but wellbeing in the workplace can significantly contribute to job performance and employee engagement; a recent Gallup study shows teams with high levels of employee engagement boast profitability levels 21% greater than those of their counterparts. One of the major challenges faced by a manager is how to promote wellbeing in the workplace. Here’s what you can do to get started:

• Encourage open communication and collaboration: This means creating an environment in which employees feel comfortable sharing their ideas and concerns. If you do not have an ongoing process for feedback in place, consider ways you might implement this so that employees feel comfortable expressing their ideas for improvement. 
• Foster a sense of community in the workplace. This can be done by organizing social events or creating opportunities for employees to bond over shared interests.
• Create career opportunities. Employees should feel like they have a pathway to achieving their professional goals within your company. Not only should the path be obvious, but they should also be surrounded with the support necessary to unlock their potential. This could come in the form of one-on-one, personalized coaching or through other workplace development programs.

Time management

One of the biggest challenges executive-level managers face is time management. With so much to do, it can be difficult to find time for everything. But if you want to be successful, you need to learn how to manage your time wisely. 

There are many strategies for improving productivity, but one that’s been utilized by the CoachHub team lately is timeboxing. Timeboxing is a time management technique that entails purposefully designating certain daily time periods to items on your to-do list. This is as opposed to creating a list of items to complete, but not purposefully scheduling the exact timeframe when the work will be completed. This approach could help you focus and remain transparent with your team about when your work will be completed and how much work you have the capacity to complete. 

Here’s how to get started with this time management exercise:

• Encourage an open environment where employees can see your calendar and vice versa. 
• Block off time on your calendar with the exact projects you will be working on listed in each time slot. 
• Check in with your team to ensure they’re adding specific projects to their calendars in a similar way. Be curious about how well this strategy is working for them and open to ideas for improvement.

Bottom line

So, what can you do when faced with these challenges as a manager? There are a few key things to keep in mind. First, remember that it’s okay to ask for help. Whether you need advice on how to handle a difficult situation or someone to talk to about your own feelings, don’t be afraid to reach out. Second, take some time for yourself. Managers often feel like they need to be constantly available and in control, but this isn’t healthy or sustainable. Make sure you schedule some time each week for yourself – even if it’s just an hour – so you can recharge and come back stronger. Finally, remember to put your ideas into action. Start today, even if you take just a small step. Insights are great, but overcoming these common challenges takes true action steps.