Poor Role Assignment
If your business is growing you are likely taking on more staff. As you add team members a classic mistake business owners often make is the failure to change mindset from a small team to a growing team. When you are a small team it is often necessary for people to cover multiple roles. This creates a fluidity that helps companies be agile and responsive. As you grow you work on leveraging the division of labour. Allowing people to focus on what they are best at. When people work in the areas they enjoy and are most competent in their productivity and engagement lift. How clear is your team on their role? Does each team member know what is required of them and what winning looks like in their role?
Clarity equals action. This is particularly evident in high performing sports teams. In my experience, many people have more clarity on the position requirements of their favourite sport team than they do on their own role at work. In the Aristotle study conducted in Google, role clarity and structure was identified as the third most important element in high performing teams. Is this an area you and your team could benefit from clarifying? Are team members clear on who they report to and how other team members fit into the team?
When you and your team have clarity on role ownership it is possible to define what each person is accountable for. This allows people to take responsibility for their roles and the deliverables of their position. Additionally, this allows quicker feedback loops and contributes to communication effectiveness. Much like sports teams know at any point in the game how they and their team are performing, high performing business teams “know the score and state of play” throughout the day. This allows quicker decision making, more responsiveness, increases people's ability to take initiative and improves the customer experience. Do you team feel confident to take initiative? Can your team rely on fast feedback from other team members to help them perform and respond at a higher level?
If you have had team members express frustration over not being sure what to do, who to ask, where or who to take instructions from you likely have a lack of role clarity and team structure. Many business owners know they need to make the time to give more role clarity but find it is an easy pain point to ignore. Until it is not. Lack of clarity impacts team culture and increases staff attrition and drops productivity. If you know you should tackle this, make the time and do it this week. The team will thank you and your future self will be grateful!
