Using the information below 250.

1. What are most critical obstacles to effective leadership among those that are mentioned in the book (ch. 1)? Provide an explanation. Did you have personal experience in that regard? Can you add one more?

Obstacles to Effective Leadership

In any setting, being an effective leader is a challenging task. Even with a clear definition of leadership and what makes a leader effective, being effective is not easy. Meanwhile, organizations pay a heavy price for ineffective, incompetent, or unethical leadership (Bedeian and Armenakis, 1998; Kellerman, 2004). The keys to becoming an effective leader are knowledge, experience, practice, and learning from one's mistakes. Unfortunately, many organizations do not provide an environment in which leaders can practice new skills, try out new behaviors, and observe their impact. In most cases, the price for making mistakes is so high that new leaders and managers opt for routine actions.

Without such practice and without failure, it is difficult for leaders to learn how to be effective. The experience of failure, in some cases, may be a defining moment in the development of a leader (George, 2009). The question is, therefore, what are the obstacles to becoming an effective leader? Aside from different levels of skills and aptitudes that might prevent a leader from being effective, several other obstacles to effective leadership exist:

First, organizations face considerable uncertainty that creates pressure for quick responses and solutions. External forces, such as voters and investors, demand immediate attention. In an atmosphere of crisis, there is no time or pati