Every leader is accountable for the productivity of their team to motivate them and establish a positive work environment. In fact, team leaders are expected to encourage higher levels of productivity for all members of their team, thus increasing the overall efficiency of their business operations.
When leaders talk about boosting productivity, they often mean that they believe workers should work harder. This is not a very motivating thought since it implies that they do not feel their team is working hard enough. This has the opposite impact of motivating teams and demotivating them. It's simply not good leadership.
Managing people is no small feat. Sometimes, it could be frustrating and filled with a rollercoaster of ups and downs, however, a good leader who masters the art of balancing everything takes the glory. To boost team productivity as a leader, you must develop a diverse leadership approach that includes the strategies listed below.
Read on to learn how to boost productivity through enhancing your team's everyday productivity.
1. Communicate with your team
Communication is the most effective strategy for increasing team productivity. As a leader, you should have a free communication system in place to allow your members to communicate better with you. To do this, you must be available to your team at all times. By practicing open and straightforward communication, you can ensure that every team member has unrestricted access to you.
You may increase communication by doing the following:
- Keep members up-to-date
You should ensure that the line of communication is fair to everyone. When employees are kept in the loop, they feel motivated to improve their performances.
- Listen more and show empathy
Learn to listen more to understand before you speak. This helps you address every challenge or concern without difficulty. Make changes and show respect to the employees.
- Choose your communication medium wisely
With the number of communication apps, pick the most suitable ones for your team to develop a healthy work environment.
2. Set expectations early
As a leader, it is your responsibility to establish clear goals and expectations from the start. This might be done on a weekly, quarterly, or annual basis. This would help to minimize disappointments that may bring the team's morale crashing down. When your team knows the project goals and objectives, they are better able to prevent blunders and stay focused.
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3. Compartmentalize your time
Many individuals will constantly seek your attention if you maintain open communication. You don't have to give in to this or you'll lose sight of your goals for guiding them. However, you can deal with this by compartmentalizing your time, and managing it effectively. There should be time to attend to them, and the rest of the time should be for you to conduct your business.
4. Involve team members in decisions
As a leader, you might be tempted to be 'Jack of all Trade." Leadership means you should train others to handle some aspects of your work. Delegate decisions to help you run the team without difficulty, and offer the members opportunities to become better at what they do. You need to share duties with your team by collaborating with them for a set goal.
You should also be clear when you delegate duties to your team members. This must show clearly your expectations from them to avoid poor performances.
5. Invest in organizational tools
You should lead by example first. What you do can indirectly affect the productivity of the team. Leaders who are always late to meetings, disorganized, or messy, end up with an unstable team. You should make use of organizational tools like Trello Board or CRM to help your work as a leader. Some organization tools would help you become more organized, retrieve information, and make the workplace better and friendlier.
6. Avoid long meetings
Long meetings often end up boring or pull up unnecessary problems for the team. A leader should learn how to schedule short effective meetings, which should not last more than 15 minutes. You save time for other important tasks for the team.
SEE ALSO: How to Boost Your Productivity & Results in 6 Easy Steps
7. Training and coaching
You cannot achieve great results as a leader if you do not train or coach your members. In fact, you should find ways to make your team members better in what they do. This could be in the form of leadership or management training. You should schedule this training quarterly or annually.
8. Feedback loops
Miscommunication is the downfall of many projects. People can misunderstand what was written in emails. An easy way to ensure everyone is on the same page with you is to create feedback sessions weekly. This opens opportunities for everyone to understand set goals and expectations, and bring up feedback and solutions.
9. Reward your employees
Employees want their efforts to be rewarded or appreciated. Many leaders use different methods to reward their employees or team members. This could be in the form of cash, incentive programs, paid vacations, promotions, public appreciation, etc. Reward programs motivate people to work harder and happier.
10. Get to know your team
A simple trick to learning more about your team member's strengths and weaknesses is by getting to know them individually. When you identify with your team members on a personal level, it helps them trust you more.
You should know them early on. You can achieve this by organizing external office activities, food outings, or sports activities.
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