Have you ever faced a situation where your team was waiting because of actions from your end? It might have happened that the task, which you need to assign, was in your to-do list and your team was waiting for your response to take actions on the task. Have you ever become bottleneck for your team because you were not able to complete your task and your team was waiting for you to clear your to-do list? Answer for most of us will be YES.

Why such things happen? Is it because an extended to-do list every day? Is it because you don’t set priorities for your to-do list? Or is it because you have not allotted proper time for each task? Answer could be any of these. What to do when you are bottleneck for your team?

Bottlenecking puts your career and reputation at risk and takes a significant emotional toll. Here are four root causes of it — and solutions for each: