Let’s face it - one of the biggest challenges within an organization is creating an atmosphere that is constantly pumping productivity. As a manager, you may feel that you have mastered your own personal workload, but the biggest challenge at hand is making sure your team is equipped to work efficiently and in a collaborative manner.
When managing a team, you may find that your role is instantly taken to another level because you are now responsible for maintaining your own goals along with the goals of those who report to you. It is now your duty to anchor your team by finding a common ground based off teamwork and implementing a process to drive your team forward. This sense of collaboration serves as an excellent starting point for understanding the required steps to reach one another's goals.
While your team is most likely made up of individuals that work at a variety of speeds, it is important to understand how each employee works and encourage them to find the best way to make the most impact. Employee happiness and retention is largely dependent on the relationship and the team dynamic the manager establishes and promotes. Helping your team to properly manage their workload is a vital part of a company's success.
While properly managing team productivity should be at the top of your list, shouting out orders can also decrease productivity and make for unhappy employees. We understand that this is a tough balance to overcome, so here are a few tips to help you increase your team’s productivity while still being everyone's favorite boss.
Explain The WHY Behind Your Projects
It's easy to be assigned a task and get it done before taking a second to really understand why you are completing this work in the first place. While it is known that everyone has a lot on their plate, encourage your team to ask questions, even if explaining the answer takes a little more time than anticipated. Your team might feel like it is important to get things done to simply cross items off of their To-Do list, but their work may require several revisions and may not be great quality unless your employees know and understand the backstory to what they are doing. Understanding why they are doing certain things and how it contributes to the bigger picture will provide more context and clarity into how they should prioritize projects as well as more motivation to put their best effort into all of their work.
Encourage Accountability
Team dynamics can be defined by many factors. However, the most important is pre-determining an individual's role and the responsibilities that come with their position title. Each team members’ core responsibilities tend to form the building blocks of a team’s overall objectives in their plan to reach their goals. This means that it is important to have clearly defined roles with efficient tasks tied to them. By implementing this sense of clarity, your team will know exactly what their end goal is and what they have to do to properly achieve it.
Eliminate “Got A Minute” Meetings
We’re all guilty of pulling our co-worker over for the classic “this will only take a second” meeting. It’s hard not to quickly ask other team members top of mind questions when they’re sitting ten feet away from you. While this method might seem useful at the time, these meetings tend to sidetrack employees and run a lot longer than intended. Unfortunately, this can cause both you and your team to lose track of time and not be as productive as you had anticipated. Instead of sporadically coming to your employees with quick comments or questions, try planning a weekly touch base to share your progress, thoughts and problems that you’ve tackled throughout the week. Not only will this allow you to be more time efficient, but it will give your employees a chance to be more independent with their workload as well as establish a routine reporting system. It will also show that you are committing your time to being a helpful manager and a resource for every individual on the team.
Foster Collaboration
It is important for your team to get to know one another on a personal level while still keeping it professional. By scheduling team lunches and happy hours, everyone will grow to feel more open and comfortable. Through creating this openness, you are allowing for better conversation and workflow. With this team dynamic, assignments and tasks are more likely to be completed more effectively and more thoughtfully. However, professionalism is key. While your team should always feel comfortable approaching you with comments and questions, keep in mind that you are their manager and at times it is okay to set some boundaries and say no.
Encourage Breaks
Sometimes it’s hard to take a few minutes to stretch your legs when you have so much to get done. You may not think you’re deserving of a break if you haven’t gotten to a certain point in your workload. However, it is important to remind yourself that it is unhealthy to sit and stay focused from 9 to 5 - both your body and mind need a break! Encourage your team to take coffee breaks when needed and to take a full hour for lunch if they think their workload can allow for it. Of course work comes first, but remind your team that without their mental health being in check their ability to do their best work will lack.
List Out Your Priorities
It is easy to lose sight of what is important to accomplish on any given day. There are so many moving pieces to a majority of job responsibilities that it can be hard to learn how to prioritize them without forgetting to complete everything you set out to do. Encourage your team to start the day organized and with a list of actionable to-dos, and to use the last half hour of their afternoon to track what was accomplished and prioritize their tasks for the next day. This will leave them feeling confident in what they have completed while leaving them prepared to conquer every new project with confidence.
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About PF: PeopleFoundry is a progressive recruitment consultancy that specializes in building teams for high-growth organizations. We align with our clients to build a talent strategy that fosters growth and innovation. The PeopleFoundry high-touch approach allows us to have a very streamlined and transparent process with our clients, which has made our team a particularly valuable ally for companies in the tech and digital space. Our partnership extends beyond hiring, as we provide ongoing support to promote retention.
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