Question

15. How can you encourage and support individuals and work groups to become more efficient?

Answer 1

Encouraging Individuals and workgroups.

The success of any organization depends on the contributions of every member of the team, but some teams work together better than others. When team members have a sense of personal ownership in the project, they believe that their contributions are valued, and see that the management contributes equally and leads by example, they feel motivated to contribute their best work.

Share the Organizational Vision

If everyone is aware of the collective vision, which will lead to prosperity and success of each team member, motivation and enthusiasm become the indivisible parts of all activities. Make sure that you continuously concentrate the attention of your staff on the glory of reaching that powerful vision.

Define Responsibility

Team members as individuals contribute more and work harder for any project if they feel a sense of ownership in its success or failure. Communicate openly and honestly so team members understand just as much about the project as you do. Don't hold back information about expected difficulties or any other aspect of the task. When problems or roadblocks arise, call on the whole team to help you solve the difficulty. Give them the freedom to experiment with different solutions. If you try to control the project from the top down, your team members may see the project as yours rather than theirs. Give participants a chance to display their talents and ideas, and they'll be motivated to make the project a success. Motivation is all about getting people to take action, so don’t be vague. Avoid generalities like, “I want everyone to do their best.” Say, instead, “I need you to come in over the weekend so we can get this project done on time.”

Equal opportunities

Some team members are naturally assertive and self-confident, while others are naturally shy and quiet. An assertive and self-confident person doesn't necessarily have better ideas than a shy and quiet person, but assertive people are a lot more likely to be heard and to have their ideas acted upon. To get the best out of your quieter team members, structure your meetings so that everyone has an equal opportunity to speak. Give people time to fully articulate their ideas. Try to assess each suggestion as objectively as possible based on the idea itself and not the personality of the team member proposing it. If you don't like a suggestion or choose not to make use of it, don't criticize it too severely. A shy team member may take strong criticism as a rejection and may avoid making suggestions in the future.

Encourage Ownership

Create a team full of leaders by using a collaborative rather than hierarchical model. In a hierarchical structure, only one person leads at each level of the organization. In a collaborative structure, every member of the team has a leadership role in some part of the project. Assign personal responsibility for some aspect of the project based on each team member's strengths and talents. For example, one team member might be in charge of developing applications for the project. On any issue having to do with applications development, that team member would be the leader. Questions relating to the technological infrastructure would go to another team member who is the leader for that portion. Instead of a strict division between leaders and followers, every team member takes on a leadership role in one context and a follower in others.

Set communication expectations

Communication is one of the key factors that contribute largely to team productivity. Without effective communication, businesses fail. Because in the absence of communication, comes miscommunication and this breeds a lot of failures.

A lot of successful businesses thrive on effective communication. Now, it is the duty of a project manager to ensure effective communication prevails in a team. Communication plays a big role in helping team members to understand their job responsibilities. And, if there is any communication-gap, it can lead to multiple confusions within a team, which for sure will impact the overall productivity of a team.

Support New Ideas

Each team member will feel empowered by the opportunity to not only implement day to day tasks but as well as suggest new ideas and make them a reality. Give people a chance to take initiative and you will be amazed by their ability to create brilliant ideas.

Know your team members strengths and weaknesses

Every human being has some talents and hidden gifts that can be put into good use. Thus, it becomes the duty of a manager or a team leads to discover those talents and keep them in mind while allocating tasks to them. Knowing their skill-set is the backbone of producing a productive team. For example, if someone in a team likes to think outside of the box, you can make him pitch creative ideas in front of a client(s). Knowing the fact that team members are making the best use of their knowledge, expertise, and talents, they look forward to contributing to the workplace.

Making them use their strengths will contribute to making your work better and productive than before.

Incorporate some team building exercises

Team productivity depends big time upon the camaraderie between the team members. If the team members get along with each other, are aware of the strengths and weaknesses, the workplace automatically becomes a happier place. If the team members are happy from within, the team productivity and efficiency will automatically shoot up.

When different people are working within a team, there is a likelihood that not everyone will like each other. To beat the animosity between the team members, you can incorporate some team building exercises. Not only it will add some fun element but will also wash away any grudges or miscommunications between the team members.

Good work environment

The work environment and infrastructure are essential contributors to improving team efficiency and productivity. According to a recent study, physical environment greatly affects how employees feel, think and perform at the workplace.

Due to this, many organizations are paying attention while designing their office interiors. They make sure to incorporate bright lighting, comfortable furniture layout and a touch of nature with the help of plants and flowers. Besides the physical setting, the environment within the office premises also impacts the team productivity. To create extra motivation for your staff by making the work environment a beautiful place to work, rest and have fun at the same time.

Give them incentives

Employees work best when they are given a reason to do so – probably a monetary one. They want their efforts to be appreciated and prefer to have a little more than a ‘virtual pat on the back’ from their bosses. That’s why many employers choose to implement incentive programs to keep their employees motivated. According to a recent study, 85% of the employees felt more motivated to do their best when an incentive was offered.

Praise a job well done

While for different employees different things work in boosting their productivity and efficiency at work. But for a large number of them, it is something as simple as being acknowledged for their efforts. You know nothing can add to the productivity if an employee feels that his contribution isn’t being valued enough. Whereas appreciating them in front of the whole team can work wonders. This public act of appreciation instead of a virtual congratulatory word inspires others in the team as well to do their best. This promotes a healthy work culture in an organization which will be an addition in boosting team productivity.

Create Healthy Competition
For this purpose, you can effectively use the famous reward system. People contribute their efforts and ideas to the maximum when they know that outstanding excellence will lead to rewards. Just make sure that the reward system is absolutely transparent to everyone.

Create and Maintain a Team Spirit
The team is like a family, where mutual support and trust are the most important values. Organize team activities both during working time and after. You will have half of the success by creating and maintaining a powerful team spirit at the workplace.