As a leader, you know your workplace dynamic directly impacts employee morale and, in turn, your bottom line. No matter how great your company culture might be, there is always room for improvement.
But to make impactful changes, you’ll have to first understand which areas warrant the most attention.
Advice on How to Improve Your Workplace
To help you identify those areas, we asked a panel of Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) members this question:
“What’s one productive question business professionals can ask themselves in order to better understand what they need to improve in the workplace?”
Here’s what YEC community members had to say:
1. Are We Accomplishing Our Daily and Weekly Goals?
“This question refers to time management and productivity. How well are you and your team handling the hours in the day when working with clients or completing assignments? Do daily check-ins work with your team? Will time management tools prevent people from goofing off? You need to constantly assess, especially in times of uncertainty.” ~ Duran Inci, Optimum7
2. Am I Living the Brand Values?
“Often companies will go through the process of creating brand values. Everyone in the company is excited, but after some time, that rush of enthusiasm wears off. The leaders in the organization are not living and breathing what the company says it stands for, leading to misalignment. By focusing on realigning values to the north star, it clears up a lot of confusion and decision-making, boosting productivity.” ~ Rishi Sharma, Mallama
3. Am I Reaching My Full Potential?
“For your team and your business to continue to prosper and grow, you must first tap into your full potential. Continue to increase your knowledge. Train and invest in yourself. Make it your mission to take massive action toward your goals and identify the areas where you can improve. When you are at your best, this positivity will trickle down and boost your business and everyone around you.” ~ Blair Thomas, eMerchantBroker
4. How Are We Spending Our Time?
“One productive question business professionals can ask themselves to improve the workplace is, ‘How am I or my team spending time?’ It’s very important to know what tasks consume most of your time during the day, rate their level of complexity and see if you can delegate them to someone else or put a process in place to complete them more efficiently.” ~ Alfredo Atanacio, Uassist.ME
5. How Can I Make Myself Obsolete?
“One key goal that’s always in the back of my mind is, ‘How do I make myself obsolete?’ If a year from now my day-to-day looks like today, I will have failed to grow. Stagnation is death. To be clear, I’m not talking about ‘climbing the ladder.’ It’s all about impact and expanding my horizons. As a founder, my job is to create, to set direction and then hand it off for execution.” ~ Alex Furman, Invitae
6. What Are We Avoiding?
“Is there one element of your business process the team shies away from? What is that? Usually this is due to a lack of understanding around that piece. Whether it’s a confusing technology, an unclear line of reporting or conflicting goals or processes, people procrastinate when they’re unsure of what to do. Identify this and then work on creating clarity to improve.” ~ Thomas Smale, FE International
7. What Am I Tolerating?
“As a method for self-accountability, I often ask myself ‘What am I tolerating?’ What am I tolerating from myself, from my team, from my career? The answers help me take stock of where things are heading and get them back on the right path.” ~ Rachel Beider, PRESS Modern Massage
8. Am I Focusing on the Right Metrics?
“Most people in business today are swimming in data and tracking all types of metrics. It’s essential to track your results, but it’s just as important to focus on the right data. Make sure you are tracking numbers that are directly relevant to your goals. Review your main objectives and ask yourself if you have a reliable way to measure your progress.” ~ Kalin Kassabov, ProTexting
9. Did This Task or Project Add Value?
“When looking at whether a task or project is creating value, you also need to consider the time spent. Could the time spent on this task be put to better use? Could I accomplish more in the same time? Answering these questions honestly will tell you whether it’s worthwhile doing the same thing again or if you should change what you’re doing.” ~ Syed Balkhi, WPBeginner
10. What Is Confusing People?
“I frequently ask the managers on our team, and then ask myself, ‘What do we think people are confused by?’ Are there decisions that have been made that we haven’t explained the ‘why’ behind enough? Are there any areas of the business where we are sending mixed messages? Is there anything we announced that might happen that we haven’t followed up on? This challenges us to improve our communication with everyone.” ~ Kelsey Raymond, Influence & Co.
11. Would I Recommend Working Here to my Friends and Family?
“The immediate answer to this should be yes, and if it isn’t, you should consider why. This question opens the opportunity to make changes in areas of business that would make you more likely to promote the company to others. Don’t be afraid to ask your employees this question as well and see what their response is.” ~ Jared Weitz, United Capital Source Inc.
12. Is Our Culture Sustainable?
“It’s really important to understand when there could be flaws entering into the company culture. If people are not completing tasks, are giving excuses or overworking themselves, it’s important to be able to ask questions about that. This means looking at how sustainable the current culture is. Does it encourage growth?” ~ Nicole Munoz, Nicole Munoz Consulting, Inc.
13. How Can I Simplify the Business?
“Simplifying your business can remove complexities and increase revenue, so it makes sense to get back to the most simplistic form of your business and then figure out how you can scale. Find one product that will make all the difference, get rid of all the nonsense and focus on this one product.” ~ Solomon Thimothy, OneIMS
14. Am I Making the Best Use of My Abilities?
“It’s vital to get people doing tasks that are best suited to their abilities. For example, you may have strong technical skills, but if you’re great at marketing, then that’s what you should be doing. You need to ensure that you and your team are using your skills to their best effect. It’s a time-waster to put the wrong people in the wrong jobs.” ~ Blair Williams, MemberPress
15. Do I Have the Right Team?
“If you hire people who don’t understand the company culture or vision, then it’s safe to say they won’t carry out procedures properly. When you bring people on board, make sure you provide adequate training and resources to ensure they’re on the same page.” ~ Stephanie Wells, Formidable Forms
16. Are People Happy?
“Happy employees are productive employees. When people feel a sense of pride and happiness where they work, they will go above and beyond to be more productive and work toward achieving the goals of the business.” ~ Josh Weiss, Reggie
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