By: Lauren Perrodin
It’s time to address a leadership issue within your organization.
Growing and maintaining your business means keeping internal teams organized and streamlined.
Your organization is in the business of improvement, but a team that doesn’t have any direction or focus is one that is doomed to fail. Let’s take a look at five ways your organization can improve.
1. Bolster Teamwork
No organization can succeed when its employees aren’t working together.
In 2021, Zippa conducted research on the importance of workplace collaboration. They found that companies that bolster teamwork have a reduced turnover rate of 50%. What’s more, the study found that 17% of employees are more satisfied with their job when teamwork is part of their day-to-day life.
Collaboration offers employees a sense of belonging. Those who work together can complete projects more quickly and efficiently, all while exchanging ideas and coming at a problem from multiple perspectives.
If teamwork in your organization isn't prevalent across all departments, start small. You may approach the issue with something more creative like group brainstorming activities on a recent (or theoretical) project. A book club with monthly discussion times, for example, is one way to get conversations going.
2. Set Reasonable Goals
Goals help teams stay focused and share key performance indicators. Communicate your goals to the company and how each team’s workload is contributing.
Conduct a quarterly review meeting with your entire organization. During the meeting, call out wins across departments, how your teams met customer needs and what clients are saying about the hard work individuals are putting forth. At the same time, be transparent about where you want the company to be in the next quarter versus where you are now.
Sharing the good and the could-be-better news can foster a collective focus on the greater needs of the business.
3. Increase Productivity
Encourage positive productivity without micromanaging your employees by identifying which projects should be a priority over others.
When an employee has a less-productive day, they’ll know which items on the to-do list must be done and which are not as hot. With this mindset, large statements of work are cut down into bite-sized pieces that anyone can deal with, no matter the day.
4. Encourage Accountability
Leadership is about taking ownership of the wins and the mistakes. Mistakes happen, but if they go unnoticed until the 11th hour, they create a much bigger problem. By encouraging honesty about project roadblocks, teams can tackle the issue right away, learn from them and ensure the next project is cleaner — clients and team members all win.
5. Ask for Feedback
Yearly employee reviews help them understand where they did well, or may have needed improvement. Review executives as well. Ask your management and employees where improvements could be made for a better work environment — or how leadership could improve.
Pursue Training to Improve Your Skills
On-the-job training is helpful, but focused courses are better. Develop your skills as a leader in your company with online courses, seminars and reading materials.
Our Professional Certificate in Leadership and Organization Excellence and Specialized Professional Program in Supervision and Leadership can help foster incredible growth as a leader. Interested in leadership excellence but these programs aren’t the right fit for you? We also offer custom leadership programs for organizations that could have an impact on the company’s future.