Your team is struggling to meet deadlines. What can you do to get them back on track?

1 Identify the root causes

In order to effectively solve a problem, it is essential to first understand its causes. To do this, you should analyze why your team is missing deadlines and what factors are impacting their performance. Common causes could include unrealistic or unclear expectations, poor communication or feedback, lack of resources or support, conflicting priorities or distractions, and skill gaps or training needs. To identify the root causes, you can use a variety of tools and methods such as surveys, interviews, observations, or data analysis. Additionally, it is important to involve your team members in this process and listen to their perspectives and challenges.

2 Set SMART goals

Once you have identified the root causes, you need to set specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goals for your team. SMART goals help you clarify what you want to achieve, how you will measure progress, and when you will complete the tasks. They also help you align your team's goals with the organizational objectives and values.

You should communicate your SMART goals clearly and frequently to your team and make sure they understand and agree with them. You should also review your goals regularly and adjust them if needed.

4 Delegate and empower

Delegation and empowerment are key skills for team management and staff development. Delegation helps you distribute the workload, utilize your team's skills and talents, and free up your time for strategic tasks. Empowerment helps you foster trust, autonomy, and ownership among your team members and enable them to make decisions and solve problems.

You should delegate tasks according to your team's abilities, interests, and development needs. You should also provide clear instructions, expectations, and resources for the delegated tasks. You should empower your team by giving them authority, responsibility, and accountability for their work. You should also support them with coaching, mentoring, and training.

5 Celebrate and learn

The final tip to get your team back on track is to celebrate and learn from your successes and failures. Celebrating helps you boost morale, build team spirit, and reinforce positive behaviors. Learning helps you reflect on your performance, identify lessons learned, and implement changes and improvements.

You should celebrate your team's achievements, big and small, with gratitude, enthusiasm, and fun. You should also learn from your team's mistakes, challenges, and feedback with curiosity, openness, and humility. You should use various methods and activities to celebrate and learn, such as parties, awards, debriefs, or reviews.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?