This is a collaborative post.
If you feel like your team isn’t showing up as they should be, that they’re not putting into their work the energy and commitment that you would expect, then the problem isn’t necessarily with them. If you have one unmotivated and unproductive worker, that might be on the worker. If it’s happening across the whole team, then it’s something systemic that you need to address. Here are some of the systemic approaches you can take to it.
Get rid of their interruptions
It can be difficult to be invested in the business and their role in it when your team constantly finds themselves having to deal with interruptions and downtime. This can be due to hardware failures, poor miscommunications that keep distracting them from their work, or because they don’t have the appropriate workspace. Get your business running more efficiently and it can foster real change in your team. Find these distractions and interruptions and do what you can to get rid of them to clear the way for your team.
Lay out the goals and their roles
Hopefully, your team has a good understanding of what their individual roles and their job descriptions are. However, that’s not always enough. You want to make sure that they know what place they play in the greater team and why their work is important. A great way to do that is to lay out the objectives of each team and how they help achieve organisational goals. Making it clear that the work that your team does is important can help them feel a better sense of pride and ownership over what they do, which can in turn make them more productive.
Give them the tools to manage their own workload
Allowing your employees some sort of agency over how they do their work can help them feel more connected with it, as well. Especially if your employees have quite a few roles and responsibilities, teaching them how to focus on the work that is most important and urgent first can be a great way to unlock that extra productivity. Introduce tools like prioritization matrices to your team, allowing them to quickly sort out what work they should be doing first and what can wait for later.
Show real appreciation for their work
If it is an issue of personal fulfilment that’s affecting multiple people across the team, then you’re doing something wrong. In most cases, unfortunately, the problem is that people do not feel appreciated or recognised for the work that they do in the office. Be sure to share your gratitude and to publicly recognise the work of your team to make them feel like they are being seen. You can even set up a rewards system in the workplace that gives them both formal recognition and a little bonus for being engaged.
The best way to approach any problem or issue regarding your team is to take an impersonal angle at it first. If the systemic approach doesn’t work, only then might it require a personal approach.
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