7 Signs You Might Be the Obstacle to Your Team’s Success

Let’s say you asked your finance team, “What’s the biggest obstacle you face in getting the job done every day?”

And they give an answer more honest and shocking than you expected: They replied with a resounding “You.”

Yes, you. Their finance leader.

Unwittingly Obstacles

As hard as it may be to accept, leaders are sometimes unwittingly the roadblock to their team’s success more often than we want to know or admit.

Of course, leaders of any sort don’t mean to get in the way of progress. But it happens.

And you likely don’t want to be that leader. So you want to watch for these seven signs that you might be an obstacle.

1. Meddling

Leaders know they need to be at the heart of things, fingers on the pulse, feeling the raw nerve of the operation. But sometimes they go too far and meddle.

They create roadblocks by staying too close to their employees’ work and interrupting too often.

Good people want to be left alone so they can get their jobs done.

While it’s perfectly advisable to stop by to boost morale and ask questions, be smart about it. Show your interest, offer up advice, and move on. Stay just close enough to monitor their progress, but not disrupt.

2. Meeting

There are just way too many meetings with way too many people in attendance who want to share way too much information.

Meetings are expensive time killers. Remember, it’s outside the meeting where things actually get done.

Tip of the day: Send an email!

3. Too Many CYA Reports

Many leaders require a wall of paper for the sole purpose of covering their butts. Sure, in Finance, you do need to produce and document a lot. But some finance pros require more than what’s necessary to get the job done.

Try to eliminate reports that include irrelevant details and take up too much time and energy. Doing this kind of mindless work can destroy morale in your finance department.

4. Embracing Projects Over People

Do you regularly use any of these phrases? Body of knowledge. Change control. Deliverables. Effort management. Enterprise modeling. Linear schedule method. Mission creep. Process architecture. Resource leveling. Task analysis. Work stream.

They’re the terms of modern project management that supposedly drive organizations – but the words don’t mean much because they’re cliches. They make little impact on employees because they aren’t concrete plans they can execute.

So avoid getting caught up in the buzz language and focus more on how your people will deliver on projects rather than how the names of projects define what people do.

5. Making Promises For Others To Deliver

It often happens in all departments: The boss promises almost anything to make the CEO happy. But, employees are responsible for the grunt work to fulfill the promises.

Finance leaders don’t want to be that person.

Giving any promise all you have is great, as long as you are putting in the time and effort to work hand-in-hand with employees.

6. Stifling Passion

Talented employees are passionate employees.

Yet, far too often, busy leaders prevent them from achieving great things because they’re hamstrung by more mundane stuff, like filing unnecessary paperwork or lengthy process management or planning.

But, giving finance employees opportunities to pursue passions within their careers improves productivity and job satisfaction.

The bottom line is, passionate employees are significantly more productive than others. You want to let them pursue passions so they stay engaged.

7. Saying Lousy Stuff

Some leaders rattle off what they’re thinking before they think about the impact it can have on employee productivity. Here are four of the worst things you want to avoid, regardless of whether you think you’re being funny or trying to make an impact:

1. We don’t pay you to think.
2. If we wanted an opinion, we’d ask for it.
3. You are NOT the ONLY employee I have to manage!
4. If you don’t know how this is going, I’m sure I can find someone else who can do it.