7 Ways To Boost Your Team Productivity

by Lisa Griffin, Guest Contributor

Modern managers notice that their team release not their full potential in work. Due to stated requirements (work plan, schedule, project deadline), they are doing pretty okay. But “okay” can be removed to “excellent” if a manager boost productivity of  company workers in right way.

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Many managers trace the workflow of the company and do not understand why the results are lower that he expected. Every worker seems to be busy, and they take this business as a sign of a productive. In fact, it is an awful mistake. There is a striking difference between business and productivity. If you are constantly busy it is not a guarantee of being productive. People can feel busy when they cannot simply prioritize their work and devote time to unnecessary and nonurgent tasks, or even use extra help from affordable assignment writing service to do their work in time without any risks. So, if you have noticed, that workers of your company are busy, but not productive, some improvements must be implemented.

Whether you are a boss, HR or a regular worker, you can contribute to positive changes in your company. Because a prosperity of a common business is an aim and a duty of each person. There is a misbelief that only chief, HR or project manager must care about the development of the team. But without initiatives and enthusiasm of the whole staff members, it is impossible to reach the success. Because high productivity is a result of the commitment of each member.

So, this article is aimed to clarify what must be done to boost the productivity of your team. We give you seven efficient tips on how to manage your team members.

1. Encourage everyone to be a leader
Nowadays nearly all managers know that being a good business leader is a must for the boss. He must show a good example that manages wisely. He should use leadership styles that fit his staff. It is also up to the boss to create a congenial atmosphere. But these assumptions are not completely close to real life situations.

The boss can be an excellent leader. But with his own efforts, it won't be enough to boost the productivity of the whole team. The effective team must consist of leaders too.
It usually happens that when people allocate some task to person, and find later that they cannot cope with it, they free person of doing it and assign it to themselves. They are lead by the reason “If you want to get something done perfectly, do it yourself”. What kind of leader are you then, if you make a person give up his own challenge? Besides of reassignment, it is better to provide a worker with more accurate guidelines, lead him to the result.
So, if you won't make your team more productive, teach them how to be a leader as you are. To become more productive they need their own experience, their own mistakes and achievements. Develop your leadership skills and take care of development of others. If you got rid of habits that harm your productivity, teach others to do it. It is easier to improve yourself, but you won't be able to push the whole company using only your own efforts.

2. Distribute responsibilities according to workers` skills and abilities
If you want to succeed in managing your team you must know in what things everybody is good at. A job of a good manager is to give appropriate for everyone tasks and set right boundaries. Because even the best workers can fail the task if they were given poor instructions.

Usually, enthusiastic workers will not refuse anything that boss asks to do. They will put maximum efforts to complete it, but in the end, the result may be unsatisfactory. Because the background of the worker did not correspond to the business. The fault of this problem belongs to the manager. Make sure that people are given business upon completion of which they are capable of.
It is necessary to notice the progress of each team member. Before you assign a task to somebody, evaluate his abilities to complete it. If you see that he is not experienced enough, but the work on it can develop him, provide good guidelines and show support. A secret of good management is not only in task distribution but in an ability to supervise the workflow carefully.

3. Practice team building activities
To reach common goals your team should get along together. Unfortunately, today many workers in companies barely new even names of each other. But it is very important to know people with whom you share a workplace not only as a worker, but as a person. A person with needs, desires and emotions. People should be treated like people, not robots. The productivity in a team with healthy relationships and positive attitude will be higher than in the collective where people are indifferent to each other. There are several ways to improve relationships with staff.

First of all, learn everybody as a person. Make sure that everybody in your team now at least names of each other. Encourage them to undergo some psychological tests to determine their temperaments. The tasks that you assign them must not contradict to the features of the temperament. For example, if you ask a 100% introvert to deliver a public speech, he will do it less productively than the extrovert. The science of psychology has made a huge array of discoveries in XX-th century. It is silly to ignore them.
Next, engage the staff in various quick team building activities. Usually, workers fail to cooperate in a team because of their personal barriers. It is possible to fight with them through common games and training. For team-building purpose, any game can be useful. For example, if your aim is to increase their productivity, you can propose your team to brainstorm office team building ideas and practice some of them. Any cooperation together in an informal atmosphere will strengthen their interpersonal relationships, that will have a positive effect in the workforce.

4. Develop a culture of prioritization
There are still lots of job positions that require many working hours. When bosses force workers to work longer, they do it to get more results. However, the more time people are given, the more time they can waste. It is necessary to root the discipline in the company and successful meeting of deadlines is one of very important aspects.

To use your working time effectively try to concentrate firstly on tasks that are the most urgent. Encourage your team to do the same.

During hot seasons companies usually exhaust workers with high number tasks, but workers show results lower than expected. Using the simple prioritization of tasks you provide to the team advantageous working conditions. Mind also, that even if you are able to show the best results completing several tasks simultaneously, not everybody is able to do it. And this is natural. A person that completes one task a day is more productive than the one who attempts to deal with several.
Some companies practice implementation of flexible working hours for several reasons. One of these reasons in the increasing of productivity. They do this to make workers concentrate on their work, not on the time when they are coming and leaving. People are paid for completion of tasks, not for being just present at the office. Nowadays people from different fields take into account that all people are different. They are different in their biorhythm, habits sleeping mode. So, some people are more productive in the night, others show the best results in the early morning. Mind it. Every team member must have a chance to be productive in your company. Just create suitable conditions to it.

5. Get rid of fake productivity
Workers can mistreat some actions with signs of productivity. You must have a grasp of them and share it with your team to reach true productivity.

When you work in multitasking mode, you may experience the feeling of being over-productive, but research prove the opposite. Only when you put the most of your attention to the certain task, you are able to show good effectiveness.
It is possible that when you consume coffee, you feel yourself more productive, because it impacts brain activity. But as soon as your organism gets used to the caffeine, you productivity in a solution of creative tasks will decrease.
You may feel yourself very productive when you check your mail ten times an hour because you receive a feedback. However, you are paid not for mail check, but for achieved results.
The most spread sign of fake productivity is an assumption that if you work for many hours, you show better results. In fact, many people work longer to feel themselves less guilty for uncompleted work. So, show your team that you are interested in results more than in the time they spent in the office.

For this reason, more and more companies practice implementation of flexible working hours for several reasons. One of them is the increasing of productivity. They do this to make workers concentrate on their work, not on the time when they are coming and leaving. People are paid for completion of tasks, not for being just present at the office. Nowadays people from different fields take into account that all people are different. They vary in their biorhythm, habits and sleeping mode. Some people are more productive in the night, others show the best results in early morning. Bear it in mind. Every team member must have a chance to be productive in your company. Just create suitable conditions for it.

6. Motivate your team for good results
When people work, they do it for money. But money is not the most powerful motivator for excellent results. Every person aims to get some spiritual nourishment with her actions. Some needs appraisal of their accomplishments. Others want to open new perspectives of self-development. There are workers who will be more motivated to complete uninteresting for them tasks if they get an opportunity to work on something captivating in future.

So, it is important to detect inner needs of the workers and to satisfy them. Usually when people learn that the result of their work is useful, they feel pleased and become more eager to work on the next project. It could be explained by the fact that they are happy to see their work appreciated. Don't forget to thank members of your team for the work their complete. It will help them to feel a meaningful part of a staff and motivate to show better results in next task.
A good way to increase the motivation of workers is to make annual meetings. There, the whole company staff must be reported about their achievements. It is a good possibility to indicate in front of the audience the contribution of each team member to the common result. Also, it is useful to forecast a perspective for the next year. People must see that if they will be more productive, they can reach many goals and be more appreciated for that.
It would be also great if you use some visual motivators. Motivational posters can create a positive working atmosphere and inspire people for productive work.  

7. Introduce workers to convenient software
We live in a period when modern technologies develop immensely. Now everybody has computers and smartphones. But not everybody uses them to its full potential. It refers to both professional software and to those that optimize everyday life.

There are many applications that can help to raise personal productivity of a worker too. Why not to encourage your staff to use it? It will be good if you try them yourself and suggest your workers to download it and use permanently.
To maintain high performing in your team, a manager must keep to latest developments in software. For example, if you supervise writers, you must make sure that they use good spelling and plagiarism checker.
Encourage members of your team to use time management apps and organizers. There are many useful applications available for free. If they spend some minutes to install and use them, they will save hours of precious time and devote them to tasks.