Explore your business to see what blockages to the smooth and efficient flow of your operations you can discover. Consider hiring a qualified professional to help you identify and eliminate blockages in your business for good. Internal blockages to business success come in many forms: bad management, inadequate pay, ineffective hiring practices, lack of teamwork, negative culture, poor onboarding and training and team members whose bad attitudes prevent them from performing at consistently high levels.
That’s not to mention the inconsistent quality of products, less than effective systems and procedures, poor customer service and team members who lack the behaviors and skills to communicate effectively.
These are just some of the common blockages owners and managers must identify and eliminate to improve business performance and achieve success.
If you’re like most owners and managers, you strive to keep operations running smoothly and efficiently with as few interruptions to the flow of business as possible. But a key part of preventing or removing blockages is developing big picture awareness of operations. How aware are you of internal conditions limiting your operations? If you’re not mindful of blockages, your lack of awareness will prevent you from addressing them at all. Is this really a viable option if you want your business to stand out in the marketplace? If you’re aware of blockages in your business, you’re positioned to take the crucial next steps of understanding what they are, where and why they exist and how much they cost you.
To better clarify how you can identify and eliminate potential blockages keeping your business from optimal performance and success, let’s look at a few common culprits:
- Talents and Skills: All members of a professional team must possess the basic skills necessary to perform their jobs. If not, they’ll hinder the efficient operations of the business. While a person lacking the necessary skills still could constitute a good hire, they must compensate with a good attitude and strong desire to learn and grow. Otherwise, it’s a waste of time, effort and money to bring them on.
- Attitude: While skills can be taught to individuals who want to learn, attitude is a different beast altogether. Although many people are hired for their talents, it’s their attitudes and resulting behaviors that determine if they’re a blockage or asset in your business. Team members might be qualified to perform their job at a high level. But if they bring consistently negative attitudes to the workplace, their performance will be less than their best and they’ll disrupt your operations in multiple ways. Negativity and bad attitudes are serious viruses you can’t allow to spread through your company culture.
- Communication: Poor communication is a primary, and often leading, barrier to success. Effective communication that accurately conveys information, images, objectives, feelings and desires so all parties are on a similar, if not the same, page must be highly valued and strongly encouraged. Clear and specific communication allows people and systems to work together seamlessly for superior results.
- Desire: A lack of desire means team members don’t care enough to deliver superior job performance. When people don’t care, they also lack commitment and loyalty and are less efficient and productive. These team members will consistently produce lower-quality products and services, resulting in unsatisfied customers. Just one team member can hurt the efforts of an entire team. They have a dampening effect on team morale and damage the work environment. When an owner or manager tolerates this type of attitude, they lose credibility with the rest of the team.
Think of blockages within your business in terms of a traffic jam. Progress and efficiency grind to a halt. Frustration grows, tempers flare, and everyone starts looking out for themselves. Errors increase, accidents occur, ad the blockages only become worse. Once you’re through the traffic jam, though, all these things are reversed. You experience relief and satisfaction as you continue down the road to success and happiness.
Explore your business to see what blockages to the smooth and efficient flow of your operations you can discover. Consider hiring a qualified professional to help you identify and eliminate blockages in your business for good.
Remember: Not effectively addressing blockages in your business will only compound the situations limiting its overall performance.
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This article was written for and published in collaboration with The Business Times newspaper. Access the article here.
