You can increase productivity in your team by creating more focus
Have you thought about what you can do as a leader to raise the productivity in your team?
Well to start with, you can stop trying to do everything at once.
To try to work with all challenges and tasks at the same time, will often create a circle of chaos that rather cause more problems.
Instead, try to create conditions for a high focus level, which will increase the productivity in your team.
Here are some tips on what you can do to increase productivity in your team, by creating more focus as a leader.
1. Try to reduce the number of emails and meetings
Many people mean that working hours which are free from meetings, will create a higher focus level and raised productivity. If you think about it, this is quite natural.
Try to book time slots in your calendar, with uninterrupted focus time when you don’t have meetings or check emails. Encourage your coworkers to do the same, and respect their focus time.
2. Adopt the hybrid work place
To work from home is something that many people have got used to, and employers are now starting to bring their staff back to the office. But to work from home, often means that it is easier to respect your own and others’ time: you can work undisturbed and increase your productivity.
It is easy to get carried away and start booking physical meetings with each other, now when you finally can meet in the office again. It is obviously important to see each other physically once in a while, but balance the meetings with time on your own, where you can focus on the tasks that should be done just by yourself.
So adopt the hybrid work place, where you vary remote work with working in the office. This will help you to focus and to increase productivity in your team.
You as a leader can find more inspiration about how to lead remotely here (in Swedish).
3. Work focused when working from home
Make sure that your working hours at home really become focus time and as productive as you wish. Here are some simple tips on how you and your team can succeed in keeping your focus when working from home:
- Pause frequently and work with e.g. the pomodoro method (in Swedish).
- Create your own ‘carrots’, e.g. that you can have a new cup of coffee or some other reward when you have finished a certain task.
- Turn off notices from e.g. emails, slack, etc, when you want to work focused.
- Exercise during the work day, e.g. by taking a walk or some other pulse raising workout during lunch hour.
- Set up targets for what you want to achieve during the day, and reflect on these targets before closing for the day.
- Dress for office, so that you don’t sit in your pyjamas when working from home.
4. Set a good example as leader
Don’t just tell your team what they should do to create more focus and increase productivity. Also walk the talk – your coworkers will copy you and your behavior.
A simple thing that you as a leader can do – let your team know that messages from you are not always urgent. Your coworkers should be able to have their own focus time, and it is okay to wait with responding to your emails for a few hours.
5. Make sure that you have the right tools
Ensure that you have the right tools to be able to work well as a team. It is about having a good web meeting platform, communication tools and file sharing programs. Especially if you work in a hybrid work place, you need good tools to be able to work and cooperate together over a distance. Good tools will help you increase productivity in your team.