Men in leadership roles, what barriers did you face on your way to becoming a lead and what obstacles do you face now that you are in a leadership position?

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1. I have never in my life sought out leadership.

   I simply do what needs to be done, and try to do what’s right.

   This has placed me in leadership.

   The hardest challenge is when a person on the team isn’t delivering, and I can’t seem to fix it. In which case I’m forced to choose between hurting them and hurting everyone else on the team.

2. Define leadership. You can ‘lead’ from many levels.

   I’d say the biggest ones I’ve seen in people I’ve mentored:
   * Executive Presence/Command Presence: it’s hard to define, but a certain ‘aura’ that makes people go “I wan’t to listen to what *that* person wants to say. It’s a combination of your natural look, the way you hold yourself, talk, body language… all sorts
   * Servant Leadership: Leadership isn’t always leading from the front. Sometimes it’s about being the person who moves the things out of the way so that the team can do what they do best
   * Not Knowing When to Shut Up
   * The Power of Silence: Ask open questions and then say nothing. Don’t try and fill the gaps. People find silence uncomfortable, and that’s OK
   * Emotional Intelligence: Especially being a man, there’s this idea in old-school that you should infallible, superhuman. Stress, depression etc is for the weak. Being an emotionally tuned in man and getting to the upper levels of management (rightly) challenges that, but it can sometimes be seen as a ‘weakness’ to be seen as being ‘emotional’

3. I never tried to be a leader, but I just always did the right thing, tried to set examples, and be the best I could be. Growing up I held numerous student government roles, I was captain of every sports team I was on, won numerous awards throughout my school years, and now at work I was made one of the youngest project managers when I was 25.

   I’ve always gravitated my way into leadership roles just based on my character. Being a leader, you often experience the brunt of the consequences. I think the real key to being an effective leader is how you deal out those consequences to your friends/teammates/coworkers/etc. I always try to help the person understand their mistake, and learn from it, while not screaming my head off.

4. Well I manage an engineering firm and am in my late 20s so I guess I qualify here. The barriers were becoming enough of an expert in my field to be the main source of strategic/technical guidance and direction for my company and team.

   The obstacles are now figuring out how to continue ‘leading’ now that im in a formal leadership position. There are greater expectations and differences in how people will interact with me. Some feel the need to challenge, others will not challenge me even if Im wrong. I have to learn who falls where on that spectrum and how I can best navigate it

5. No real barriers beyond the norm I suppose. Just paying for my education, working hard and veining experience over time.

   Honestly, the biggest obstacle I face these days is the horrible work ethic and entitlement mentality I see in many of the folks I try to or do hire.

6. There’s leadership based on role/authority and leadership based on the expertise needed to accomplish the specific objective at hand. The more organizations can prioritize the latter, the more management can get out of the way and be less directive and more facilitative so teams can do their jobs.

7. I run a company with 125-200 men depending on how busy we are. The hardest part is treating the guys friendly and respectfully, but also sternly. I have to get production from the guys so I have to handle myself a certain way. I need them to like me enough so they want to work hard for me, but also be forceful enough to push toward deadlines.

   For the most part running men means managing personalities. You have to know how to address the guys. Some guys will simply do as asked, while others need to be sweet talked a little bit.

   I’m a big guy and I know my business inside and out, and I don’t smile so I can be intimidating. But I joke around when I can and I always say please and thank you and tell the guys when they are doing a good job. It seems to be a good balance of “we like each other” and “we have a job to do”

8. Biggest barrier is incentive and not being able to choose your followers

   Like I have to lead **these** chuckle fucks 😬

9. The hardest part is getting noticed for what you do. Many times companies will promote based on if they like someone or because their part of the IN group. This is still a problem having to pick up slack for other mangers who got to where they are by kissing ass.