The Leader’s Role in Team Productivity

Team productivity. Every leader would like to have a more productive team. If they don’t, they are either super proud of their ultra productive team or they don’t really care. Regardless of your personal assessment of your team’s productivity, as the leader you play a monstrous role in what that productivity is.

There are (at least) four ways that you as a leader impact team productivity for better or worse.

Minimize Interruptions for Everyone

There are an insane number of interruptions on most working teams. Every time someone comes into your office (or your Instant messages or email), they are interrupting you. But they are also likely interrupting themselves too. They had a question, so they got up and sought you out to ask it. But then you answered it. So now, they are more likely to do the same thing the next time they have a question. Why wouldn’t they?

If the question is urgent, of course they should ask. But if it isn’t, they should write it down and ask you during a scheduled one-on-one. Once they have several items, issues, or questions, schedule a time to discuss everything at once. Fewer interruptions will likely lead to greater productivity for both parties. And it starts with being able to differentiate the urgent and the important. How often are people interrupting you – and how often are you interrupting them?

Be an Effective Role Model

If your skills and habits are lacking, it is hard to build those in others. Your example determines how people work with you and what they learn to replicate for themselves. If your productivity needs to be improved, likely theirs does too. How productive are you as a leader and individual?

Creating/Promoting More Productive Processes

Habits, boundaries, processes, and expectations define how work is done with you and across your team. Like the example I just gave you about interruptions. In order to constantly optimize productivity, these factors may need adjusting from time to time. Encourage your team to make those adjustments whenever necessary – and model that behavior for them as well.

Make Decisions with the Productivity Lens

As a leader, you make decisions, big and small, every day. There are plenty of factors to consider when making those decisions. When you make them, are you considering the productivity ramifications?

Now that you have read each, do these two things:

1. Do a self-assessment. How well are you doing in each of these areas? Spend time thinking about what you can do in each of these areas to help increase team productivity.
2. Ask for feedback. Ask the team as a whole and also individual members how they think you are doing in supporting their productivity. Ask for their assessment and their suggestions. Then listen to and act on those responses as best you can.

Team productivity is more than an amalgamation of the productivity skills and habits of each team member. It grows with better processes and better leadership. Make sure you are thinking about how you can lead in ways that enhance team productivity.