I've never been appointed formally as a leader but as the natural growth of projects and my experience in building software and working in teams, I'm expected to lead people.
What are the main challenges and problems you face?
It's a challenge to persuade people and make them follow certain rules or processes. Make coworkers in the same and different teams collaborate is complicated when they don't see the big picture.
This is something I've solved many times leading by example. I try to be the one who understands processes(technically and business wise) and also applies/practices them actively.
What are some hard lessons you learned?
Sometimes I need to speak harder(louder) and have a strong opinion on something to make it happen. I'm very patient, listen a lot to opinions but when I feel a thing isn't right or there could be a better way, I take a stand to try to find the best way to follow.
Which skills and competencies do you work on improving?
I always work on improving the way I communicate ideas. It is the most complicated thing to do because as a leader I want to be follow but also make sure I understand others and accept other ideas/solutions/approaches that would be better than mine.
Whenever I write something I reread and when speaking I listen to myself and try to vocalize and use simple words.