Being a successful manager means enabling your team to achieve maximum efficiency. Therefore, being productive with a minimal amount of effort. When a manager steers their team into a workflow that works, the business starts to largely manage itself. Of course, there will always be work for a manager to do. But with an efficient team, managers can focus their time on other important tasks.
However, when a manager prioritizes productivity above all else in the wrong way, it can cause enormous damage to their workforce. Worse still, managers run the risk of burning out their employees. They achieve a short-term boost in productivity but rapidly burn out the team; thus, demoralizing them.
If you want to be more productive in your workplace, you need to go about it the right way. The wrong approach will sink your business and actually decrease your productivity. You need to increase your productivity in a way that is sustainable in the long-term.
Using Empathy
This is really important if you are going to get the most out of your team. Ideally, you should actually try and experience your business from the perspective of your frontline workers. This might mean going into a retail store to spend time serving customers. It could also mean going through the back of house administrative procedures and seeing for yourself the efficiency of your current processes.
Not only is this a fantastic strategy for improving productivity, but it will also go down well with your workers. It will demonstrate to them that you care about their experience of your business. It’s all well and good telling your workers that you care about them and that you value them; but, this will be a firm and undeniable demonstration of your commitment to them.
Reduce Stress to Increase Productivity
Stress is a common cause of inefficiency, both for an individual and at a systemic level. Stress can come from a variety of sources in our personal and professional lives. Some people are able to roll with the punches and remain unphased by everything; other people are in a perpetual state of anxiety and worry constantly about things. Both personality types are capable of being productive.
People who worry will always worry, but you can help them to channel their anxieties into thoroughness. Instead of worrying about a big project, worry about the smaller steps involved that you can easily achieve. Encourage your workers to see their larger goals as smaller, more manageable steps. This is the least stressful way of approaching large projects and it also encourages productivity.
Be Patient
You won’t be able to transform your business’ productivity overnight; you will need to have patience with your employees and with yourself. They will require your patience because new procedures and policies often take a while to sink in. Whether you are learning to play an instrument or training to lift weights, practice is the key to success. It is natural that we are not very good at things that we have little to no experience with; the more we do them the better we become.
Managers who attempt to increase productivity by cracking the whip harder and browbeating their workers will rapidly deplete the morale of their workforce. This is when those worker burnout scenarios begin to arise, and productivity ends up decreasing. If you want your productivity increase to be sustainable in the long term, you will need to be prepared for it to take time to implement the necessary changes.
Be A Consistent Manager
When you first start implementing your new productivity measures, you might need to adjust them. Even the best ideas on paper often need to be adjusted after they come into contact with reality. Your productivity measures will be no exception. For example, you may well design a new procedure for managers in your business to complete their end of day admin work that seems like a great idea on paper. However, when you actually go through the procedure for real, you will often notice other, more efficient methods.
If you want to reduce the amount of runway, you need to get your new productivity measures off the ground. Consider sending your managers to a first line management training course that companies like The BCF Group provide. Their first line management course will equip your managers with all the skills they need to not only boost their productivity but to increase their overall efficiency. First line management courses will provide your managers with the training that they need to perform their job correctly. For the best first line manager training courses, check the link.
Productivity is one of the most important metrics for measuring how well a manager is performing. A workplace that is productive is a workplace that is making money. However, a productive workplace should also be a happy workplace. As a manager, you have the power to induce long term changes to your business’ productivity. Start planning today for a more productive and more profitable future.
This post was written in collaboration. Collaborative writing means that while I have contributed to this post and edited its content and formatting, I am not its original author. By posting this content on my blog, I may receive financial compensation. Want to guest post for Jihi Elephant? Learn more here.
