On average, employed individuals spend more than 8 hours a day with their colleagues, working as a team. Some may get things done flawlessly whereas others struggle to complete simple tasks, requiring constant motivation and micromanagement by their leaders. Things become frustrating when employee teams always fail to follow and catch up to deadlines, no matter what you do.
Read on to find out more on proven strategies team leaders use to increase their team’s level of productivity that eventually leads to peak operating efficiency.
Trust your Employees
As a lead manager or an owner, there is nothing wrong with keeping an eye out for a smooth operation because quality service is what makes a business or company run successfully. Rather than checking every detail yourself, entrust your qualified employees to plan out and execute relevant tasks. This technique not only saves time wasted on reiterating already completed tasks, but also boosts the employee’s skills in task planning and execution. Let your employees feel that you trust them with their capabilities and give them a chance to prove it.
Goal Setting
Planning crystal clear goals for your employees will work its magic as productivity levels rise when goals to achieve are well-defined. Convey what your precise requirements are and keep them to the point. Setting up SMART goals for your team is the ultimate technique used by successfully running companies because it requires the goals to be specific, quantifiable, achievable, practical, and timely. Tweak up your goals to obtain the best possible results and always try adapting to aid your team in staying focused.
Encourage your Team
Always recognize the efforts of the employees and make sure they get a feeling of appreciation and encouragement after a completed job. Incentives such as a pay raise, giving a week off, taking your employees to meals, or even sending a handwritten note of appreciation are great methods to practice at your workplace.
Communication is Key
Effective communication within your team and yourself paves the way for productivity. In today’s era, one might think the means we use to communicate might be sufficient. Yet, studies reveal that reading emails and replying normally takes up 28% of the time your employee spends working each day. Using such means may be feasible for certain scenarios, but for a team working together, a personalized platform for communication or voice-to-voice communication works best. You can even opt for social networking tools curated for teams working together.
Work Smart
Designating rather unnecessary tasks more often when your team has already set long-term goals can potentially hinder the efficiency and results. Try prioritizing tasks accordingly and provide more time for great outcomes. Here’s an example of the daily progress reports. A lot of offices require employees to daily report their progress to their supervisors which in most cases, is not opened up in the first place due to time constraints. This report can be shortened up to a few sentences with a precise outline which can save the time utilized by the employee in writing long reports.
We are all familiar with how cumbersome some tasks can turn out to be. Take an example of the monthly process of payrolls where a significant amount of time is spent in completing tasks. Now you have the option to use quick, time-saving alternatives for such tasks. Professionals suggest utilizing an integrated, easy-to-use system payroll app that runs by themselves. By utilizing this kind of software, you’ll find that the work is more accurate and saves a ton of time as well.
Assigning Tasks
Not everyone performs at the same level. Some of your employees might excel at an assigned task whereas some may find the task impossible to finish. A personality trait, general behavior, and the level of effort your employee put into their work directly influence the overall productivity as a team.
As a huge chunk of time is spent working on the same projects, having knowledge of employee behaviors and personalities can provide great insight on what tasks best suit them. For instance, assigning a detail-oriented task to your employee who executes everything thoroughly will prove to be the best decision. If the same task is given to an individual with an extrovert personality, it might take a longer time to complete than usual.
Boost your team’s productivity and efficiency by using the above-mentioned strategies to be sure you don’t fall behind your set goals. Moreover, don’t forget to provide the best, practical solutions and let them work to the best of their abilities.
