Striving towards peak efficiency is more than a corporate buzzword. It comes more naturally to productive, invested, and open-minded teams – all qualities a competent leader will want to cultivate in the people they serve.
Take inspiration from the barriers that keep you from achieving these goals and tear them down to create a more efficient and satisfying working environment. Next in this guide, we will describe some of the common barriers that slow down your team productivity and how to solve them.
Common Team Productivity Blockers and their Solutions
In the below section, we’ll uncover some of the common team slowdowns and how to tackle them head-on.
1. Unclear Roles
Long-term Gallup polls show a decline in the number of US workers who have clear work expectations. This often stems from a lack of understanding of one’s role, which creates confusion around accountability, leads to mismanagement of priorities, and can negatively impact morale.
Every project you work on should serve a clear purpose. From that, it’s easier to assess overarching goals, divide them into manageable milestones, and give team members a comprehensive overview of their responsibilities.
2. Bad Communication
Not cultivating clear, open communication in your team can stifle it on multiple levels. Colleagues might misunderstand each other’s points, resulting in delays and costly misunderstandings. Moreover, team members with something to contribute but no means of voicing their opinions may grow resentful. That’s undoubtedly something team leaders don’t want to cultivate.
Fostering a communication culture where everyone feels free to discuss any business matter or share ideas is crucial. This is because when employees don’t fear repercussions, it greatly boosts their morale and engagement.
3. Little or No Agency
To be blunt but honest, no employee likes micromanagers, simply because micromanagement is counterproductive for everyone.
Unless your team members are still in training, where greater supervision is expected, it’s best to avoid micromanaging. Employees will resent the lack of trust in their abilities, and you’ll find yourself less productive in your own work.
Micromanagers often get caught up in day-to-day problems and fail to recognize as well as address productivity challenges they’re actually qualified to tackle. These can range from poor resource allocation to stakeholder conflict resolution. So, if you tend to control and oversee every small detail of a team member’s tasks, this is something you need to work on and let go of.
4. Outdated Technology & Workflows
The modern workplace is constantly evolving, driven by rapid advancements in processes and technologies. As a result, tools that are industry standards today can quickly become outdated. Staying on top of these changes is crucial, as failing to do so can put your team at a disadvantage.
Embrace the trend of automating routine tasks to allow your team to focus more on creative endeavors. By removing repetitive tasks from their plate, they can dedicate more time to brainstorming ideas, solving problems, and developing strategies for business growth. This not only boosts productivity but also keeps your team motivated and engaged.
In fact, a range of tools can further improve efficiency, starting with time trackers that reveal inefficiencies you or your team may not even realize. Project management tools can also streamline task delegation and help synchronize task completion. Additionally, consider recommending a password manager for IT teams to automate account distribution. This tool will enable them to create complex, unique passwords and quickly share them with employees, eliminating the need for individual account creation.
But don’t get too ahead of yourself—it’s important to strike a balance. Becoming overly reliant on an ever-growing toolset can actually reduce productivity, as employees may jump between different workflows, disrupting their focus and flow.
5. Unnecessary Meetings
The widespread adoption of hybrid and remote work underscored a truth anyone who’s ever worked in an office has been groaning about for quite some time—generally, many meetings don’t make the best use of time. Or rather, the traditional way we conduct them disrupts workflows and isn’t as effective as a clear email or global message via shared communication platforms.
In-person meetings can still be invaluable if conducted properly. This means having a clear agenda, specific goals, and only involving the team members directly needed. Stick to the key topics, and ensure everyone leaves with clear next steps.
6. Flawed System Access DuringSecondments
Most companies overlook the fact that when employees go on secondment, they still need to log into internal systems and continue working. In fact, employees are often not provided with secure access, leaving them to rely on unsafe public Wi-Fi.
Encourage your teams to use eSIMs when traveling and needing secure internet access. These embedded SIM cards help avoid costly data roaming and eliminate the need to connect to risky networks. An eSIM for travel can definitely enhance efficiency and streamline the secondment experience.
7. Lack of Growth Opportunities
Workplace engagement is a chief contributor to efficiency, so the fact that more people than ever feel disengaged from their work is concerning. Stagnation and a sense of not being valued actively contribute to disengagement, yet they aren’t challenging to overcome with the right mindset.
Most employees want to learn and grow, which you should encourage. If you don’t have a budget for formal upskilling and attaining industry certifications, have team members cross-train one another to get well-rounded colleagues better able to handle crises. They should also be able to point out inefficiencies, propose new solutions, and be assigned additional responsibilities in spearheading changes if their suggestions have merit.
8. Team Isolation
The tendency to focus on team-specific challenges without considering the organization as a whole is a barrier team leads are increasingly recognizing. Unless R&D, sales, marketing, and other departments aren’t on the same page, high individual team efficiency can even be counterproductive.
Want to avoid process fragmentation, misaligned objectives, and competition for resources? Then advocate for clear cross-team communication, tool integration, and collaboration.
Conclusion
Realistically, peak efficiency depends on the quality of the workplace culture, the people involved, and the tools at their disposal. It is a need for every business to look for the hurdles causing a constant holding of the employee’s productivity.
Now that you know which barriers are slowing your team down your team back, you can take steps to remove them and avoid future issues.
