{"id":51649,"date":"2020-04-20T10:48:32","date_gmt":"2020-04-20T14:48:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ccl.org\/?post_type=articles&#038;p=51649"},"modified":"2025-05-08T06:19:48","modified_gmt":"2025-05-08T10:19:48","slug":"functional-leaders-face-challenges","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/www.ccl.org\/articles\/white-papers\/functional-leaders-face-challenges\/","title":{"rendered":"Focus Development to Address Senior Leadership Challenges"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Understand the Challenges Facing Function Leaders to Focus Development &amp; Boost Performance<\/h2>\n<p>The most effective senior executives are able to think, act, and influence at both a tactical and strategic level, balancing strategic priorities to help the organization achieve its goals.<\/p>\n<p>Even before the global pandemic and economic crisis, the challenges facing senior leaders were great. As organizations face intense pressure to innovate or be left behind, these leaders are forced to continuously improve and perform, and many struggle with how to do it.<\/p>\n<p>The reality these leaders face is challenging and complex \u2014 and there are many new skills needed to be successful. By clarifying senior leadership challenges and focusing development on what\u2019s most important, leaders at this level have great opportunity to boost performance and create a positive impact for their organizations, the teams they\u2019re privileged to lead, their families, and their communities at large.<\/p>\n<p>This white paper looks at the challenges and realities of being a senior leader who is head of function, division, or department, and how individuals in these positions can focus development and boost their performance.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/leading-with-impact-competencies-needed-for-functional-leaders-center-for-creative-leadership-ccl.png\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/leading-with-impact-competencies-needed-for-functional-leaders-center-for-creative-leadership-ccl.png\" alt=\"Infographic: Focus Development to Address These Senior Leadership Challenges\" width=\"800\" height=\"419\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The work is based on a study by a team of our senior faculty. They analyzed assessment results and written comments from close to 1,000 functional leaders who participated in our\u00a0<a href=\"\/leadership-programs\/leading-organizational-impact-executive-training\/\">Leading for Organizational Impact<\/a>\u00a0program, or in a similar, customized client engagement.<\/p>\n<p>Our team also analyzed 360-degree assessment ratings from nearly 15,000 of their bosses, peers, superiors, and direct reports, and interviewed 101 of these leaders to better understand their most pressing issues. Some of the trends they identified around senior leadership challenges and focusing development include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>To provide\u00a0<a href=\"\/articles\/leading-effectively-articles\/a-broad-perspective-a-must-have-for-promotion\/\">broader perspective<\/a>, organizations are extending functional leaders\u2019 responsibilities to oversee several functional areas.<\/li>\n<li>Functional leaders are being asked to lead major strategic initiatives across the organization to gain critical experiences they may be lacking.<\/li>\n<li>More targeted mentoring is being offered by highly experienced leaders both inside and outside the organization (including board members).<\/li>\n<li>Strategic projects are being owned by multiple functional leaders, while applying a more systemic and\u00a0<a href=\"\/articles\/leading-effectively-articles\/how-to-become-a-strategic-leader\/\">strategic approach to leadership<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>Leaders are gaining experiences from both wide and deep job assignments. More often, these assignments include global and cross-cultural responsibilities.<\/li>\n<li>Reward systems are measuring results over a longer time horizon.<\/li>\n<li>Board members are being more proactive in developing key talent.<\/li>\n<li>CEOs are thinking more strategically about their organization\u2019s leadership.<\/li>\n<li>Functional leaders are moving from a mindset of\u00a0<em>either\/or<\/em>\u00a0to\u00a0<em>both\/and<\/em>\u00a0in their strategic planning, decision-making, and implementation.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2 class=\"d-none\">Download White Paper<\/h2>\n<div class=\"callOut\">\n<div class=\"h2Display\">Download White Paper<\/div>\n<p>For a more comprehensive overview of our research on senior leadership challenges and how organizations are responding by focusing development of their functional leaders, download our full white paper.<\/p>\n<div class=\"buttonPosition\"><a class=\"buttons button1\" href=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/leadingWithImpact.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" aria-label=\"Download the Leading With Impact white paper now.\" data-material-type=\"white paper\" data-element-type=\"action button\" data-element-cta=\"Download File\" data-element-position=\"1\">Download Now<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Organizations must understand the senior leadership challenges faced by leaders of functions and divisions in order to focus development initiatives for their needs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":130,"featured_media":54643,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"_oasis_task_priority":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"tags":[],"class_list":["post-51649","articles","type-articles","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","categories-leadership-challenges","categories-leadership-skills-competencies","audience-executives","audience-hr-consultants","impact-level-senior-leaders","region-global","article-type-white-papers"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.6 (Yoast SEO v26.6) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Leadership Challenges Facing Senior Leaders | CCL<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Organizations must understand the senior leadership challenges faced by leaders of functions and divisions to focus 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