How do you overcome common workplace obstacles?

Overcome common workplace obstacles with strategic leadership

 

Workplace obstacles are only what you make of them.

Give in to the internal strife, and you’ll suddenly find your entire department behind schedule. Approach them with strategic leadership, excellent communication and a strong sense of empathy, and there’s a good chance you’ll resolve it quickly and efficiently. Taking a people management course and picking up some tips along the way can help you ensure your camp takes the latter option every time.

Be open and honest

Would it surprise you to learn that roughly four in every five workplace issues are the result of a lack of communication? It’s a problem that can ultimately impact the company’s bottom-line, not to mention the office camaraderie, according to Successful Culture.

Build transparency through regular informal meetings.

Building transparency throughout your team or the entire business isn’t something that happens over night. But doing so can help clear any obstacles you find yourself mired in, as well as reduce the chances they pop up again. Humans are curious and simply want to know what’s happening.

Set some time aside to get everyone together for a meeting; bring food and refreshments for the staff to lighten the mood. A great place to start in these information sessions is the five W’s – who, what, when, where and why, Entrepreneur reported. Having trouble coming up with an effective way to communicate all the change happening within the organisation? Consider taking leadership courses to boost your confidence and gain some experience, as you should be facilitating these types of discussions regularly.

Break down the walls

Cross-departmental collaboration is essential to avoiding and overcoming conflict in the workplace, even if it’s only between two parties on your team. This is because without it, the atmosphere fosters a “me first” type of mentality. While this can lead to results in some cases, more often than not it hinders productivity for a number of co-workers.

Cross-departmental collaboration is key to avoiding conflict.Break down those walls and build better cross-departmental collaboration.

There are two ways to resolve this obstacle:

  1. Incorporate software or team-building activities that bridges the gap between two departments that have to work together often on projects, or managing client risk. This can be as simple as setting up a chat room on Slack, or setting up team bonding events outside of work.
  2. Always be sure to acknowledge achievements and appreciate people for their efforts. Similarly, ensure there is action for poor performances so as to dispel any sense of favouritism.

In the end, you want your team to develop a mentality that puts the organisation and its issues above corporate politics, Forbes reported. This is how you can get the most work done with the least resistance or problems cropping up.

Inspire your employees in the face of the unknown.

Source of inspiration

At the end of the day your job is to influence success within your team. Many of the modern challenges facing workplaces aren’t completely tangible, but rather a fear of the unknown. How will a new technological tool change the way I work? Who can I trust within my team to help me get the job done right? How will our company adapt to local and global changes? These are all questions your employees will be asking themselves – and ones you should as well.

You won’t have all the answers. That’s fine. But investing in team leader training can help you learn how to inspire your department to look past or ignore all these potential issues to focus on the immediate goal at hand. Planning for the long-term is always a great option, but it’s something that can be a cause for strife with co-workers if not handled delicately.

Interested in learning how to overcome common workplace obstacles? Contact an ICML representative today to learn more.


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