Become a Sludge Remover

Most organizations have an element of sludge. These are the processes and procedures that bog people down, like trying to walk through quicksand.

Today, I want to talk about sludge, but not like sludge as in bad people on your team. Sludge slows your team down and prevents them from driving the results that you need them to create.

Inevitably, most organizations have an element of sludge. These are the processes and procedures that bog people down. Imagine it like trying to walk through quicksand. It becomes very difficult to generate the results. It’s like telling your team to tie a hand behind their back and still be as productive with their one good hand that’s left to use.

How Do You, As The Leader, Help Be The Sludge Remover?

How do you make things smoother and easier for your team to perform their tasks?

The first thing, of course, is to find out what is frustrating your team. What are the things that are making them have to go slower, and cause problems in delivering the results that you want?

Once you know what frustrates them, go to bat for your team. That’s number two – go to bat for your team! That means going to other departments to get the resources, the answers, the equipment, and the materials so that your team can perform to their full capability.

Once you found out what frustrates them and you go to bat for your team, the next thing is to celebrate and acknowledge the progress that your team is making. That means that as you de-sludge and make things go a little better, make sure your team understands the progress that you’re doing for them. This is not to make yourself feel more important, but just to make sure that your team sees the kinds of positive changes that are coming forward.

Win The Day

When you make your department less sludgy and less difficult to generate the results, you’re making your team’s job easier and it’s easier for them to win the day. Of course, that makes them feel good and it makes you look good as their frontline leader.

Now, once you’ve figured out that de-sludging your team is one of the positive things you can do as a frontline leader, I suggest that you work on some of your other leadership attributes. You can do that by accessing a lot of the resources that we have on our website, or by having us in to deliver training. Whether it’s through our virtual training studio or in-person workshops, all of it begins with a conversation that you can have on our website at uniquedevelopment.com.

No matter what it takes to help you on your leadership journey, we want to be your partner in performance.