Is your team helping or hurting your business?
And are you helping your team to help your business?
As a leader, unless you can answer a strong ‘yes’ to that second question, you’re not truly leading – and you’re not supporting your business or your team effectively.
In this blog, we explore two perspectives:
-
You as a leader – are you the roadblock to your team’s performance?
-
Your team – what can you do to help them perform at their best?
Leadership starts with you
Ask yourself: Are you doing everything possible to:
-
get the best out of your team?
-
give them the opportunity to perform at their highest level?
Most leaders instinctively say: “Yes, of course we’re making it easy. Why aren’t they just getting on with it?”
But when you look closer, you’ll often find that leaders unintentionally create barriers. These barriers include:
-
not proactively identifying risks
-
failing to anticipate threshold points that will limit the team’s ability to perform effectively.
Action: Conduct a 'health check' on yourself as a leader. Make sure you are servicing your team – not hindering them – so they can deliver for the business to the best of their ability.
Common leadership roadblocks
1. Blurred roles and accountability
If you:
-
assign responsibility to one person
-
then seek input or override them through someone else
…you create confusion and weaken accountability.
Result:
-
Team members second-guess their roles.
-
Ownership becomes unclear.
2. Overriding decisions
Do you delegate decisions, but frequently override them?
Example: A team member sets a 25% margin. You change it to 23.5%. They’ll start thinking: “Why decide at all? I’ll just escalate everything.”
Result:
-
Reduced initiative.
-
Dependency on leadership.
3. Difficult stakeholders
Challenging customers or suppliers can create stress in the team and/or cause conflicting priorities e.g. need to protect your brand, but also need to address legitimate concerns of the stakeholder.
As a leader, your role is to:
-
step in early
-
remove friction
-
'grease the wheels' so your team can deliver solutions.
4. Cultural misalignment
You are the custodian and champion of culture within your business.
If a team member:
-
withholds information
-
undermines others
-
doesn’t align with your values
…you must address it immediately.
Avoiding conflict because you fear losing them or because they’ve been around for a long time can damage the entire team.
Remember: One misaligned individual can undermine everyone else’s ability to perform.
Building an effective team
Now shift the focus to your team. Every team has a mix of:
-
strengths
-
weaknesses
-
experience levels.
Some team members – especially newer ones – need time and support to develop.
1. Professional development matters
Effective teams require ongoing development, not just a single training course. As we've discussed in previous blogs, a single training course is not a silver bullet.
Instead, development must include:
-
preparation before training
-
engagement during training
-
reinforcement after training.
This is what creates real performance improvement.
2. The limits of training: ‘Care factor’
Some things training cannot fix. One of them is attitude and care. People either take ownership and responsibility, or they don’t.
Example: The fridge story
A supervisor approved transporting a large fridge secured with just one strap.
Result:
-
The fridge was damaged.
-
It violated company policy.
-
It breached insurance requirements.
No training would fix this because the issue wasn’t skill – it was carelessness. The solution?
-
Direct feedback.
-
Clear expectations.
-
Personal accountability.
Once addressed, the supervisor improved and aligned with company values.
Final takeaways
Great teams don’t happen by accident. They are built through strong leadership, clear accountability, consistent development and reinforced culture.
To determine whether your team is helping or hurting your business, focus on two things:
1. Your leadership
-
Are you removing obstacles?
-
Are you enabling performance?
-
Are you truly supporting your team?
2. Your team
-
Do they have adequate skills and receive the right training?
-
Are their roles clear?
-
Do their behaviours align with your culture?
If you get these right:
-
Your team becomes high-performing.
-
Accountability shifts from you to them.
-
Ownership becomes part of their identity.
But this isn’t a one-time effort. It requires consistency, resilience and ongoing leadership.
Over time you will find your team takes responsibility, your workload shifts from doing to guiding, and your team becomes stronger and more self-sufficient.
When your team owns their performance and takes pride in it, that’s when you know you truly have an A-team.
If you’re a business leader, or are aspiring to be one, and you want to take your team and business beyond the norm, we’d love to hear from you.
Our advisors are keen to assist in guiding you and your team on a path to developing a strong culture and enhancing your business value. Contact us today to book an appointment.
