How can leaders do more with less?

 
 
 

Leaders may talk of less time ‘my team is highly stretched’; less money ‘the budget is less than last year and we need to achieve the same outcomes’; less people ‘team members have left and we haven’t replaced them.’ Or ‘we are trying to recruit but the market is tough for talent’.’ Increasing personal productivity of team members is an essential lever for leaders to adapt to leaner environments whilst still delivering results.

Personal Productivity is how efficiently and effectively someone completes tasks or achieves goals and the value of the task or goal to that person, the team, and the organisation.  

7 ways leaders can increase their team’s productivity

1)    Mindset and wellbeing of the leader

The foundation of being able to lead others in being more productive is the simple act of considering your own mindset. It is too easy to hold on tightly to how things used to be or how you would like them to be. When faced with less, people can compensate by tirelessly working longer hours to try to keep things the same. Sustained working over and above what your body and mind can cope with leads to burnout. Whilst working like this can be necessary at crucial delivery points, working like this consistently can actually be harmful to wellbeing and outcomes. Instead, ruthlessly prioritise and innovate. Doing more with less can be reframed as ‘Doing things differently’ and remember that agility is an absolute necessity to stay relevant.

2)    Embrace innovation

Consider if you are optimising or innovating. Optimising means taking a current process or way of working and making it better or more efficient. Innovating means completely changing how you get from A to B.  Any new technological tool, such as AI can be used to optimise or innovate. Innovation and productivity go hand in hand. 9 in 10 leaders say innovation is a top priority but less than 1 in 10 feel satisfied with their performance in innovating.

3)    Build capability

The more people are developed, the more they can achieve. Asking people to do more with less, without the support or development they need to do so is a recipe for high turnover and a toxic culture. Development in people pays off. High performers are 800% more productive than average performers.

4)    Reduce overload of initiatives

Don’t just celebrate and communicate when you add new goals, or new projects - communicate and celebrate when you stop doing something to make room for something else. Knowing what and when to stop and making the ‘stop’ proudly visible to the team sends a clear message that knowing when to stop something is highly valuable.

5)    Recognise Achievements 

Give intelligent positive feedback when things go well so people feel recognised. Intelligent feedback is stating the impact of what the person has done, rather than just a generic ‘thank you’. Nearly 8 in 10 employees would be more productive if they were recognised more.

 6)    Collaboration that adds value

Effective collaboration to drive productivity is not endless meetings talking about how to do something, but outside of meetings, working independently towards a team outcome. Collaboration requires knowledge of people’s strengths to allocate tasks, efficient ways to update each other, and a focus on ensuring every person on a project or team is contributing value. 70% of employees believe better collaboration can have a positive impact on employee productivity and time savings.

7)    Abundance – a way of life

When there is less of something, there is always more of something else. You can have a mindset of abundance no matter what the circumstances. There may be less time, or a smaller team, or a lower budget to achieve the same outcome, but there can be more ideas, greater innovation, more vision, more energy, and more resilience.

What can you transform to enable your team to be more personally and collaboratively productive this week?

MARTIN BARNSLEY