How to Increase Your Team's Performance: Tips and Tricks for Leaders

Today’s workplaces are constantly evolving and so are the challenges of leading teams. 

With rapid advancements in technology, collaboration and communication have become easier. Most businesses have migrated from traditional desk-based offices to virtual team spaces and online collaboration tools like Slack or Google Docs. 

These changes have resulted in more accessible work environments for employees, making it easier for them to work remotely and telecommute. 

However, with all these benefits also come new challenges for leaders who need to find ways of maintaining high performance at all times from their team members. 

Here are some tips that can help you improve your team’s performance:

Have a performance review meeting

The performance review meeting is the best place to start when it comes to improving your team’s performance levels. It is the perfect opportunity to ask your employees about their work-related concerns and issues and find ways of resolving them. 

This meeting can be conducted on a yearly basis, but you can also have it on a biannual or quarterly basis depending on the kind of business you are running. This meeting can help in identifying the areas in which your employees have been struggling and can also help you find ways of resolving these issues. 

These meetings can also help you build a better relationship with your team members and help you understand the issues that they are facing and the challenges they are dealing with.

Set clear expectations

Your employees might not understand the expectations that you have set for them and the goals they must achieve. 

It is important that you set clear expectations from the start so that they can work towards them and achieve the goals you have set for them. 

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These expectations can include: 

• The goals your team members need to achieve 
• The outcome or result you expect of them 
• The type of projects they will be responsible for 
• Their roles and responsibilities within the team 
• The level of job satisfaction they must feel
• The kind of support and guidance they will receive from managers 

Your team members need to know what they need to do and why they need to do it. By setting clear expectations, you can avoid any misunderstandings and help your employees achieve their goals with greater efficiency.

Celebrate wins and recognize achievements

Your team members might feel motivated after setting clear expectations and achieving goals, but you also need to help them celebrate their achievements. Celebrating achievements can also help in motivating your employees and helping them feel appreciated on the job. Celebrations don’t have to be expensive or grandiose - they can be as simple as creating free event tickets or a team lunch.

However, you must also remember to be careful not to celebrate too frequently as this can become demotivating for your team members.

Implement a productivity tool

Many productivity tools are available in the market and you can select any of them and implement it in your team. 

You can use tools like Asana or Teamwork to organize and schedule your work, help you collaborate with team members and serve as a communication platform. 

A productivity tool can help you stay on track with your work and help you stay focused while working. 

These tools can help your team members with accessing articles, files and documents in one central location and can also help with setting alerts and notifications to keep everyone updated and informed about upcoming deadlines.

Establish a culture of transparency

Team members may start feeling apprehensive about sharing their ideas, concerns and suggestions with their managers if they feel they will be reprimanded or criticized for it. This can result in a lack of open communication and can affect your team’s performance. 

A lack of transparency in your workplace can also impact your team’s productivity, especially when employees are unsure if their ideas will be accepted or not. The only way to avoid such complications is by creating an environment of transparency in your workplace. 

This can be done by encouraging your employees to speak their minds and letting them know that their suggestions will be accepted and appreciated.

Support Their Mental Health

Depression and anxiety can affect work performance and may have a negative impact on the entire team. It’s important to identify when employees are struggling mentally so that you can make things easier and help them on the road to recovery. 

Performance review meetings can be a chance to also check in on people’s mental health. Being approachable can also help employees open up about problems they may be having. You can then find a solution - which could include temporarily reducing responsibility or letting them have some time off. 

Some employers find it beneficial to outsource services like business chaplaincy or a workplace counsellor. These individuals can provide counselling and help check in on the mental health of every employee. They are particularly useful in larger workplaces.

Final Thoughts 

Team performance can be significantly improved when leaders actively engage in these six ways to improve their team's performance. 

However, it's important to keep in mind that exceptional performance doesn't happen on its own; it happens as a result of specific strategies and practices. By following the tips mentioned above, you can make sure that your team thrives and outperforms themselves.