5 Tips for Improving Your Team’s Efficiency

by Startacus Admin

Teamwork makes the dream work. 

Every team is only as strong as its weakest member.

There is no ‘I’ in ‘team’.

There are so many phrases and sayings created around the subject of teams and how to make them work.

In truth, building a team that works well is both a science and an art. It takes a lot of work, dedication, and often even trial and error to get it right. There’s no universal recipe for success. However, one of the things every successful team needs is – efficiency. 

How to improve efficiency in your team will depend on the makeup of its members, but here are several key aspects of teamwork you can focus on:

Learn how to communicate with each other

Communication is the number one thing every team needs to figure out for itself if it hopes to work well.

Some of the things you need to establish are: 

• Which channels are used for which purpose: Do you send important and urgent notices via email or a group chat? How often do all communication channels need to be checked?
• What does ASAP mean for your team: Is this a code red signal, or does it depend on individual timetables?
•  Levels of respect and what casual means: depending on the type of setting you work in, things like slang expressions, emojis, and a relaxed tone may or may not be welcome.

Organize the work so it works for everyone

We all work differently, so don’t try to enforce a single system everyone needs to adhere to.

Establish an overarching system that still allows for individual deviations that work well in your specific group.

Also, make sure to give your team all the tools they need to get things done. This includes the right productivity tools (such as Slack, Asana, Basecamp, or Clockify), several Excel Gantt Chart templates they can use for different project purposes, and clear guidelines for every task they are faced with. 

Whenever a new member comes on board, make sure everyone knows where their work fits in: whom they communicate with for different operations, where to find answers for different types of inquiries, and how they are contributing to the whole.

Meet every day

Take some cues from the Scrum methodology, and have a daily 15-minute rundown of what has been done yesterday, and what needs to be done on the day and for the rest of the week. This meeting should never run overtime, and should not be used to discuss anything other than the tasks and responsibilities in the short term. 

When you need to discuss a larger issue, make sure you only allot it as little time as you need to solve the issue. Overlong meetings are one of the main culprits of reduced productivity; that’s why you’ll need to ensure that everyone is well aware of a meeting’s agenda beforehand, so that no one steps into it unprepared.

Delegate the unnecessary

There are tasks in every team that take up a fair share of time that could actually be outsourced or delegated to someone else. 

Take a look at every team member’s workload, and try to remove the things they don’t actually need to be doing themselves, whether it be data management, superfluous calls, or progress reports.

When assigning tasks, try to ensure that everyone works on at least one thing they are truly interested in and passionate about. This will also mean everyone needs to do something they find boring. Don’t let any one member of the team get assigned only the things they enjoy – it should be about sharing the workload, not playing favorites.

Learn how to deliver and ask for feedback

One of the most important things any team lead and manager can learn is how to give constructive and beneficial feedback, as well as how to ask for it.

Never criticize without telling your team members how they can improve their work. Never let your negative emotions show, and try to leave your personal feelings out of it.

Don’t forget that you also need to learn on the daily, and ask your team to let you know what it is you are doing well, and how you can change your own approach to certain aspects of the job.

Working in a team may not be for everyone – but when a team works well, success is just a step away. Never forget that although your team may be a unit, this unit is still comprised of individuals. And you need to treat all of them as unique entities, not just parts of a whole.

 

 

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Published on: 26th September 2019