Four Ways to Manage Your Productivity & Theirs

As rewarding as leadership can be, it can also be extremely frustrating. Not only are you responsible for what you personally need to get done, but you’re also ultimately responsible for the productivity of your team as well. Many leaders go their entire career with a continuous pattern of falling short in one or the other of these areas. If you’ve found yourself in this situation, take a look at these four scenarios to identify where you might be falling short.

If your team members keep running back and forth asking for your opinion, then you probably haven’t communicated the vision clearly enough or frequently enough. Just when you get tired of hearing yourself talk about the vision, is when you’ve finally started making progress. Vision is not something you communicate once and then you’re done. It must be continuously repeated in new and different ways to keep it in the forefront of the minds of your people.

Vision provides direction in the absence of the leader. When your team is clear on the vision, they will already have an idea of what you think before they feel the need to ask you. One of the easiest ways to stop the interruptions of the revolving door to your office is to communicate the vision and make it plain.

If your team members have to keep running back and forth asking you for permission, then you haven’t delegated authority. There’s nothing more frustrating to a leader who’s trying to submit to the authority of another leader than to have been given a responsibility without being given the authority needed to fulfill that responsibility. If you have communicated the vision clearly, then you have to trust the people on your team to do their part in bringing that vision to pass. They will never take ownership for the outcome of a responsibility for which they never had the authority to complete. Refusing to delegate authority is insisting on having a less effective team.

Many leaders hold on tightly to the reins and are hesitant to delegate authority because they worry someone on the team might try to take over or overshadow their leadership. Don’t allow your fear and insecurity to hinder the progress of the entire team. Appropriately delegating authority in line with the assigned responsibility empowers your team to get the job done and frees you up to do the things only you can do.

If your team members keep looking for your affirmation, then you haven’t shown your appreciation. As a leader, it’s really easy to fall into the trap of simply expecting your team to get the job done and then you move on to the next task at hand. After all, isn’t that what they’re getting paid to do or volunteered to do? Whether you’re leading a team of employees or volunteers, you must make it a point to slow down long enough to recognize the contributions of the people on your team and show your appreciation to them in a way they will recognize.

It’s not enough to be grateful for them in your head. You must express that gratitude out of your mouth. While some on your team only need to hear a simple ‘thank you’ every now and then, there may be others who need public acknowledgement in order to feel appreciated. One of the greatest gifts you can give your team members is to get to know them and then give them what they need to continue to be an asset to the team.

If your team members are constantly considering leaving the team, then you’re probably more concerned about what they do than who they are. Nobody wants to feel used. Not the volunteer who sacrifices their time to be there and not even the employee who gets paid to be there. Deep down, everybody wants to be known and valued. If the only time your team members hear from you is when you have something else you need them to do, it’s very likely they will eventually get to the point where they will want to go where they feel more valued as a person.

This goes beyond appreciating what they do. This is about taking the time to get to know who they are. If you have people on your team and you don’t even know their name… that’s a problem. If you have people on your team and you wouldn’t recognize them out in public… that’s a problem. Get to know the people on your team. It will help you to lead them better and cause them to want to stay longer.

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