7 Hidden Hurdles Sabotaging Team Performance & How to Fix Them

Managing a team is not everyone’s cup of tea especially when your team performance can’t stand out your expectations. You might have found managers and CEOs discussing why some teams thrive while others can’t manage the same. It mostly relies on how well their performance is managed. It requires a proactive approach that includes managing everything from setting objectives to addressing any skill gaps.

To help you improve your performance, here we are. In this blog, we will discuss 7 major challenges in managing a team performance. Other than that we will also discuss what it is and why it is necessary to have a team performance plan. Don’t worry! We will also clear all your doubts that we believe most of you have in our question-answer section. So if you are tired of your field sales team or consistently bearing field force management issues or if you’re looking for new ways to improve your team performance using field force management software in India, this blog is for you. So let’s get started.

What is team performance?

Have you played the “Relay race” in school? You might be thinking of relay and team performance, how they are connected. Well! Actually, they are! Let’s understand, just as in relay, the win and loss is of the combined team through combined efforts. The whole team in relay needs to be quick and smart. The same is true for team performance.

Here the team works collaboratively to achieve a desired goal. Now in relay, the goal is winning. Here it can be anything based on your audience and department. It’s all about how you work collectively, communicate effectively, and help achieve performance standards. Every organization must improve team performance. Why? Well!

For business success, improved employee engagement, and customer satisfaction, it is a prerequisite. Well! Managing it can be tough especially when you have a large team with different expertise and experience, but that’s the whole game. These challenges often multiply with gaps in skills, communication issues, and unrealistic expectations.

To satisfy this issue, organizations often use tools like HRMS & payroll software, that take care of seamless operations across departments.

Why a Team Performance Plan is Necessary?

You might wonder why founders and managers talk a lot about team performance. A team performance plan is vital as it helps connect a person’s personal goals with team goals, taking care that clarity, focus, and accountability are maintained. If a team does not have a plan, it can lose direction, cannot allocate resources properly, and might fail in achieving the targets. Thus, there arrives a need for a structured plan:

Sets Clear Objectives:

With a performance plan, the team leaders can set measurable goals for their field service team and make sure team members know their roles. This helps solve sales management issues. With this clarity, you can also prevent any sort of confusion and improve collaboration.

Find Skill Gaps:

By evaluating employees regularly and sharing performance reviews the company can determine whether training or upskilling is required, which helps teams to improve performance.

Encourages Accountability:

By making the expectations clear, team members feel more connected and take ownership of their tasks, which leads to better employee engagement.

Supports Continuous Improvement:

Having a solid plan with time-to-time feedback makes it easier to achieve long-term goals.

Drives Customer Satisfaction:

Teams that excel and give consistent results help in improving customer experiences and loyalty. A performance plan is the first step towards sustainable growth, that not only provides solutions to current challenges but acts as a roadmap.

Managing team performance can be overwhelming

Start using Super Field Force and see how it can help you boost your team's performance.

Book a Demo

Challenges in Managing Team Performance

Managing team performance is not a one-man game. It needs team effort where every team member is on the same page managing different priorities. Let’s take a look at some challenges that almost every manager faces. Don’t worry! We will not just talk about problems but also share solutions to fix them.

1. Lack of Goal Clarity

When teams don’t have a clear idea of the objective, they might lose focus which leads to unaligned teams and decreased productivity. Teams must understand the complete picture, without proper clarity, this picture can be confusing. Due to this, the team might have to face frustration and this affects the effectiveness of the team.

To serve this issue well, managers can set goals that can be measured, achieved, match the objective, and time-specific. As a solution to this, the team can use field force management software which helps in tracking progress and maintaining clarity.

2. Skill Gaps

If your employee does not have proper skills it’s definitely going to impact your overall team performance and create issues. For example, if your team lacks technology while your competitors do not, you will definitely face issues. It does not affect a single employee but degrades the entire team’s performance.

You can identify these gaps through assessments and implement programs that can help you boost the results. Another thing that you can use is field service management software that can help you manage tasks and provide training to employees in any new technologies.

3. Poor Communication

Proper communication is the building block of a growing team. If the communication is not open and transparent it can result in misunderstandings, missed deadlines, and not solved conflicts. Teams that lack communication often work independently which decreases collaboration.

For better communication what you can do is, you can schedule meetings timely, give regular feedback, and promote the culture of open communication. If you face such issues, you can use chat platforms or project management software to fill the communication gaps majorly with field operations teams or remote team members.

4. Low Motivation Levels

If a team is not engaged, it might not be able to match performance standards. Employees not feeling motivated is a result of lack of recognition, ambiguity in career growth, or stress. Teams with lower morale give inconsistent results, affecting employee satisfaction.

A disengaged team struggles to meet performance targets. You can win over the challenge by organizing team recognition programs and enjoying small victories. Employee performance is also affected by incentives, new career development opportunities, and a positive work environment. If your team is motivated they can meet expectations and help you achieve better results.

5. Inadequate Resources

Many teams do not meet the expectations. There can be different reasons behind it like not having proper tools, lack of training or support. Let’s understand with an example. Suppose the field sales teams do not have access to CRM, in that case, it will become a hard nut to maintain client relationships. These gaps in resources can result in missed opportunities and low customer satisfaction.

By providing access to resources like field force management software or HRMS & payroll software, you can increase your team efficiency. For this, you can assess resources and allocate budgets accordingly.

6. Unproductive Meetings

Continuous meetings with no agenda steal time and energy. Teams that spend more time in discussion than execution often lack in task execution. Meetings with no structure can even piss off team members, decreasing their concentration.

If you do not want this to happen with your team, make sure your meeting has a proper agenda, time limit, and outcomes. Concentrate on solving problems and keeping your team aligned with goals. Make use of task management tools to track the progress, eliminating the need for frequent check-ins.

7. Tracking and Evaluation

Many teams can’t improve as they don’t have a proper system to measure team performance. Without having numbers, it’s very difficult to find what works and what does not. As a result, it wastes a lot of time.

Plan a structured performance review to measure progress against goals. Make use of real-time analytics in employee productivity tracking, attendance, and task completion. Managers must give actionable feedback to help the team improve.

Wrapping Up

That’s all for this blog. Here we saw how managing team performance can be a major roadblack, with challenges like unclear goals, skill gaps, and poor communication. But, with the right strategies, tools, and mindset, these issues can be served effectively. Tools like field force management software help in improving clarity, tracking progress, and assuring quick and easy collaboration within teams.

By fixing these issues, you not only improve your team’s efficiency but also motivate your workforce. Always remember, that the solution to performance hurdles is proactive planning, use of technology, and encouraging a culture of continuous improvement. Start your free trial today.