There is a new year upon us, and the revelry of the holiday season is slowly fading away. In the workplace, this can lead to a bit of a slump as people don’t feel ready to kick back into high gear yet. Fortunately, as a business leader, you can support your team’s success and productivity in a variety of ways. The following five tips will help.
1) Set Clear Goals
Success starts with the right goals. When you create strong goals, your team knows what to work on and needs less direction. Additionally, they will be motivated by gradually getting closer to their objectives. You can achieve this individually with a to-do list. Also, plan company and team goals.
It helps to have a combination of short-, medium- and long-term goals. Additionally, you may want to use a structure such as SMART to help with writing them. When you can measure your success, you will be more likely to achieve it. Plus, a rigorous goal-setting process will empower your team to stay focused and organized.
2) Plan for Breaks and Downtime
It can be tempting to simply expect people to get back to 100% capacity right after the holiday season. However, this may not be realistic. It is a good idea to set expectations that include a little bit of lost productivity and extra downtime. Knowing what to expect will improve morale and actually increase productivity compared to simply demanding that people work hard.
Plus, it is important to take breaks. Sometimes the best thing you can do to increase your efficiency is to slow down for a short period. This is true for individual productivity as well as team efficiency. Consider planning some team downtime.
3) Leverage Technology
There are numerous technology tools that can help you with increasing productivity. For example, the right project management tool will help you with the aforementioned goals and ensure that everyone is on task.
Other tools can help to streamline specific workflows. For example, you could use a construction time card app can help you with recording the work done by team members if you have a construction company. Finding the right tools for your business’s unique needs can really improve productivity.
4) Empower People With Your Work Environment
Creating the right working environment can make a huge difference in people’s productivity. If you have people working together in a physical location, examine some of the ways that people’s productivity may be harmed. For example, if your work area is too noisy, they may need more private areas.
Another option is to empower people to work from wherever they like. This can be a good way to help your people select the environment that works for them. Naturally, this is not an option for every business. For example, a construction company cannot use much remote work, except in the back office. However, it can be a powerful tool in the right situations.
5) Set a Strong Example
One of the most important rules of leadership is to set the right example. Jump into the new year with enthusiasm and focus. This doesn’t mean that you need to run yourself ragged, working every waking hour. However, it does mean that you should set a tone of positivity and optimism. Getting on the right page will help your team members to do the same.
What you do often speaks much louder than what you say. Expecting others to be hard-working when you are not back to 100% productivity can really harm morale. So, get yourself in the spirit of the new year and get to work with a great attitude. This example will infect others and build a great culture for your business.
Get Started
Discover more about how you can increase your productivity. The new year is a chance to set your business up for continued success. So, consider implementing the above tips started today.
