How well do you defend your team members from the bureaucracy above you? - SmartBrief

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How well do you defend your team members from the bureaucracy above you?

1 min read

By Mike Figliuolo 05/26/16

Leadership

SmartPulse — our weekly nonscientific reader poll in SmartBrief on Leadership — tracks feedback from more than 190,000 business leaders. We run the poll question each week in our e-newsletter.

Last week, we asked: How well do you defend your team members from the bureaucracy above you?

  • Very well — the team is insulated from it: 20.33%
  • Somewhat — they experience some bureaucracy, but I shield them from most: 73.29%
  • Not well — I don’t shelter them very well from it: 3.19%
  • Poorly — the team bears the full brunt of organizational bureaucracy: 3.19%

Creating a productive environment. As a leader, a big part of your role is creating a distraction-free environment and removing roadblocks so your team can be productive. Clearly, many of you see that as your role. To be effective at it, it’s always helpful to improve your skills at managing up. Every once in a while, take a step back and ask your team members what impediments they face and see how you can continue to clear the way for them to be successful.

Mike Figliuolo is managing director of thoughtLEADERS and author of “One Piece of Paper: The Simple Approach to Powerful, Personal Leadership.”