Anyone who has any experience running a business hands-on can tell you that the human capital you acquire and build up can play the biggest role in building it to the kind of success you’re dreaming of. However, their ability to bolster the growth of your business can be hindered by the wrong choices. Here, we’re going to look at examples of the choices, and other factors, that could be preventing your team from reaching their potential.
Needless downtime
First of all, it’s very hard to be able to get any work done when it feels like you are being constantly interrupted. However, this might be happening a lot more often in your business than you think. Measure your operational efficiency, looking at how often things like equipment failure or lack of internet access can force your team to pause in their work. You don’t just lose the time caused by the pause, but the motivation and energy of your team can be sapped in the process. Doing what you can to prevent downtime in your business should be a top priority.
Poor communication
Effective communication is at the center of all teamwork. If your team is unable to, or unwilling to, reach out to their coworkers to address questions and seek help when they need it, then naturally their work is going to suffer. Making communication easier can be done, in part, by determining the tools that are used for communication and making them available across the board, whether it’s an internal company chat server, a piece of workplace communication software, or otherwise. You have to empower your team to disagree, as well. Although conflict can become a problem in the workplace if it’s too common, a total aversion to conflict can make it hard to fix what’s going wrong, as well.
A bad work environment
Some of the issues above can be caused or exacerbated by the wrong kind of workplace. A total lack of privacy in the workplace can make it difficult to focus on work, leading to downtime. Otherwise, the classic cubicle crush can make your workers feel alienated and alone, making it more difficult for them to communicate. There are a host of other issues that can arise from poor workplace design, be it bad lighting, a lack of motivation, and more. Creating effective bespoke workspaces can help you transform the company culture, not just the place that your team is working in. Make sure that you properly consider the needs of your team, as well as the type of culture that you’re trying to create when you embark on any renovation efforts.
The wrong priorities
Although this could certainly be considered an issue of poor communication, this is one that comes from the top and works its way down, meaning that its solution needs to start with you. Setting goals for the business and crafting objectives for your team needs to be done with a sense of cohesion and consistency in place. If your team feels like their objectives have little bearing on the overall goals of the business, then they might have trouble feeling motivated and engaged with their work. What’s more, you want to understand the nature of their work so that you can set priorities that match it. By not understanding the role your team members play in the overall team, you can leave them with the wrong priorities which diminishes the overall value they could have.
Development failure
There is a good chance that the members of your team could be doing a lot more than they currently are. There is often trepidation in business to offer employees the development that they need, out of fear that they might become overqualified for their roles and leave. First of all, offering internal paths for advancement rather than hiring internally can stop you from losing the talent that you curate. Secondly, failing to contribute to the development and training of your team is likely to see them leave a lot sooner as they realise they have hit a dead end in their career. Work together with your team to create development plans that can see them reach their true potential.
The examples above are not a comprehensive guide to setting your team on the right path. They are just that, examples, and to find the specific issue that’s holding your team back, the best thing to do is to start taking in their feedback. You can’t find the right solution if you’re not doing what you can to work out the problem.
