With a lengthy to-do list and a caffeinated beverage in hand, your day is set to begin.
But sometimes, despite your best intentions, being productive feels like an impossible feat. Technology problems slow you down, meetings can overwhelm you, and office small talk can eat up a lot of time.
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Then, before you know it, your plan to have a productive day evaporates before your eyes. Sound familiar? It’s no secret that productivity ebbs and flows, but there are steps to take to get the most from yourself and your team. Here are some strategies to boost productivity and inspire them to do their best, even when it feels like an uphill battle.
1. Communicate Your Strategy
It’s impossible to be productive if you’re working on the wrong things. That’s why strategic alignment is so critical for businesses. It creates a clear vision that guides all decision-making. It identifies what the company is trying to achieve and what customers you’re looking to attract. But if strategy documents live in silos only visible to senior leaders, you could be hurting your team’s productivity.
Clearly communicating goals and expectations from the top of your organization to your team can create a sense of purpose. You’re all working together toward something more significant, which can help serve as a motivator. In turn, that motivation to succeed can fuel productivity and innovation.
Plus, an environment where your strategy is woven into everything you do is one where collaboration flourishes. You know with confidence that everyone is on the same page. That reduces the need for repetitive conversations and allows more time for actual work to be done.
2. Create Project Benchmarks
Working on projects big and small requires many skills. You’re communicating and collaborating with other teams. You’re expected to meet deadlines and deliver quality work. You’re reviewing and revising deliverables to get them just right.
Doing all that on your own would be overwhelming — that’s why project teams exist. Yet determining how to contribute to a project can be a challenge for individual team members, especially newbies. Instead of simply assigning an employee to a project, take the time to analyze it with them. Ensure they know the work products to be produced, the expectations and requirements, and the associated deadlines. From there, look for ways to break it down into bite-sized pieces that maximize productivity.
This will vary depending on the project, but start by identifying things that need to happen first and prioritize them. Then, you can move into a work phase that knocks out the biggest tasks in the project. Add in a review phase that will facilitate continuous improvement. Even though the amount of work is the same, a deliberate approach makes it more manageable. Structuring the project with incremental deadlines allows the team to notch smaller wins, which can ultimately increase focus and productivity.
3. Teach Organization and Time Management
It’s hard to be productive without the skill set needed to organize work and manage your time. While many roles expect workers to have these capabilities, they can be difficult to put into practice. Consequently, teaching these productivity skills is one of the best ways to get the most from your team.
Fortunately, there are many time management approaches to choose from. Some employees may find the Pomodoro technique helpful, while others could best prioritize their tasks using the Eisenhower matrix. Still others could be better suited to a digital tool that assists them in organizing work and schedules.
Share these and other options with your team to help them identify the best approaches to managing their workload. Encourage each of your direct reports to try different techniques until they find one that fits. This may entail some trial and error, but the search will pay dividends. You’ll end up with a more coordinated, productive team in the end.
4. Value Different Types of Productivity
How much work gets done each day will vary depending on several factors. A day filled to the brim with meetings may only allow time to send a few emails but yield new project ideas. A meeting-free day may make knocking out more concrete work like reporting, budgeting, or strategic planning possible. Both of those days bring value and are productive. They just happen to be productive in different ways.
Speak openly with your team about these different types of productivity. Building a supportive team environment and helping someone resolve an issue may not result in your checking off a to-do list item. But building a supportive team that people want to be a part of? That’s a priceless advantage to have.
Of course, that isn’t to say that daily tasks aren’t important. You and your team have responsibilities and stuff that needs to get done. However, humanizing the workplace and building something people want to belong to is a long-term investment in your team’s productivity. Research backs this up. A study by Oxford University’s Saïd Business School revealed that individuals who feel happy at work are 13% more productive than those who don’t.
There’s no doubt that productivity can sometimes feel elusive. But when you create strategic alignment, facilitate project and time management, and develop a supportive culture, it can take hold. You’ll be closer to creating a team that works like a well-oiled machine, and that’s something any business leader can be proud of.
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