With the new year here, you might be thinking about some positive changes you would like to implement with your team. After all, resolutions aren’t just for individuals. Businesses should embrace this period of reflection to, looking back at successes and pain points, with a view to implement change if needed. Chances are that at least some adjustments can be made to improve workflow, resource management, and communication – preparing the team for another positive and productive year. Below are some tips to remember so you can help your team conquer 2019.
Automate
There are still a lot of unfounded fears surrounding automation and misunderstandings around the best ways to utilize it. If efficiency and accountability are high on the list of priorities for your team to improve, then automating at least some of your current processes is a no-brainer. Ask yourself how good your team is currently at assigning tasks, tracking their progress, and requesting resources from others? This is actually something a lot of teams struggle with because not enough importance is assigned to properly mapping it, with teams instead relying on verbal communication or panicked emails. Resource management software exits to eliminate all the uncertainty and waiting around that arises from miscommunication. It’s worth a trial to see if your team can improve its productivity with a little help from automation.
Decisions
The best-performing teams are ones that can communicate openly and are empowered to make decisions, as individuals within the team and the team as a whole. Trusting individuals, especially less-experienced ones, to make decisions can be difficult at first but it’s worth it in the long run. When everyone feels empowered to make decisions without double- and triple-checking all the time, then the team’s confidence to pitch and execute projects will increase, fostering independence and confidence that will inevitably lead to better productivity and a higher standard of work.
Conflict Management
Every team is likely to encounter some conflict, which is completely natural and cannot be completely avoided. The mark of a good team is how the conflict gets dealt with. Clear communication channels must be made available for team members to voice any potential concerns in a safe and open manner, without fear of repercussions. Create space and time for team members to bring up issues; doing this frequently decreases the chance of them becoming unmanageable and causing permanent negativity.
Team Building
Many managers don’t question how well team members know each other, assuming that working in close proximity on a daily basis is enough for everyone to get to know each other. Whilst this is true to an extent, the relationships and understanding built in this setting can’t give an authentic idea of who someone is, especially for managers. Team building exercises, when carefully selected, are designed to draw out people’s personalities and preferred method of getting things done. This is very valuable for managers as it gives a glimpse of how people think, work, and deal with challenges. Tasks can then be allocated based on this and support provided if you see that someone is maybe lacking confidence or isn’t the best at getting their point across clearly.
