Do You Purposely Try to Ruin Your Staff’s Productivity?
Want employees to waste more time? Accomplish less – every day?
Of course not. As a manager, it’s your job to set up your staff for success – not ruin their productivity.
But if you’re not continually scrutinizing your own behavior, you may be unwittingly undermining your employees’ ability to perform. Could you be guilty of sabotaging your staff’s performance? Here are a few ineffective management practices that are guaranteed to kill productivity – and alternatives to boost it:
Rewarding “busyness” instead of true productivity.
Managers who confuse activity with accomplishment are likely to reward employees who appear to “always be doing something.” Sending copious amounts of email or sprinting around the workplace might make an employee seem productive, when in fact they’re just frazzled or disorganized.
A better alternative? Pay attention to the results your individual team members create. Reward people for accomplishing tasks and hitting deadlines – not merely engaging in a lot of activity.
Meeting for the sake of meeting.
Can anyone call a meeting in your organization? Do you hold regularly scheduled meetings, regardless of whether or not you really have important topics to hash through as a group? If so, you may be wasting your (and your employees’) precious time.
A few smarter ideas? Limit meetings to those which are absolutely essential. Require employees who want to call meetings to get their purpose and agenda approved by you before scheduling. And finally, give staff members a right to decline unnecessary meetings (for a valid reason, with your approval) – especially regularly scheduled ones which don’t really require their attendance.
Micromanaging top performers.
Certainly, it’s your job to make sure employees perform their jobs correctly and hit their objectives – especially new workers, inexperienced team members or chronic under-performers. But if you’re managing top performers with the same level of control and scrutiny, you may be stifling their productivity by unintentionally getting in their way.
A more effective approach? Identify your best employees. Acknowledge their exceptional performance. Assign them appropriately challenging work, establishing clear decision-making guidelines, measurable objectives and accountability. Then let go of the reins! Empower high performers to accomplish their work free from micromanagement. Their productivity and motivation will soar, and you’ll gain valuable time to devote to your core responsibilities.
Supercharge your staff’s productivity with PrideStaff.
As a leading national employment agency, PrideStaff provides a full complement of staffing and placement services designed to save time. Eliminate busywork. Relieve administrative burdens. And keep you and your team focused on your top priorities. Contact your local PrideStaff office today to learn more about our productivity-boosting staffing solutions.
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