The 3 most-common roadblocks that leaders face (and how to tackle them)  

Today’s executives face many potential roadblocks. Think of how many headline-worthy issues like customer complaints and lawsuits keep coming up. From Boeing to Tesla, it feels like public scrutiny is at an all-time high.

But below the surface, there are exponentially more leadership roadblocks. In my daily conversations with C-suite leaders, it becomes clear that executives can have trouble connecting with their employees. Even if it doesn’t become a front-page story, workplace communication—or lack of it—is a critical issue.

Here are three leadership roadblocks that stand out, and some best practice to tackle them head-on.

1. Leaders are not willing to be vulnerable

It’s lonely at the top. It often takes a safe environment with deep trust for an executive to share their true humanity. In the workplace, sharing can be difficult. The fear of vulnerability prompts many leaders to feel like they are admitting a lack of capability or competence. This is especially the case when they’re under pressure from peers, board members, and shareholders.

However, employees want to trust executives, and that is impossible without being able to relate to them as human beings. The numbers don’t lie: U.S. workers want an honest and authentic manager, according to a 2022 GoodHire survey. Another survey found that unresponsive bosses are 25 times more likely to be called “worst boss ever.”

The thing is, being “human” is not about perfection. It’s about relatability. Vulnerability does not (and should not) imply incompetence. Leaders who recognize that they don’t have all the answers are more likely to be relatable. After all, why have an organization if you could do it all yourself?

Leaders need to find a safe way to become vulnerable in certain instances. It may sound like: “This is important to our success and I am not sure how to proceed” or even just “I’d love your advice or input on this one.”

2. Leaders don’t think that they need to grow as people

Vulnerability projects humility—an understanding that no one is perfect. But many leaders treat themselves like finished products that never need to adapt or improve. Early on in my career, I heard the phrase, “When a leader is done, they are done.” If a leader believes they don’t need to develop or learn anything more, they’re on the road to failure.

Today’s stakeholders and broader marketplaces are forever changing their expectations, which requires leaders to pursue continuous personal and professional improvement. Those who don’t will be left behind. Leaders who refuse to change and evolve can also lead to adverse role-modeling, with other leaders following suit by also not looking inward.

Research shows that humble CEOs are best for business, and leaders should role-model personal and professional growth in their behaviors. One approach is to prioritize a specific area of improvement—like delegating or listening in meetings—and share that priority with others, in addition to tracking progress over time.

3. Leaders don’t make space for employees to discuss, debate, and push back

Speaking of listening and delegating, too many leaders don’t encourage others to speak up. Or they become unresponsive when people do contribute. Leaders can similarly forget to acknowledge positive contributions, leaning too far into negativity. Despite 59% of people leaders claiming they give recognition for good work, only 35% of employees believe their managers recognize such work, according to a survey from Gallup.

And that assumes that managers are responsive in the first place. While 72% of managers say they react to messages and phone calls within 24 hours, only 51% of employees say their managers respond within 24 hours.

Years ago, I heard author Simon Sinek’s approach of “leaders eat last,” which remains valid today. When leaders have challenging topics that they need to bring to the team, it’s important for them to catch themselves and hold back on sharing ideas until others have an opportunity. When leaders share their ideas too fast, others hear it as a “what to do.” They see it as the leader using their positional powers, rather than an opportunity to contribute and collaborate.

When there is a challenge, leaders should bring it up and then wait. It is important to practice patience. That requires silence, observing, and listening to others without judgment and then following up based on that. Leaders who are patient listeners often discover ideas that they never even thought of.

Many, if not most, workplace problems stem from poor communication and making wrong assumptions. And that often stems from a lack of training or coaching to steer leaders in the right direction. Take the United Kingdom, where 82% of new managers are “accidental managers” with no formal management or leadership training, according to research by the Chartered Management Institute. It doesn’t help that 60% of companies have no long-term strategy in place for their internal communications.

That needs to change. The first step to fixing the communication problem is to recognize that it’s a problem in the first place. Only then can leaders—through training and coaching—get better at listening and communicating and clear the leadership roadblocks that are standing in their way.