Episode 101
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[00:00:00] [00:01:00] Welcome back to the show today. We're going to talk about a surprising or maybe not so surprising place that is costing you Thousands of dollars a month on your team and in your business and that is you my friend being a bottleneck now What does it mean to be a bottleneck? Well, it means that We are the place where stuff gets stuck on our team.
So team members feel like they have to send us, you know, something to approve to move forward with. We have to give a sign-off We have to maybe be in a meeting that has to happen in order for it to happen. And these kinds of things can cost a lot of money because it means our team members are waiting and not using their time productively.
Now I see this show up a lot for a number of reasons. First, we haven't really figured out clear expectations as that leader. So we feel like we need to be there along the way to check in on stuff. Maybe we're not sure what success looks like. We're not sure what a good job is. we don't really know how to handle this project.
So we just want to tag along, but then our team [00:02:00] members, again, they get stuck because they can't progress things forward without us. Another reason that we might become a bottleneck is we just are really overloaded. We want to approve something. It is important for us to have that final look, but we have so many things on our plates that we actually just don't get to it.
And that creates a bottleneck because stuff gets stuck in our inbox or in our Slack or in our texts, or we're overloaded with meetings and we can't prioritize the meeting that our team members are waiting for us on. And what happens is, again, our team members may sit idly. They feel frustrated because they're eager to keep going on a project.
You know, we get satisfaction out of a sense of completion. So then they're waiting and they can't be as productive as they could be, right? As the full potential would be. And every single hour, every single day that someone is sitting waiting, that's costing you money. So we really, really don't want to be in this stuck place around being a bottleneck.
So I want to talk about a few ways that we can get things back on track humming along so that you can still have that oversight you want, but [00:03:00] you are not slowing things down. Okay. So the first thing that we want to do is really make it clear, absolutely clear with our teams on what done looks like, what success looks like, because sometimes folks are checking in with us thinking, is this good enough?
Is this good enough? Is this good enough? And that creates a ton of back and forth, which ends up pulling you into the weeds, even where maybe you didn't want to be. Okay. And so now your time is being put towards this task you didn't need to be, and that's going to cost you even more money. Okay. So at the start of a project, at the start of a new quarter, at the start of a new endeavor, at the start of a new service that you're rolling out, whatever it looks like, we want to talk with our teams around, okay, well, what is a good job here?
What does success looks like? What does done look like? And then. We want to be really clear on, well, what pieces of this need to be run by me to move forward? So you might say, Hey, let's have a process that when you get about 50 percent of the way through this project, that's where we check in. Or maybe you say, Hey, I want to check in to kind of get really clear on the approach you're going to take, but then I don't really need to see it till it's a final sign-off Or you [00:04:00] might say, this is a really high-stakes client. So I'm going to need to check in every week on this. Any of those options are fine. It's just about saying it upfront so that everybody's on the same page. And then if it's something we wanted to look at weekly, we're not worrying, Hey, wait, when is our team coming back with this?
And we're starting to check in daily. And if it's something that we really didn't need to see till that 90 percent final sign-off then our team member knows, Hey, move along with this. You don't have to come to me every day and ask me, is this good? Is this good? Is this good? So that's the first thing really being clear.
And that's all about setting clear expectations. I know I talk about that a lot that is the key to someone feeling comfortable and confident that they can move something forward. So that's going to prevent that sitting idly. That's going to prevent the team members from asking, Hey, can you review this where you didn't see that email and they actually could have totally moved forward with it without you looking at it.
Right. So that's our first thing. second thing is if we need some kind of oversight, but we are overloaded, we don't have capacity to be meeting about it all the time or answering questions. Is that a responsibility we could delegate to somebody else on the [00:05:00] team? Saying, Hey, for this project, Sarah is going to be the sort of leader on it.
And they're going to be answering questions and they're going to be that oversight. So especially if you have a newer team member where you do want them to be checking in with someone regularly, but you don't have the time. Is there a manager within your company or team or someone that can take leadership there that could help mentor and coach this person and give them the support they need?
And this is an awesome opportunity to really build up someone's leadership skills. That's wanting to be a manager or wanting to take more on that. They become almost a project lead. And they can help give that feedback. So again, that removes you from being the bottleneck. You're picking someone that maybe has a little bit more bandwidth.
They have a little bit more time to spend with the person, and then they can help progress that task forward. So now you're moving something forward. You're also creating this leadership opportunity and you're not making people feel stuck like they're waiting for you. [00:06:00] The third thing, and this is so important. I talk about this when it comes to work tracking that we want to do is have a backlog of things that people can work on when they're done. So if something needs to be run by you, or if you have a project lead and that person's busy, what is that queue of things that someone is pulling from every single day?
And we all should have a good sense of this for all of our jobs. We should know, well, what is, you know, what's the main thing we're working on, but what's number two and three so that we're advancing multiple things down the field. Even, you know, when we're waiting for a client to get back to us or waiting for someone to come in to, have a service performed, whatever it is, we want to have a good sense of, well, what is the next few moves that we can be [00:07:00] taking?
And this is something that we can help our team members map out. what is that sort of backlog look like? Again, you can have managers help with this. You can talk about, well, what are the criteria we decide to know what to work on next? So if you have a team where you don't really know what the next task is going to be, you could say, okay, well, here's the order of operations.
Okay. Questions from clients, those are always number one or something that's broken on our website or something. That's always number one or a bug that we have to resolve, whatever, sort of setting a framework for the way in which we decide what to work on next. That's going to be really key in giving your team members autonomy to move forward with things when they have something done or they're waiting.
And this prevents them from sitting idle. Okay. So the combination of these three things, setting super clear expectations on what is done, what success looks like and where you specifically need to check in. And on this first one, I'm going to say it's often less than we think. And we can often give a little bit more runway to our team members.
Especially as we [00:08:00] start to build trust because we want them to feel like they have autonomy to get something further along. And if your team members are coming to you all the time, asking you questions, it's a good opportunity to check in both with yourself and with them and say, Hey I want to make sure if, especially if you don't feel like it's necessary to be checking in all the time, is that person, is there a confidence issue around the skill around making decisions?
Does the person think that you actually want to be making the decision and you know, they think they're doing you a favor by bringing you along. Does the person feel like that, they don't want to make a mistake in front of you, stuff like that. So teasing it apart and saying, Hey, you know, I'm really happy for you to run with this thing.
I do see you coming to ask me like, What do you need here? Is it, you just want me to say, Hey, run with it. Do you feel like you want me to kind of talk about my thought process when I review something and give it approval, whatever that looks like, because we do want to be making sure we're unblocking our team members from making decisions.
And this can be a really big trust building exercise with you and that team member to talk about, Hey, what is getting in their way from feeling confident to move it forward? If it's [00:09:00] something around imposter feelings and feeling like they don't want to make a mistake, that's a really great place to share how you overcome that or again, what is your thought process making decisions and, really encourage them to give it a try and to bring that growth mindset in and, or enlist the help of other team members.
You know, second thing is delegating to that team leader manager I already talked about. This is such a great way to start cultivating leaders on your team, asking people for a project or a few months or whatever to help be that oversight. And this gives them a little bit of a test period. Like is this person.
Able to be a manager. Do they want to, do they like it? Do other people trust them? And this gives you a little bit of space to free up your time and it starts to help you cultivate that bench. And I think a lot of us when we are managing team members, this can happen unexpectedly. We need a manager.
We're thrown into a role where we get hired and we don't have a ton of experience, so we don't have a lot of confidence with that and doing this kind of thing as that leader, as that business owner of starting to train people in leadership skills around oversight and management, [00:10:00] this is going to make sure that you have people ready to go when you do want to create some managers on your team.
So it's a win win, it's a bonus. And that last one, having that backlog of things to work through, whether it is in your task tracking system or that framework for how do we elevate something into the next priority, that is going to help give people so much autonomy where they're not coming and asking you like, what am I supposed to do next?
What am I supposed to do next? Because that kind of thing slows everybody down. And in that 15 minutes, they're waiting for you to answer that slack or that two days to answer that email. That person might be working on the wrong thing. Or be kind of sitting and waiting and both of those things are costing you thousands of dollars a month.
Right? So there it is. These three things are going to save you thousands of dollars a month. It's going to remove you from being a bottleneck and is going to create a stronger sense of morale on your team because folks feel like they have autonomy over making decisions over moving things forward, over completing things, and it's going to just create a, stronger sense of ownership that, Hey, I know how to be successful on this team.[00:11:00]
Okay. So you're going to want to do that. And if you have any questions about this, reach out. You can schedule an SOS call at leahgarvin. com slash SOS. If you've tried some of these things and folks are not really picking up the ball and running with it, sometimes we do give folks the opportunity to lead a project or be a mentor and they don't really seize the moment.
And that could be frustrating. And that came up actually in my recent manager Q and a, that I did on zoom was a person said, well, I've given some of my team members opportunity to be more leaders. And they're kind of like, man, I'm good. Well, I have some specific strategies for what to do in that situation.
I'd love to share with you. So if that's coming up or anything else, schedule that SOS call at Leah government. com slash SOS. And these are forums where we meet together. We dive into the challenge, wherever you're feeling stuck and you come away with a clear action plan of immediate things you can do on your team.
So maybe we role play that feedback conversation that you're dreading. Maybe we talk about listing out a way to describe what are these clear expectations. Maybe we're wrestling with like who the next hire is you have to make. All these things, bring it to the SOS call and we'll get it solved. See you next time. [00:12:00]