The concept of friction in the business world is not new. When it comes to your customer experience, business friction refers to any obstacle that could dissuade them from buying – such as long wait times on hold, for instance. Typically, businesses are quick at spotting and improving customer-related friction. However, many fail to acknowledge friction points that affect business development and processes. 

Indeed, your employees are your biggest assets. They need to be at the heart of your growth strategy. Building a friction-less strategy means ensuring that your team is in the best possible position to perform and be productive. Consequently, the main challenge for business owners is to identify and understand problem areas that affect productivity at the team’s level. A common mistake is to assume that if employees are underperforming, the fault lies with them. While there is no denying that employees could underperform for a variety of reasons – including post-pandemic stress –, keeping an open mind during performance reviews and audits can help you find the underlying cause. When a business fails to address self-generated friction points, it cannot grow. On the contrary, failure to eliminate friction in the long term drains resources and talent. Here are the main areas every company should have under control to maximize smooth processes and productive teams. 

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You’ve got the idea, but you lack the plan

It is common knowledge that you can’t approach a market or grow your presence on your local market without understanding its motions, interests, trends, and fluctuations. That’s precisely why your market research matters. However, too many new businesses fall in the trap of assuming that the market research will deliver the key to their growth strategy. Your market research acts as a review of your surroundings and your target. Yet, it doesn’t provide the actionable roadmap, or business blueprint, you need to achieve your goals. A frequent mistake for new entrepreneurs is to struggle to create a plan of structured activities and processes that can connect the dots between the market research, their venture goal, and the business operations. Without a roadmap, your teams are left guessing or working against short-term objectives, which may not drive progress in the right direction. 

You fail to share the right message

Managers within the company are at the heart of the information flow. They share information with the team, letting them know about decisions taken by the board, new directions, or changes within the business. For a lot of managers, maintaining a constant flow of information between the board and the staff can be challenging. Not everything that is discussed with directors and decision-makers can be shared with other members of the teams. Confidential discussions and business challenges may be interfering with productivity, as it could drive anxiety and agitation within the organization. 

However, if an effort to keep their teams focused, managers end up sharing less than they should. Unfortunately, the process can have a negative impact on team morale, driving anxiety and stress levels high. Your team is aware that discussions are happening. Yet, because no information is disclosed, the fear level rises. As a result, the team loses confidence in their manager, and the productivity drops. 

Your team doesn’t understand they need to do

Underperforming employees drag your business down. While getting rid of team members that don’t meet your expectations seems like the most logical thing to do, it’s essential to think twice before firing an employee. Indeed, failing to share expectations clearly and openly makes it impossible for your team to be judged fairly for their performance. Similarly, a manager who doesn’t provide the necessary training may find themselves in a constant loop of hiring and firing new talent without being able to create productivity. 

For example, if you are a musician and you instruct your employee to visit singularsound.com to purchase the best cable management system, and they don’t, they need to be trained otherwise it will happen again in the future hindering your own performance.