Keeping Your Team Productive

On February 12, 2014, we discussed on #ProdChat, the topic: Keeping Your Team Productive. Here are the discussion questions, articles and other notes that I found, noted or wrote in the process of preparing for the tweetchat. Please add any other resources or links you think would help!

Here are the discussion questions:

Q1: WHAT’S ONE AREA OF IMPROVEMENT YOU’D LIKE FOR YOUR TEAM’S PRODUCTIVITY? #prodchat

Q2: WHAT ARE THE CORE TENETS OF GOOD TEAM MANAGEMENT? #prodchat

Q3: HOW DOES A MANAGER FIND TIME TO EMPOWER TEAM PRODUCTIVITY? HOW DO YOU “WALK A MILE” IN YOUR EMPLOYEE’S SHOES? #prodchat

Q4: HOW DO YOU MANAGE YOUR PROJECTS AND TASKS WITH YOUR TEAM? #prodchat

Q5: HOW DO YOU AVOID MICROMANAGING YOUR TEAM AND THEIR PRODUCTIVITY? #prodchat

Q6: SO, WHERE DO YOU START WITH DETERMINING THE NEEDS OF YOUR TEAM’S PRODUCTIVITY? #prodchat

I have placed an asterisk next to the resources I found especially helpful.

• Praise Process Not the Person when Giving Feedback*
• The Two Most Important Words Managers Should Say Regularly
• Make Sure You’re Not De-Motivating Your Team
• Use Teamwork to Achieve Lofty Goals
• How To Be A Great Leader And Make Your Team Successful
• 5 Workplace Strategies to Supercharge Team Productivity
• 5 Awesome Project Management Tools to Get Your Team on Track*
• 5 Management Practices That Kill Employee Productivity
• Ask the Entrepreneurs: 21 Systems to Boost Business Productivity for Good
• 5 Sure Ways to Manage a Happy and Productive Team
• Make Your Team Smarter, Happier and More Productive Without Spending a Dime
• Leadership 101: How to Help Your Team to Be More Productive
• 7 tips to make your employees happier, more creative and productive*
• 10 Mistakes Companies Make That Destroy Employee Productivity
• Design Tips for a More Productive Office
• Be more productive using better Focus, Time Management,Organization and Efficiency*
• How to Set Goals That Keep Your Team on Track
• 10 Ways You’re Making Your Employees Less Productive
• Reduce Your Work in Progress to Make Your Whole Team More Productive
• Can a daily dose of nature make your team happier, healthier and more productive?*

These are additional random thoughts and questions that came up in the process of writing the discussion questions:

• Fear (criticism, long hours, job security, etc.) versus praise/recognition
• LifeHack.org: build a culture triangulated on trust, respect and engagement. How?
• According to management theories X, Y and Z, EEs are lazy, self-motivated or a little of both, respectively. How does categorizing EEs help (or hurt) team productivity?
• How do you handle praise and criticism for the most productive outcomes within a team?
• Project Ownership – who “owns” the project? Hot potato management, delegation, teamwork pitfalls?
• Recognition/Praise
• Meetings! (future #prodchat tweetchats covering different aspects of overcoming meeting challenges)
• What at work are hurdles, policies, distractions or otherwise keep your team from being productive?

 

Mix Up Your Teams to Find Solutions http://t.co/l5QG3fO4fJ @eholtzclaw

— Inc. (@Inc) February 13, 2014