As leaders, it can be difficult to let go and give our teams autonomy. This can seem like discouraging disagreement, either out of a misguided desire to always be right or a mistaken belief that conflict is detrimental to business performance.

But when I let my frontline employees disagree, the best leaders and ideas come to the surface. While this helps create a guilt-free culture NEWI want to focus on how this approach allows businesses to identify the right processes to automate.

By listening to employee insights, we've implemented automation strategies that have dramatically improved ours workflow efficiency and scalability. While large technology companies often focus on enterprise solutions, automation tools designed specifically for small businesses can be transformative.

Related: 4 ways leaders can increase efficiency in the workplace

Here's how:

Workflow efficiency benefits

Improving workflow efficiency was traditionally done incrementally, but disruptive technology is now enabling rapid optimization through digital transformation. By automating repetitive tasks, organizations can streamline their internal processes and unlock value by reducing human error and saving brain power for innovation.

Fostering an environment where disagreement is welcome allows pain points to emerge from those closer to work. Without this employee input, automation efforts can create new frustrations instead of the intended efficiency gains. One unexpected benefit I've seen is a tremendous increase in service and product innovation. Automated tools I freed my employees to focus on creative initiatives related to strategic goals.

By allowing them room to maneuver and making their workflows as efficient as possible, my employees have taken us in directions I never would have thought possible. This “flexible” capacity can free up up to 50% of an employee's time, enabling businesses to scale operations and increase profitability without sacrificing work-life balance. So make sure your employees are empowered throughout the adoption process. It's the very opposite message of seeing people as collateral damage to a company's ambitions.

Related: 6 Transformative methods for increasing efficiency in the workplace

Challenges to adoption

As with any disruptive technology, companies looking to streamline workflows by adopting new automation tools will face several challenges. By anticipating and planning for these difficulties, businesses will be better positioned to overcome them.

People are the soul of the company, and no amount of workflow efficiency can compensate for a workforce that feels stifled or threatened by the change they're trying to adopt. The most successful leaders are those who can re-engineer their workforce to adapt to automation, so I suggest:

• Open the lines of communication to be an available presence throughout the modernization process.
• The topic of workflow optimization is about increasing employee productivity, not replacing it.
• Make sure they know the benefits of automation, which will allow them to upskill or make lateral moves within the company to execute more value-added tasks.

Other problems are less human and more technical. For example, INTEROPERABILITY with legacy systems means that existing tools will lose some of their usefulness when the new tool is fully onboarded. To maximize interoperability:

• Conduct a comprehensive assessment of existing tools to determine potential issues.
• Collaborate with legacy system engineers and new tool providers to ensure compatibility and seamless integration.
• Develop a robust adoption strategy focused on compliance.

In many cases, difficult decisions must be made to move away from the old system. This may mean retiring old software, investing in upgrades, or even downsizing temporarily productivity during the transition. Bringing people along for the journey will help reduce resistance to change and make everyone a part of realizing the full benefits of automation.

Related: 8 little things that make remote work more efficient for everyone

Practical tips for workflow efficiency

At my company, we have adopted several technologies that have optimized our workflows and made work life simpler and more productive for our employees. Even simple automation can make a big difference. Electronic signatures, for example, have reduced waste and allowed employees to quickly sign a document without having to print it, sign it, and then scan it again themselves.

This has allowed us to embrace full digitization of our business documents reducing errors and improving customer responsiveness. Meanwhile, implementing an automated phone answering service or using payroll and HR compliance software can save significant time and reduce errors.

Another emerging technology is intelligent process automation, which allows businesses to improve forecasting using data analytics. Companies can use this knowledge to:

• Streamline manual processes and quickly identify processes that can be digitized.
• Improve inter-departmental communication, align organizational structures and accelerate issue resolution.
• Enable real-time data sharing across marketing, sales and customer service.
• Give finance and operations teams a unified view of business performance.

For small businesses, it is essential to find automation solutions that are effective, affordable and easy to implement without a significant upfront investment. As we've seen these benefits stack up, it's become clear that automation isn't just about optimizing individual tasks—it's about transforming how an entire organization operates and scales.

Scaling operations through automation

While adoption rates vary globally, with some countries leading the way in areas such as mobile payments or professional services automation, the trend toward increased automation for small businesses is universal and accelerating. New tools can enable businesses to handle increased workloads without a commensurate increase in staff. In other words, with modern technology, companies can do more with the same.

At the same time, adoption can create a happier, healthier and more productive workforce – and people will stay competitive, even when change is rapid and unpredictable. At the end of the day, smart adoption will deliver better value to the customer, so it should be on every business leader's radar for that reason alone.