Speaker 1: Helping leaders motivate their people to a higher level of
Speaker 1: performance through strong human relations, team building and GOLA GV.
Speaker 1: This is the seven Minute Leadership Podcast with your host
Speaker 1: Paul Fello Aledo.
Speaker 2: Hello everyone, and welcome to the Seven Minute Leadership Podcast.
Speaker 2: It's episode three twenty six. And did you know that
Speaker 2: every bottleneck has a name? Let's talk about it. You're stuck,
Speaker 2: a project isn't moving, a team is slowing down, communication
Speaker 2: feels clunky, morale is slipping, and deadlines are being missed
Speaker 2: and you look at the system and wonder why is
Speaker 2: this happening. Chances are there's a name behind the bottleneck.
Speaker 2: It's not always a broken system. It's a person uncomfortable.
Speaker 2: As it sounds, Leadership means identifying who that person is,
Speaker 2: having the courage to deal with it, and taking action.
Speaker 2: It might be your top performer who's become too comfortable.
Speaker 2: It might be your most seasoned veteran who refuses to adapt.
Speaker 2: It might be someone you promoted too soon. It might
Speaker 2: even be you. The term bottleneck sounds mechanical and impersonal,
Speaker 2: like it's a piece of the machine that just isn't
Speaker 2: functioning right. But in organizations, especially small to mid sized teams.
Speaker 2: Bottlenecks are human. Every delay, every breakdown, every miscommunication, it
Speaker 2: traces back to a name, a face, a desk. Let
Speaker 2: me give you a real world example. A friend of
Speaker 2: mine runs a mid sized logistics company and for months
Speaker 2: orders we're backing up in one apartment. Everyone assumed it
Speaker 2: was a system's issue. They poured thousands of dollars into
Speaker 2: new software. Nothing changed. When he finally did a workflow audit,
Speaker 2: the delay trace back to one person, a well like supervisor,
Speaker 2: who had quietly stopped delegating. He was afraid his team
Speaker 2: would mess things up, so he held everything until he
Speaker 2: could personally review it. He didn't mean to be the problem,
Speaker 2: but he was. This is where your leadership has to
Speaker 2: kick in. The point of today's message isn't to throw
Speaker 2: people under the bus. It's to teach you that every
Speaker 2: problem has a source, and the job of a leader
Speaker 2: is to get honest about where that source is coming from.
Speaker 2: So here are your leadership action steps for today. Number one,
Speaker 2: map your workflow. Look at every step of your operation,
Speaker 2: from task assignment to execution to delivery. Find out where
Speaker 2: the slowdown happened. Who owns that part. That's your first
Speaker 2: clue Number two, don't hide behind it's just the system.
Speaker 2: That's a cop out. Systems are made by people, run
Speaker 2: by people, interpreted by people. If the system is breaking down,
Speaker 2: a person is involved. And number three ask the tough questions.
Speaker 2: Who is hoarding decisions, who's not communicating, who's overwhelmed but
Speaker 2: afraid to admit it, who's adding unnecessary steps, and who
Speaker 2: always needs another meeting before they act. Number four check yourself.
Speaker 2: Sometimes you're the name behind the bottleneck. You're holding back approvals,
Speaker 2: you're delaying change, you're micromanaging. Leadership requires self auditing, so
Speaker 2: be honest with yourself. And number five move quickly but thoughtfully.
Speaker 2: Once you identify the bottleneck, don't let it sit. That's
Speaker 2: where leadership happens, in the moments when you either look
Speaker 2: away or lean in. So let's be real. Dealing with
Speaker 2: people bottlenecks is tough, especially when that person is well liked,
Speaker 2: or when they've been there forever, or when they've always
Speaker 2: done it their way. But if you don't address it,
Speaker 2: you're allowing one person to shape the entire pace and
Speaker 2: productivity of your team. That's not leadership. That's avoidance, and
Speaker 2: a leader who avoids problems, isn't leading their babysitting dysfunction.
Speaker 2: So next time you notice the slowdown, don't just say
Speaker 2: this part of the system is broken. Ask whose name
Speaker 2: is behind this bottleneck, and then act, because behind every
Speaker 2: bottleneck is a name, and you're the leader who's strong
Speaker 2: enough to face it. This has been the seven minute
Speaker 2: Leadership Podcast, and I thank you for listening.
Speaker 1: For more Paul Fell of Alito Podcasts, visit paulfellowalito dot com.