When you want your team to be more productive: 5 things not to do
Despite being years into our new normal – balancing remote, hybrid, and in-person work – I still hear some leaders bemoaning the productivity of their teams. It is difficult to look at business news today without seeing a senior leadership team calling workers back to the office concerned about productivity, innovation, and collaboration if people stay remote.
I have written about this before and I still contend that being in a remote-first environment requires great trust and hyper-clear expectations and measures. But, to create a trustful environment, these are key ingredients whether people are remote or not, aren’t they?
I don’t think being in an office, in and of itself, makes you more productive. There may be studies that may prove me wrong; there are certainly studies that also back my way of thinking. Regardless of where you sit and do your work, here are 5 surefire ways to derail your teams and result in disengagement … the opposite of productivity.
1. Meetings, meetings all day long.
We can’t seem to get the dance with meetings right. I have worked with organizations where I swear my informal title was Professional Meeting Goer. I have worked with organizations where meetings were so frowned upon, that people were skittish in scheduling them. For managers, I think of meetings in 3 essential buckets: 1) Team meetings: 1:1 meetings with each team member for feedback, alignment, and career and monthly or quarterly all-hands meetings to set the stage, align on direction, and build team relationships 2) Project meetings: Quick check-ins for status, updates, and obstacles (some status can be via email but talking about results and obstacles is best done in a meeting) 3) Brainstorms: Problem-solving, innovating, defining projects, processes or products depending on your function.
2. Micro-manage.
The best way to kill productivity is to tighten your grip. As managers, we may think that checking in constantly and insisting on weekly activity reports will help keep our direct reports accountable and on track. While these tasks can help, it is important to match the " management " level with the employee. If you have more senior people on your team, you may not need to do this. Your role should be setting clear expectations and using the meeting types above to check in. If you have someone more junior, you may hold a few more frequent touch bases to understand their approach at first. Resist the urge to define and solve everything for your employees. Let them take a crack at it first.
3. Let expectations be open to interpretation.
Clarity drives action. Even at the highest levels, we all need clarity on purpose/why, goals and objectives, how results will be measured, who will be impacted, etc. The number one job of a people manager is to provide clarity. Inspiring productivity starts with clear expectations mutually agreed upon that re revisited frequently during 1:1 and project meetings.
4. Refuse to prioritize ad hoc requests.
Things happen and things come in from the side. Not having a process or framework to deal with them can derail productivity in a hurry. If you default to take on everything from the side without examining what can be paused, you risk overworking your team. Yes…sometimes requests from the side indeed become the priority. But then the conversation needs to be about what can be delayed or bringing on more resources if the answer is nothing can be delayed. Adding more and more will have the opposite effect and lead to burnout, disengagement, and possibly even quitting.
5. Success measures? Who needs that?
Not knowing how someone will be measured or held accountable can greatly impact productivity. Measurements flow from the clarity of purpose and objectives. Now, we don’t need to measure everything; we need to measure what matters. Defining what matters at the outset will help with #4 and #3 in this list and will help your team member focus instead of taking on everything in front of them.
Productivity can be tough and even subjective at times. We sometimes conflate being busy with being productive. We can conflate being at a desk where I can see you with being productive. Setting clear expectations and measures, minimizing distractions, which include pointless meetings, and having a transparent way to handle ad hoc requests will help keep your team (and you) on track.