Do more with less. Isn’t that a theme lately. You may have the workload of 6 people, but the company will not increase your team from 3 people. How do you do it? How will you make it? Is there any hope?
Get out the pen and paper – it’s battle planning time.
1) Plan Your Deliverables
It may sound like over-kill, but a project plan for your regular deliverables helps. It assists in thinking through the monthly process and allows the team to visualize how their goals are achievable. As a leader and manager, you can set up check points to ensure quality of the finished product. You can also set up smaller milestones so that if there is an issue, you can raise the flag early to your customers.
2) Coordinate Activities
Your people may have down time that you don’t even realize. There may be bottlenecks in the process that you’ve built. The best solution is to get everyone involved into a room, explain the constraints, draw a line in the sand when things need to get done and have everyone participate in the goal setting exercise. They’ll know what they need to get the job done and they’ll rally around their leader if they see you’re in trouble (assuming you have helped to motivate them in the past)
3) Share the Burden
Maybe it’s physically impossible to meet your deliverables – maybe there are too many expectations on your team. I’d recommend living by the following saying “under-promise, over deliver”. If you can’t meet the expectations, someone is going to be disappointed. If that’s the case, make sure that your team is being honest with their assessment of workload, and ask your boss what to prioritize. If there are available resources within the larger team, maybe they can help out. If not, there is a need to raise the flag and realign expectations for the deliverables with the end customer.
Ever find yourself trying to lead a group of staff to no avail? Have you found yourself at a loss uninsipired or lacking direction yourself. Look to these 5 techniques to help re-invigorate your team.
Motivation can come from many sources. Here are my top 5 locations for motivation
1) Within my Team
You know those people you spend 8 hours a day with? Those strangers you sit next to or those that report to you? These people, that you typically spend more time with than anyone else during the week can motivate you. Even if you are at the top of the food chain, the people that report to you have brilliant ideas. There was a great expression “surround yourself with people that are smarter than you”. Why do you think that saying have value? Insight comes from all layers of an organization. Just because you are top dog, doesn’t mean you have all the answers or have a strangle-hold on good ideas. Keep yourself open to the idea that others may have value as well.
2) Blogs
Blogs provide unique insight and perspective to a niche audience. Unlike arcane newspapers or magazines, there is higher interaction between a blog and it’s audience. This is promoted through forums and comments. Blogs help me hunt down specific ideas. Using tools like Google Reader, I can group a number of blogs into groups, allowing me to aggregate news and information. This grouping and notification system allows me to watch everything and nothing at the same time. Like splatter-vision, certain topics will catch my eye but I can survey the landscape at all times.
The toughest part of being motivated by blogs is finding one that speaks to you in a consistent voice on topics that are of interest to you.
3) Twitter
Follow and do it often. Engage with others. Then group into lists and keep up to date on topics of interest. Twitter is a hyper-interactive newsfeed. It allows me to get the news but engage with the anchorman. Great for following topics and drilling into a conversation when things are interesting or unclear.
4) Family / Friends
Those that know you best are the best sounding board. You can speak to them about new ideas and brainstorm with them how to solve existing problems. Whether you want to or not, these people will have a profound influence on the way you think. Their ideas will impact the way you execute your own ideas at the workplace.
5) Courses
Your mind is a sponge – and while participating in courses, you are ready to absorb everything you can. The people you meet and the material that you are being shown is of interest to you. Courses can provide new ways of thinking, new models to apply, or refresh the way you’ve done things in the past.
What inspires you? You probably have your own inspiration – athletes? musicians? scientists? Do share!
@Brainzooming blog provides a daily dose of advice on topics I am most interested in. The lead blogger, Mike, shares his thoughts on creativity, leadership, and strategy – very much in line with the topics covered here.
I have a handful of blogs that I follow daily, Brainzooming blog is one of them. In fact, I have contributed to the site in the past with my 5 Keys to Managing by Example.
More GTD, Management, Leadership and Creativity blog recommendations coming.
