When a team member starts to perform poorly it will affect your company’s business but when the whole team slips off track it can be a lot more serious.
In this sort of situation it is important to take the initiative and try to resolve the problems as soon as you can. Thankfully, there are some simple and sensible tips to let you do this quickly and efficiently. The following are some excellent ideas for getting back on track as soon as possible.
Talk to Them More
A common problem in many businesses is that the staff feel that their bosses don’t talk to them enough. You might not realize that they feel like this until you ask them whether they would like more team meetings or one to one chats. If your staff are young or inexperienced they might be reluctant to mention their issues unless you give them a chance to do so in a meeting. Of course, one of the big problems that many business owners face these days is that their team is spread out over a relatively wide area. In this case, it can be difficult to get everyone together in the one room for productive team meetings. Instead, you could use a smart video conferencing solution to help bring them all together in a meeting.
Offer Support Instead of Blaming Them
If the performance of the company is starting to be affected by the lowering of performance levels then it is easy to start blaming the staff. It could be that they are having some issues but blaming them isn’t likely to improve matters. A better idea is to work out how you can give them the support they need. Maybe they need more training or perhaps the processes need to be adjusted in some way to help them out. Alternatively, it could be that you need to give them a helping hand by hiring another member of staff. Whatever the case is, you will find that providing help instead of pointing the finger of blame will allow a solution to be found more easily.
Set Clearer or More Realistic Targets
Often the problem can come down to the targets which are set for staff. You will want these to be demanding enough to stretch them and test their abilities but they’ll also need them to be clear and realistic enough to avoid confusion. Ideally, you will have a process in place that allows you to discuss the targets for the coming year with each team member. You can then work out with them what would be realistic for them while still giving them a challenge. This can help the team to stay focused and also to understand better how they are playing a part in moving the business forward. If they understand the targets then they will more chance of meeting or exceeding them.
Provide Incentives
It is a simple fact of life that most people work better when they have an incentive to do so. They might love their job and they might get a lot of satisfaction out of it but offering them some sort of incentive is still the best way of making them push themselves to the limit. Most people automatically think of money rewards when they consider staff incentives but it can really be anything that is likely to help them push themselves harder and feel good about what they achieve. If you are thinking of setting up some sort of staff reward scheme then you might like to sit down with the team and work out how best to do it in order to motivate them well.
Lead By Example
Finally, many teams work better when they see that their boss is leading by example. There are many different ways of doing this. For example, if you see that a team member has a difficult case to deal with you could offer to help out. Leading by example simply means showing them that you care about the business and will do what is needed to make it work. Leading by example will give you a great feeling, as you will understand that you are giving everything you’ve got in order to make it work.
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