Increasing personal and team productivity

In today’s fast paced, competitive environment, productivity is a critical element to individual and organisational growth. However, research suggests that only 26% of people leave the office having accomplished the tasks that they had planned for the day. It’s not uncommon to feel busy all day, and to look back to realise that important tasks remain unfinished.

According to a recent Workforce View in Europe 2018 report involving a sample of 10,000 employees in key European markets, a fifth of respondents say that they reach maximum productivity at work “some of the time” and one in ten employees are “rarely or never” able to be at their most productive. The UK, followed by Germany appear to have the most significant challenges in this area. According to the study, the biggest barriers to greater productivity are bad management, inefficient processes and slow technology.

The leadership link to productivity

Productivity and motivation are personal, because different styles and approaches work for different people. Because there is no one-size-fits-all solution, leaders need to understand their people first in order to be able to address and eliminate any productivity blockers. Being in the right role, with ongoing professional development opportunities whist having flexibility when it comes to work-life balance can all play an important role in driving individual performance.

Setting clear and well-defined goals also triggers increased productivity. A number of studies have shown that when we have a defined goal in mind, we are more focused on working towards it. If employees are working on projects without clearly defined goals, they might find it difficult to determine whether the right work is being done and priorities can easily conflict. Listing goals and objectives in a way that are easy to understand for everyone and highlighting potential conflicts amongst them can help to avoid distractions and boost productivity in the long term.

Starting from self

Personal effectiveness of leaders has a direct impact on the productivity of their teams, therefore gaining awareness of the ways in which their behaviour can affect others is the first step in understanding and eliminating productivity drainers.

Highly engaged leaders directly lead to more productive teams. By recognising the value employees bring and giving them the opportunity to speak up about how they would like to change the organisation for the better and contribute to the overall success, can lead to increased levels of engagement and productivity.

Driving personal productivity requires leaders at all levels to define and understand what success looks like and create an action plan for self-development. Assessing strengths and weaknesses in influencing others and examining existing work relationships can help to understand their own productivity barriers and the implication for others. Effective interaction skills, questioning techniques and active listening as well as presenting ideas and solutions to others are critical for leading a highly engaged and productive team and positively impact the leader’s ability to inspire others.

At Acumen, pride ourselves in offering development that gives managers practical tools to help solve real life challenges. We offer an extensive menu of courses, workshops and coaching programmes, ranging from presentation skills through to customer service events and executive leadership development. Our Personal Effectiveness programme gives participants the knowledge to gain awareness of the ways in which behaviour can affect others, develop interpersonal techniques, remove blocks to personal energy and gain confidence to allow more positive personal achievements. For more information, please contact simon@askacumen.com.