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Productivity Tips for Managers – 4 Winning Actions to Take · Enhance.training

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: How to boost your productivity as a manager is not the same as boosting your productivity as an employee.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: You have a team to look after and their productivity is very important to you.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: If you personally are very productive, but your team is not, you lose.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: Your team's performance is the biggest indicator of your performance as a manager and everyone is watching what your team delivers.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: To maximize your personal productivity and the productivity of your team, here are four winning productivity tips every great team manager works very hard at.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: Firstly, be a master of proactively planning and organizing.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: Secondly, ruthlessly and diplomatically manage expectations and saying no.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: Third, intelligently delegate and leverage your team.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: And fourth, invest time in relationships and reciprocity.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: Some of these might feel a little counterintuitive to improving productivity.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: I was promoted 13 times in 13 years through the management ranks to board level while working in many top companies.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: To earn all those promotions, I worked harder at each of these productivity tactics than my peers.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: For example, these techniques enabled my team to deliver over 50 initiatives and projects in a single year, earning a best team prize and a top appraisal grade.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: I started off being poor at all of these productivity tips.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: I worked at all of them and got better and better.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: I quickly learnt from my own mistakes and watching other great managers taught me how essential these productivity tactics are for managers to be very successful.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: There is nothing stopping you getting just as many benefits from using these approaches as I did.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: Start small and keep working at using each of them.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: My first productivity tip for managers is to be a master of proactively planning and organising.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: What is a lot less obvious is all the actions that go into being very good at proactively planning and organising yourself and your team.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: Firstly, make the time to think ahead and try to spot or anticipate problems, clashes and issues with your work and within the work of your team.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: The bigger your team, the more opportunities for problems.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: The further in advance you can spot problems, the more time you have to avoid or mitigate those problems.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: Secondly, be goal-oriented.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: Even if you're not naturally goal-oriented, your business is goal and target orientated.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: So working at setting and reaching goals will help you deliver what your business needs.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: Set yourself and your team lots of little goals.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: Focus on small, digestible, short-term goals that are steps to achieving bigger, more valuable goals.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: Thirdly, stay close to what your team is doing.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: Spend time with your team.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: Ask how you can help them and remove problems they encounter, etc.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: The more you help your team, the more they will want to and be able to help you.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: Being close to your team will enable you to spot problems much further in advance and your team will start looking for them and tell you about the problems they spot.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_00: You can't solve problems you don't know about.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: Fourth, either personally or with team members, when you spot a significant problem, work out what actions can be taken, resources put in place, the different steps to take, etc., to remove or reduce the problem.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: Solving problems well in advance of them hitting is a lot less stressful.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: You have a lot more time to implement solutions and you appear to be a lot more in control.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: All valuable benefits when trying to increase team productivity.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: Do what you need to plan your time and your team's time and efforts so everyone is as productive as possible.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: Use your calendar, use to-do lists, put daily and weekly goals by person on a whiteboard for all to see.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: Communicate, communicate, communicate so everyone is really clear who is doing what and by when.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: This increases teamwork, reliance and team success.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: Be a master at proactively planning and organising yourself and your team to maximize productivity.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: My name is Jess Coles, and I'm passing on many of the valuable lessons I learnt during a very successful management career working with great teams in many amazing companies.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: I've included links in the podcast description to additional resources which you will find useful, so do take a look at these.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: To improve your leadership and management skills, visit us at enhanced.training for courses on learning the management skills and approaches needed to improve your team's productivity.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: My second productivity tip for managers is to ruthlessly and diplomatically manage expectations and saying no.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: Saying yes to requests without considering the impacts and your ability to deliver will leave you exhausted, undervalued, and demotivated.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: It will do exactly the same to your team.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: On top of this, you'll regularly let people down in the worst way, not delivering what was expected.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: I know from personal experience that very few leaders mind being told, no, I can't do what you ask when you have a reputation for delivering and you tell them no in the right way.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: For example, yeah, I'm really sorry, I can't meet that deadline because I have four other deadlines which I suspect are more important and these are and go on to explain them.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: Or I'm unable to help you with that until Tuesday.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: If you need it before Tuesday, can I suggest you ask Dave and his team?
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: Would you like me to walk around with you and talk to Dave about your request?
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: When you proactively plan and organise yourself and your team, you know what can and can't be delivered in what timeframes.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: When you receive requests, you can then objectively judge what you can and can't do to help the other person.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: Be really clear in how you communicate what you can and can't do.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: Explain why you can only partially help them or why you can't help them.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: Provide sound business reasons with your explanation.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: Offer to help them in any way you reasonably can.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: Above all, be clear about what you can and can't do.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: Whenever anything changes, you must revisit all of your commitments and potentially reset expectations with each person relying on you and your team.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: This drives good teamwork and demonstrates your respect and appreciation of colleagues and their time.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: Resetting expectations allows them to replan to get the results that they need.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: Being great at diplomatically managing expectations and putting in the time to speak to all of your stakeholders regularly will create a lot of extra time for you and your team, making you a lot more productive.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: You won't be nearly as stressed and overworked.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: You'll gain a lot more trust and appreciation from your stakeholders.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: You will also have a much better chance of delivering exactly what you have promised, which in turn builds you a reputation for delivering.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: Be ruthless and diplomatic in managing expectations for all of your stakeholders.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: You'll be a lot more productive as a result.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_00: My third productivity tip for managers is to intelligently delegate and leverage your team.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: The most important goal for any manager or leader is to get the most output and value delivered by their team.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: Your team also includes you.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: Organising and coordinating exactly who is doing what and when will increase your team's productivity as you will reduce downtime and increase teamwork.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: To gain further productivity gains, plan out carefully what you delegate to who.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: When you match work to team members' strengths, skills and interests, you are likely to get better quality results faster.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_00: All those two additional gains quickly add up across the team to produce much higher productivity compared to teams that don't play to strengths.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: To gain this productivity increase, get to know your staff well and work closely with them.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: Staff members will always work better and faster when they want to do what is being asked of them rather than when they feel they have to do what is asked of them.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_00: Other really important ways to leverage the efforts of your team are Firstly, delegate the right level of work and the right complexity of problems to staff members with the best skills to resolve that level of challenge.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: You can't always achieve this, try your best every day.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: Second, removing problems that impact the productivity of team members.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_00: You are usually much better placed to remove problems than your team members as you have more influence and authority.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: Your work improves the output of many people, a great way to leverage your time.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_00: Third, protecting your team from low-value requests, distractions, too many changes of direction, politics and infighting, and anything else that distracts the team from delivering their best efforts.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_00: Fourth, making processes and the way things are done more efficient or better by removing steps, simplifying and changing steps to reduce time spent or to get better quality output.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: And fifth, automation.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_00: Intelligently delegating and leveraging your team creates a lot more value than you might think.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_00: You should easily be able to get 20% plus in productivity gains from taking these steps and may be able to get many multiples of team outputs over time.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: My fourth productivity tip for managers is to invest time in relationships and reciprocity.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: When you are really busy at work, reducing the time and effort you put into building and strengthening relationships with peers and colleagues can seem like an easy short-term win.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: Very few people can do their jobs without the help of team members and colleagues.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_00: The stronger, more trusting the relationships between staff members, the quicker and more productively everyone works in general.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: Make the time to get others talking about their interests, their role, their hobbies, and their latest challenges.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: Be interested in them.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: Share your own stories.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_00: In short, make the time to build mutually beneficial relationships with as many colleagues as practical.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_00: Prioritize those with influence and who help others willingly.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: People willingly help people they like, trust and who help them.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: This is a group dynamic that is as old as time and true across all cultures.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: This behaviour is hardwired into us through generations of surviving much better in groups.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: To be really effective at work, work to make others as effective as possible.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_00: As a manager or leader, this is a win-win.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_00: You help your team be more productive and they in return help you achieve the same.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_00: Give others information, ideas, solution, a helping hand, resources.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_00: There is a long list.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_00: When you see an opportunity, help out.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_00: They will then be a lot more willing to help you when you need help.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: You can achieve a lot more in a much shorter time frame because you don't have to wait for help or make the time to persuade others to help you.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_00: When you need help, support, resources, ideas, solutions, etc., remind the people you have helped that they owe you a favour.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_00: Investing in relationships and reciprocity is one of the best productivity tips for managers that I know.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: I've used this approach nearly every job I've had, and it is amazing the personal and professional benefits you get.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_00: To start with, put in the extra effort with a few people and see what you get from investing in relationships as a manager.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_00: You can then enlarge the group you invest time with.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: In summary, please use these productivity tips for managers to enable you to be a lot more productive personally and more importantly, enable your team to be a lot more productive.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_00: Each of these approaches will create a big positive benefit.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_00: The more you put in, the more you'll gain.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_00: As a reminder, the four productivity tips for managers are firstly, be a master of proactively planning and organizing.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_00: Secondly, ruthlessly and diplomatically manage expectations and saying no.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_00: Third, intelligently delegate and leverage your team.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_00: And fourth, invest in relationships and reciprocity.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: If you have any questions on productivity tips for managers, for winning actions to take, please email me at support at enhanced.training and I'll get back to you.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_00: Do visit us at enhanced.training for courses or learning the management skills and approaches needed to improve your team's performance and productivity.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks very much for listening, and I look forward to speaking to you again soon.