Posts

How To Improve Your IT Team Performance

/in /by

StrategyDriven Managing Your People Article |IT Team Performance|How To Improve Your IT Team PerformanceYour employees consist of people from different walks of life with different skill sets and temperaments. Since you are responsible for ensuring they all get along and accomplish organizational goals, you can see how taxing the role can get. Fortunately, with a few effective tactics and a nudge in the right direction, you can encourage your team members to work together and become more productive. This article will discuss six ways to improve your IT team’s performance.

Ensure communication is clear and concise

Poor communication, or a lack of it, leads to confusion, misunderstandings, failure and disagreements in the workplace. As a manager, you must communicate your expectations of your IT team, the deadlines within which they should work and how they should conduct themselves while on the premises. Communication is also key during the onboarding process when you are training new employees.

Consider team building

If members of your IT team cannot get along with each other, the office becomes a miserable place. In addition, they will not be able to achieve the shared organizational goals. Since productivity depends heavily on teamwork, we suggest you engage your employees in team-building exercises to help them learn how to rely on each other. The fun activities during team building also help to dissolve any bad blood between members.

Create an amicable work environment

You can’t expect your employees to thrive in a poor environment. An excellent way to create an appropriate and wholesome work premise would be to let the sunlight in, incorporate green elements like flowers and potted plants and add comfortable furniture. It would also help supplement natural light with artificial light sources like table and floor lamps.


Outsource key IT functions

With rapid technological developments, having an IT department is no longer a luxury. However, your IT team might be overwhelmed with all the tasks that require their attention. In addition, your in-house team might not have the expertise your company needs to scale to greater heights. Outsourcing key IT functions can reduce their workload and allow them to focus on more pressing matters. Look for one of the best staff augmentation companies that will offer you flexibility and control over the external team and grant you access to a vast and specialized set of skills and technology.

Understand their strong and weak points

As a manager, one of your duties is understanding your employees’ skill sets. Once you grasp their strengths and weaknesses, you will be better positioned to assign them tasks you know they can handle. Employees that are given an avenue to exercise their expertise and knowledge make the greatest contribution to the company and are the most productive.

Make your team accountable for their actions

Lastly, an effective way to improve the performance of your IT team would be to avoid micro-managing them. Giving your employees control over their schedules and projects brings about a sense of accountability, builds their self-esteem and indices responsibility. You could grant your IT team ownership by appointing a leader from within the team or letting them handle a task independently without supervision.

Wrapping Up

No matter how good a team is, there is always room for improvement. Know your team’s strength and weaknesses, empower them and outsource some tasks to off load their workload. Above all ensure that you create a conducive working environment for your team. All these efforts will eventually improve their productivity and your IT business will grow.

The 4 Best Ways To Stay Connected to Your Team

/in /by

StrategyDriven Managing Your People Article |Stay connected to your team|The 4 Best Ways To Stay Connected to Your TeamIf there’s one thing the best companies to work for all have in common, it is ensuring their team is well-connected at all times. This connection helps build cohesion between your employees, which may reach the point where they know what the other is thinking, boosting synchronicity and cultivating an office that is more productive than others. As a manager, you need to find a way to match this, so how can you stay connected to your team?

Team Building

Team building is a superb way to bring your office closer together and help people stay connected. There are numerous ways to achieve this, too, including weekly quizzes or activities like golf, laser tag, or other fun things that will bring people closer together.

These team-building efforts can be the difference between an office that goes above and beyond for one another, and one that will ditch their team as soon as another offer comes around. It will improve teamwork and satisfaction, giving you a more robust office culture that will have a direct impact on productivity and performance.

Casual Connections

Professional communication is vital in the office, but you can also help your team develop casual connections. Many people consider their work friends important but it can be tricky to improve these connections outside the office.

To encourage this, consider one of the best alternatives to Telegram and Discord that will give your employees the chance to chat and connect even outside the confines of your office. The various rooms and features allow them to connect on a different level that isn’t related to work, which will allow them to develop more authentic relationships. From this, you’ll see a direct improvement.

Exchanges

If your team is working remotely more often than not, there’s a chance they may feel disconnected from their colleagues and may not have the drive they once did. Loneliness and isolation are two significant issues with working from home, so establishing exchanges each week can remind everyone they are still thought of and cared for.

These exchanges can include whatever you want. Previously, businesses have tried baked goods or books, but there is no right or wrong answer, so consider whatever you think will work best.

Company Contests

Office competitions always go down well. They are ideal for celebrating the end of the year or season, and they are often easy enough for everyone to get involved, even those who don’t normally feel like partaking in activities.

Establishing company contests or competitions will allow everyone to win something, whether a voucher or even a day off whenever they feel like it. Like exchanges and activities, there is no limit to what you can choose, so feel free to get creative.

Connected

Staying connected is essential for building rapport with your team. However, as beneficial as it can be to get in touch with your employees at all times, you must also understand boundaries. By respecting when they are off the clock, you can maintain a positive attitude towards their duties. So, embrace the benefits of simple communication, but establish limits, also.

More Tips For Happier Employees

/in /by

StrategyDriven Managing Your People Article |Happy Employees|More Tips For Happier EmployeesTaking care of your employees is the quickest way to future-proof your business. Satisfied employees are more productive. They are motivated to achieve great results and not afraid to work hard to get there. Additionally, they are more likely to stay with the company. We’ve reviewed the essential leadership tips to create a happy place for your employees in a previous article.

Indeed, one of the biggest problems that employees recount is workload. Many employees find themselves overworked or underworked as a result of poor work management processes. This can happen when businesses don’t make the most of existing services. Often when employees complain about the workload, the complaint goes unnoticed. It is the manager’s role to welcome feedback and encourage employees to talk openly about their problems.

But improving the management function and relationship is only one of the possible areas of work to increase employees’ satisfaction. As a business, maximizing mental health benefits and engagement can also significantly help the team’s happiness.

Improve the workplace environment

Most companies fail to realize the importance of the work environment. Stressful and hectic are words frequently used to describe an unhealthy workplace. But what about small or dark workplaces? Indeed, the mind naturally registers light factors, square footage, and even temperature as factors linked to the overall wellbeing of the individual. A small and cramped office, for instance, can feel uncomfortable and unwelcoming. When relocating isn’t an option, the business could consider an extension project to improve the workplace. It’s worth mentioning that there might be foundation removal costs to expect with extension improvements. Another space-related complaint addresses natural light access. Businesses with a high number of windows and/or skylights tend to record higher levels of satisfaction.

Consider perks they want

Do perks make your employees’ lives better? The answer is yes. Valuable and desirable perks can not only attract but also retain employees. Indeed, perks highlight the business culture and understanding the company has of its team. In other words, the right perks tell the employees that the business has got their backs. Therefore, the top priority of any company is to open the discussion with the team. While it can be tempting to ask people what they want, you are unlikely to get a satisfying answer. Instead, focus on their pain points.

A shorter workweek, for example, could help reduce stress levels, fatigue and free up more time for friends and family.
Mentoring and coaching services can help employees build their careers and achieve their goals.

Introduce a mood-lifting “employee”

Office pets are an excellent boost for employee morale. Countless studies show that petting a dog or a cat can significantly lower your blood pressure and help reduce anxiety. Therefore, in offices where there is no severe pet allergy, the addition of a cute pet could have many mental health benefits. Pets bring a form of companionship, even if employees only see the pet during the workday. As workplaces suffer more and more with loneliness, spending time with a pet could help bring people together and reduce isolation. Additionally, pets can also encourage the team to take more regular breaks and look after their health.

Hopefully, these few tips can encourage companies to prioritize mental health in different ways in the office. Contrary to common belief, offering access to therapy services is not the most important thing a company can do for mental health.

Six Meaningful Lessons you can Learn from Entrepreneurs

/in /by

StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship Article |Lessons from Entrepreneurs|Six Meaningful Lessons you can Learn from Entrepreneurs“The entrepreneur always searches for change, responds to it, and exploits it as an opportunity.”-Peter Drucker.

An entrepreneur is a person who starts a new venture, manages it, and takes on the many risks that come with owning a company. Other than that, an entrepreneur has a keen eye for opportunities and a strong will to see things through.

Being a successful entrepreneur does not come easily because learning to operate a successful company takes long. Influential business people know how to capitalize on adversity and learn from their failures.

They didn’t learn this expertise through formal education but rather through on-the-job experience. The road of an entrepreneur’s life is filled with both challenging and rewarding lessons. These lessons, if implemented, can help you take your company to greater heights.

Some of the most important lessons for achieving success can be learned from entrepreneurs. Six of them are outlined below.

1. Discovering New Opportunities

You will not succeed if you wait for someone to tell you what to do. You may need to inquire at times actively because sometimes, there are opportunities when you least expect. All you have to do is take the first step of putting yourself out there.

One of the most common myths in the startup industry is that it’s all about the money. It isn’t about the money. Go out and do something else if you are starting businesses with the expectation of becoming rich.

The majority of startups fail, but it doesn’t mean you should not invest in startups anymore. Do it because you have a great ambition to fix problems, and there’s nothing more thrilling than bringing a new product to market.

2. Build A Strong Team

It is essential to value other people’s skills and talents. Nobody runs a firm alone, and a visionary entrepreneur will look for people who have specific skills. The people you engage with daily influence how you think and behave.

It is crucial to have a good team in place from the start that will assist you in difficult times. So, surround yourself with people who inspire you and help you grow. It’s easier to grow a business when you start with two strong team members instead of one.

Remember that employees are one of your most valuable assets in business, and hiring suitable ones will help you achieve success.

3. Failure Is Part Of Success

Nobody here wants to fail, including entrepreneurs. Failure is regarded as a symbol of shame in our culture, and as a result of this attitude, the fear of failure may force us to miss out on possibilities for achievement.

When it comes to entrepreneurship, keep in mind is that failure is not the end of the world but rather the opportunity for a fresh start. You can’t expect to go down this road and not fail once or twice.

If you begin with the assumption that you will fail along the way, you will be better prepared. Failure is simply another lesson that will help you get back on track to success.

You cannot eliminate the risk of failure, and the road to success is riddled with them. Failure is necessary for learning and preparing for future success.

4. Learning Is Crucial

Entrepreneurs should be aware of current advancements in their industry at all times. Being stuck in one spot or failing to keep up with updated information and skills will undoubtedly cause you to fall behind.

Regardless of their business, intelligent entrepreneurs understand the value of enhancing their knowledge because the secret to practical entrepreneurship is continuous learning.

It’s vital to plan time for reading and learning, whether in business strategies or just general information. This learning does not have to take place in a traditional classroom setting.

Conduct online research, enroll in a course and interact with professionals who work in your desired fields. There are numerous successful examples of individuals who have benefited from self-directed learning skills.

For instance, during his career, Bill Gates read a book every week. Many of the world’s busiest and intelligent people, including Warren Buffett, devote at least an hour per day to purposeful study.

5. Believe In Yourself

To believe it and achieve it, you have to see it, feel it, smell it, and taste it. It requires a shift in mindset. Consider a child’s energy: it is daring, fearless, unapologetic, inspiring, and persistent.

After a few losses, most entrepreneurs lose their spark of self-confidence because they believe failure is unavoidable. However, this is the most critical time to focus on reprogramming your brain to succeed, so you can turn around, learn from your mistakes, and move forward.

Get clarity on your vision with a strong passion. Reflect on what you want out of life and how you got off track. You will experience more flow than resistance after defining your actual objectives, allowing you to work more successfully and effectively.

Always have confidence in your skills and abilities, regardless of what others may think.

6. Ignore The Criticism

Whether you are a superstar, an artist, a tv personality, or an entrepreneur, you will always face criticism. Haters will always try to tear you down and put you off your game.

You may utilize your social media accounts to alter the message when people criticize your company. It would be best if you never lashed out at people personally, but you can use your social media accounts to publish generalized statements that explain, defend, or clarify why you do things the way you do.

Respect other people’s viewpoints, but also present your own. The bottom line is that you must grow tough skin and attempt to ignore the haters.

The Takeaway

Becoming an entrepreneur can provide you with numerous benefits in life. And we understand that starting a firm and embarking on the path of entrepreneurship can be stressful, which is why we want you to succeed as an entrepreneur.

If you follow the six lessons mentioned in this article, you will have a peaceful experience on your path.

6 Tips for Building High-Performance Teams

/in /by

StrategyDriven Managing Your People Article |High Performance Team|6 Tips for Building High-Performance TeamsIf you’ve been to any management seminar in the last few years, you may have heard the term “high-performance team” thrown around. But what exactly IS a high-performance team and why do you need one in your office?

While there’s no formal mandate to say exactly what a high-performance team is, it’s clear when you’re in one because everyone works together better. And, it’s clear when you’re not in one because everything is a struggle.

Creating a High-Performance Team

Creating a high-performance team doesn’t happen by chance; it involves hard work and picking the right people, even when you can’t always know that you’ve selected the right ones. It means looking at the leadership structure of the team with open eyes and being honest with your team about the style you want to work with.

Inspirational speaker and author of Leaders Eat Last, Simon Sinek, is famous for saying “people don’t wake up in the morning wanting to be managed”, and that couldn’t be more true for high-performance teams. Getting the top-down leadership right to begin with makes a huge difference.

What else can we do to encourage high performance out of our teams and turn a mediocre team into an incredible one? We have six tips that every potential high-performance team should follow.

Building Your High-Performance Team

1 Work With Personalities and Personal Strengths

The very first thing you must make sure of when building your high-performance team — or if you’re looking to turn around an under-performing team — is that you work with the personalities and the personal strengths of the people you have, not against them.

Personalities are a funny thing. Many of us have done the Myers-Briggs 16 personalities tests, which give an interesting insight into our personalities, but there are many more. Psychologists mostly agree that there are five personality traits, known as ‘the big five’. These are conscientiousness, openness, neuroticism, extroversion and agreeableness. Understanding how your team scores individually will allow you to see who will work properly together, as well as who won’t, and what tasks they will perform well on.

For example, someone who is high in openness is generally high in creativity, and someone who is low in agreeableness will probably be very detail orientated, but less creative. Knowing who scores highly and in what area will allow you to make sure the tasks are divided properly between the team members.

2. Collaboration and Communication

Good collaboration and communication for your team are vital, especially when it comes to project management and remote teams.

Remote teams, perhaps more so than those in an office setting, need to have open lines of communication. Whether that means you use a tool for keeping track of tasks, like Trello for example, or a tool for managing feedback from clients, or even a tool for managing your day-to-day collaborative calendars, getting the communication right is absolutely vital.

Open communication allows everyone to know where they are, what they are doing and who is doing what. It removes that “what is she doing?” or “why has he done this in that way?” line of questioning and speeds things up.

3. Rewards

Great teams need great rewards, whether that’s pizza on a Friday, a team building day every 12 weeks, or even just a congratulations where it’s required.

Building team morale helps when things are tough. For example, if teams know they are appreciated, they are likely to be higher in morale and happier to work harder. Be warned though, if a team feels like their reward is just a gimmick, like free pizza on a Friday, then it will backfire on you.

Your team is human, after all, and needs real responses to real-world problems, not fake gimmicks to trick them into working.

4. Risks

Risk-taking comes easier to some than to others. It’s usually easier for creative types to take risks than those who may be more logical, but taking risks as a team can pay off in the long run.

If you give your team the room to take calculated risks and to grow in confidence, it will pay back in dividends.

5. Personal Development

Personal development comes in all forms, but studies have shown that life-long learners make for happier employees and, as we all know, happier employees make for better team members.

There are not many people in high-performance roles who will be happy to plod along year after year without the investment they are due. It’s time to take this commitment further and really invest in your team.

Workplace coaching is great for this, and getting in an accredited coach to work with your team and instill a coaching culture in your workforce can make a huge difference to your whole team’s attitude.

6. Weed Out the Rot

This last tip is possibly one of the most important of all: it’s time to weed out the rot.

Everyone knows what this means, and everyone has worked with that colleague who just brings nothing to the table. They’re that colleague who is sullen and angry about everything; they are cynical and they can bring everyone’s mood down. Essentially, they are the rot that will set in and destroy a team.

Before you work on trying to find a way to get rid of this team member, try to figure out why they are like that. Of course, many people will be cynical and angry just because they are in the building, and it can’t be disregarded that some people just hate their jobs. But for some people, it is because they aren’t being challenged or supported enough.

If your company has a strong hierarchical structure, doesn’t support employees particularly well, has a lot of gossip and office politics, and doesn’t push people to better themselves, this can create resentment and low mood in employees, leading them to become angry and cynical and not productive.

High-performance teams are made up of all sorts of people and need a diverse range of thinkers to really achieve their goals. What kind of team will you build?