Leadership Lessons Blog

Boost Productivity Through Leadership!

  

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Productivity is connected to revenue, and leadership is connected to productivity. It makes sense, then, that leadership growth leads to revenue growth. Too often, companies waste time and money handling people problems and adjusting project goals and timelines because of a lack of leadership. Luckily, leadership skills can be learned. Good leaders boost productivity by minimizing conflict, maximizing team strengths and focusing on strategic objectives. Companies that become more productive typically become more profitable. Good leaders can significantly impact their company's productivity by modeling and encouraging three key skills. 

Capitalize on Individual Strengths - Astute leaders recognize that in order to test the strength of team members they need to provide opportunities for them to experience different types of activities, challenges and opportunities to lead. As a company leader you need to provide opportunity for members of your team to take on different tasks. You need to minimize risks so that your employees want to take on different responsibility. You need to reward employees who step out of their boxes and take on a different role. You need to support self-directed action by your employees. Once this becomes part of the operation, you are in a better position to assess skills and strengths. Team member roles change based upon the need, not organization charts. Athletic coaches do this all the time. They position their players according to their strengths. Clearly, this approach helps winning coaches achieve maximum productivity from members of their team. Shift your leadership paradigm to utilize all the capital in your organization. In doing so, you will get the right people leading the right activity.

Depersonalize Business Situations - How many times in our management careers have we heard, "It's nothing personal, it's just business." Despite the fact that we hear the words, employees still have difficulty de-personalizing business situations. They hold grudges or avoid talking to team members they disagree with. Communication breaks down and more time is spent discussing the controversy than being productive. Employees who fail to recognize the value of the different approaches team members bring to business situations never get out of their ruts. Consequently, they negatively judge the tactics being used by members of the team. They spend time debating the worth of these approaches rather than keeping their eye on the goal!  As a leader, one of your responsibilities is to help employees deal with disagreement or controversy in a productive way. You need to establish a communication strategy with your team so they are comfortable working through disagreement. The quicker you lead your team toward resolution, the quicker they focus on what's important. Eventually, with good role modeling from the leader, the team begins to resolve conflict independently.

Maintain Focused Flexibility - Be flexible, be nimble and be prepared for anything. Our business climate changes dramatically from day to day. New competition and new customer pressures force leaders to figure out how they can become more focused, more flexible and more productive all at the same time. The key to being a successful leader in this type of environment is to help your employees keep their eye on the customer and the customer need. Customer demands change regularly. You need a team that can respond quickly and effectively to the needs as they are identified. As the leader it's your job to eliminate distractions or barriers preventing your team from meeting the needs of the end customer. Sometimes, organizations spend more time focusing energy on satisfying the boss' needs rather than the customer's. A strong leader recognizes that the goal is really winning the approval and respect of the people paying the bill. Your job is to create a work team that is productive on behalf of the customer. As leaders we need to expect it, hold employees accountable for it and then reward it when we see it.