You are probably well aware that telling your team they need to be more productive is possibly one of the least effective ways to accomplish this. To be fair, it doesn’t usually work when you try to boost your own productivity in this way either. There’s a gap between knowing what you should do and knowing how to do it. Making your staff more productive is about creating the conditions in which productivity can flourish, and you can do that with the tips below.
Have Clearly Stated Goals
People often tie themselves in knots trying to find the secret to greater productivity at work. Are the employees happy? Do they need more support? Do you need to give everybody raises or, conversely, fire everyone and start fresh? All too often, the answer is simply that people need specific goals and deadlines. Avoiding micromanagement is great, but no one wants to go to work and sit around half the day figuring out what they are supposed to be doing or only learn about deadlines once it becomes an emergency. Develop a system for making sure everyone knows what they need to do to achieve concrete goals and have regular check-ins to make sure you are all still on the same page.
Remove Obstacles
It’s surprising how often business owners and management actually get in the way of their employees’ productivity. Endless meetings that, as the saying goes, could have been an email, outdated software systems and processes that just don’t work any longer if they ever did are all ways of sending signals to your staff that while you want better results, you don’t value them enough to give them what they need to succeed. Fleet management is an area where the right tools and best practices are particularly vital. Drivers need safe vehicles and clarity regarding compliance. Management needs to be able to track vehicles as well as other information, such as costs and maintenance. GPS fleet tracking software and solutions allow for this tracking in real time.
Understand Individual Strengths and Weaknesses
Knowing your team as individuals has value beyond creating a better atmosphere at work. Understanding what people are good at and where they fall short can allow you to make sure employees know they are valued and that everyone is working at the task that best suits them. Knowing their weak points means you can steer people away from those tasks during a crunch and work with them to improve in those areas when things slow down. This will help you develop stronger employees, and stronger bonds and a stronger team.
Be an Example
Most people have had the experience of working under a boss who was perpetually disorganized and managed their time poorly. Don’t be that boss. While you don’t need to be the picture of perfection and sometimes, sharing your struggles can offer important lessons. You do need to set a good example for your team. If you aren’t being productive, you can hardly expect others to be. This also puts you in a better position to work with others on improving their skills in time management and prioritization.
