Increasing team productivity is a common goal of almost every manager. By increasing productivity, targets are met quicker and revenue increases. However, saying that you want to increase productivity is very different from actually achieving it.
It can be tempting to initiate several random new strategies to improve efficiency and effectiveness on your team, but that will only result in disorganization and confusion. To boost productivity on your team, here are three tried and true tactics that will bring you the results you want.
Three Ways to Increase Productivity
Try employing any or all three of these strategies to start reaching your goals and achieving the results you want. Using them all will improve your chances of exponentially improving the productivity of each team member.
Find the Right Motivation
For work to be done in a timely fashion and with high-quality standards, having the right sense of motivation is required. If it’s not, many employees are apt to be lazy with their work, so you need to find what motivates them to work hard and see how you can deliver that.
Money is the obvious one, but it is more than just the salary that drives team members. Your team members may be driven by a desire to make a difference, by achieving rewarding goals, or by a love of problem-solving. Identify and utilize these motivators to help your team achieve more.
Simple tactics like having a quick daily get-together can work wonders. During these chats, you can remind your team of the ‘why’ behind their work and help them feel needed, so they take more responsibility for their actions.
Work With Realistic Goals
One thing that can quickly kill off a sense of motivation for employees, is when managers have overly high expectations and set unrealistic goals, hoping to push team members to work harder. But in the long run, this has the exact opposite effect. Team members may become unmotivated quickly if they feel as though they can never meet the goal they’ve been set.
Try to set realistic targets instead. Obviously, there need to be deadlines and aims that ensure your team gets things done, but they can be realistic. Setting realistic deadlines means team members won’t be crippled by overwhelm. Instead, it gives them clear guidance on what needs to be done.
It is a fine balance between setting realistic goals and goals that still stretch your team. You do not want your goals to be so easy that they don’t propel the business forward; and at the same time, you shouldn’t set targets that are so high that your team feels like giving up even before trying. With practice, you can find the right balance that suits your team members.
Celebrate All Wins
Finally, and in conjunction with setting realistic targets, celebrating small wins can be highly effective when trying to boost productivity. Celebrating small wins is a form of motivation in itself. In doing so, team members will feel valued and appreciated, which may motivate them to work harder. No one is going to keep working their socks off if their manager never recognizes their efforts.
There is a fine balance here too. Don’t celebrate every small win to the point that it devalues the praise. But those celebrations shouldn’t be so infrequent that employees feel unappreciated. Find an appropriate and balanced way to praise your team’s efforts.
Conclusion
Improving productivity in a team is crucial if you want to keep hitting targets and generating revenue. Yet, it can be hard to know how to do so – particularly when teams have so many different personalities. But by providing the right motivation, setting realistic targets, and celebrating key wins, you can boost everyone’s motivation. It will give your employees an innate drive to keep going and doing their best for the team and company.
