Using Wrike for High Performance Marketing Teams
Wrike's flexible folder structure allows any team to quickly set up a workflow to operate more efficiently. We've seen marketing teams become particularly successful by setting up their Wrike folders to mirror the structure of their department. Our customer success team speaks with dozens of companies per week, sharing best practices and setting up workflows. New marketing teams set up shop in our enterprise project management solution every week in an effort to drive efficiency and stay organized. After chatting with so many of these customers, we know that marketing teams are notoriously understaffed and overworked. Additionally, they're inherently cross-functional, working with departments from sales and engineering to manufacturing and operations. A central work hub to manage all of the moving parts is essential to hitting deadlines. We've compiled some of the best practices and quick wins that marketing teams of all shapes and sizes have leveraged to boost productivity. Additionally, we've created a template folder structure for high-performing marketing teams that you can download and import into Wrike in order to get started ASAP. Edit our template freely to make it match your team! Here are the best practices of how to measure marketing performance from teams we've talked to: 1. Match your folder structure to the organization of your marketing team Most teams have various marketing team "buckets" which often include Lead Gen, Content Marketing, Product Marketing, and Email Marketing, just to name a few. Create a folder to capture all of these categories and create subfolders to match the various teams in your marketing org. If one of your 'buckets' has a multitude of responsibilities, add a layer of subfolders to capture these. Content teams are a perfect example. At Wrike, our content marketing team is working on blog posts, webinar scripts, infographics, and case studies, so they create subfolders to house the tasks related to each of these responsibilities. 2. Organize by week to keep the team on track Marketing teams generate a never ending stream of deliverables. Using multiple tags per task, top performing teams also organize their work by week in order to stay focused and ensure deliverables are generated by the time they're needed. If you haven't explored task tagging yet, pause your reading and take a look at this Help Center article. Wrike gives you the ability to put a task in multiple locations. This is essential for organizing your tasks by team bucket and by week. After creating the perfect folder system, all you need to do is drag the folder name and drop it on the task to add the additional tag. A quick overview can be found in this video about task and folder tagging. 3. Run weekly meetings out of Wrike (Click the header to read my blog post dedicated solely to this topic.) With the weekly folders you created to organize deliverables and tasks, you are now equipped to run weekly meetings straight out of Wrike. Instead of harassing everyone to submit slides for the weekly meeting, simply have teams go on Wrike and show the list of tasks they completed last week, then look at what will be done this week. For tracking purposes, you can either push tasks from week to week as they're rescheduled and pushed out, or leave the original week tags in order to see the history of where a task has been. This is a great way to identify bottlenecks and better understand which work is being prioritized. For better organization, consider including a Meeting Agenda and Action Items task in each week's folder. This will be the task where people can jot down notes, high level thoughts, action items, and other initiatives to ensure there is a place to capture feedback and follow up. During the meeting, make sure you designate a recorder to keep track of actions items on this task and ensure they are converted into tasks with assignees. Weekly folders can also help you understand bandwidth constraints on your team. When used in conjunction with Wrike's Workload view, weekly folders are the perfect place to jump to when a last minute request comes to the marketing team and you need to find someone to get it done. 4. Create MGMT team folder to tag top priorities Most marketing teams have a director who needs updates from her managers. In an effort to ensure managers are only relaying top priority and relevant information, build a "MGMT" team folder with a subfolder for each of the managers. Managers then tag their high priority tasks and projects in order to give their director and peers easy visibility into their most important work. 5. Add annual and quarterly goals in Wrike As you get set up in Wrike, make sure your team has clear goals and direction. Google has a great approach to planning quarterly and annual goals which centers on Objectives and Key Results (OKRs). In Wrike, create high level goals (Objectives) and then specific big picture actions you want to take to achieve them (Key Results). Turn these Objectives and Key Results into folders and encourage team members to tag relevant tasks that will achieve these results into the corresponding folder. It gives clear visibility into how every task is helping complete a goal. This can be particularly powerful early in the quarter when you're planning all of the work that needs to get done. 6. Ensure commitment and ownership The key to making this work is to ensure that whole team has buy-in and is committed to the process. Compliance is not enough; 100% commitment is necessary. One way to ease the transition into Wrike and maintain your status as a high performance marketing team is to appointment a high-ranking team member as owner of the team's Wrike experience. The owner maintains folder structure, establishes team norms, and facilitates new processes introduced to Wrike. Your 3 Actions for Today Now, are you finished reading my tips, but don't know where to start? Here are the top 3 actions you should take today to get your marketing team performing at a higher level in Wrike: 1. Create weekly and categorical folders and tag all tasks by week and bucket. 2. Run your weekly meetings out of the weekly tracking folders. 3. Identify a team owner to manage the folder structure and hold the team accountable. Good luck, and let us know how your team improves with Wrike! If you want to see these 6 tips in action, check out our video on creating high-performance marketing teams with Wrike. Author Bio: Author Bio:Tim Chingos is a Customer Success Manager at Wrike. He likes to bring his dog to work and claims that she increases everyone's productivity. LinkedIn
How to Break Down Work Silos Between Departments
why aren't more people collaborating? One major reason: corporate silos and the silo mentality. This is where groups or departments within an organization refuse to share information with others, which results in turf wars and inefficiency. If you're going to break down silos, you will need a mandate from management. But then you will also need the right culture and the corresponding tools that can help lay your cards on the table.
How Successful Teams Use Project Management Software (Infographic)
According to Information Week, 87% of high-performing companies use a project management tool to complete daily work and and meet their business goals. But why? What are the benefits? What kinds of teams need project management software? And how do they go about choosing the right tool? Learn all the “how”s and “why”s in this infographic: Share this infographic on your own site with this embed code:
3 Lessons on High-Performing Teams from TED Talks
If you were handed 20 sticks of uncooked spaghetti, 1 yard of masking tape, 1 yard of string, and 1 marshmallow and then told to build a tower with the marshmallow at the top, what would you do? Believe it or not, this exercise gives us a lot of insight into building high-performance teams. During his TED talk, Tom Wujec reveals three major lessons you can learn from playing with your food. After the timer began, the average team spent their time doing the following: 1. Orienting — Talking about the task and subtly (or not so subtly) determining leaders 2. Planning — Deciding the best way to tackle the task 3. Building — The majority of their time was spent here, just getting the task done 4. Crossing their fingers — Tower built, marshmallow in hand, they placed the sugar bomb on top and hoped the spaghetti didn't break Some towers broke. Some towers stayed up. Some towers stayed up and surpassed new height records. So what was the difference between a wildly successful team, a mildly successful team, and a failing team? Three major factors were common among the wildly successful teams: 1. They took an iterative approach. The did not pick one plan and stick it out to the end, hoping their spaghetti would hold. They modified their build as they went along by periodically testing out the weight of the marshmallow against whatever structure they currently had. 2. They had diverse skill sets in the group. Surprisingly, CEOs + Executive Admins worked better together than groups made up solely of CEOs. Some team members were good at managing (we'll let you guess who) and others were good at executing next steps. A good mix of skills and personalities make a stronger, more effective team. 3. They had prior experience with the task. Four months after the first exercise, the worst performers were given the marshmallow construction problem again. They were all successful, blowing previous height records out of the water. Being able to learn from their past failure, these teams enjoyed success the second time around. Here's an idea: Since you're already building your own high-performance team in your organization, why not run the marshmallow experiment with your colleagues? It should prove to be an enjoyable exercise in team dynamics. Or you could simply learn from the short TED Talk on high-performing teams below. It's less than seven minutes long, but loaded with lessons on creating your own top-notch team! Think there are other important factors that go into building a high-performance team? Share them with us in the comments below! Image credit: Photo by Creative Sustainability. Some rights reserved.
The Secret Ingredients of a Successful Distributed Team
Today, more and more companies manage their projects across multiple locations, taking advantage of new technologies and global talent to take their projects to the next level. But while remote teams enjoy many advantages, one of the central challenges they face is that of communication. Co-located team members have many opportunities to interact, whether it's through structured meetings or informal conversations that lead to new ideas. But members of a distributed team have to be much more intentional about communicating and keeping everyone in the loop. For project manager wondering how to manage remote workers, keeping everyone on the same page is essential to ensuring the team can quickly respond to any changes that may occur. Obviously, any project team has its own working style and unique challenges. For instance, an established marketing department will have a different process than an ad hoc creative team that's been created to work with remote consultants on a specific campaign. However, according to my experience managing distributed teams, there are four key factors that are important for any kind of remote collaboration.Source: Daxx.com, Chanty Inc. Set Ground Rules Establishing a set of ground rules for work processes, communication, and team organization will save you a ton of time when it comes to keeping your team up to date and on the same page. For example, ground rules stipulate when and how joint meetings are held, how the team logs their working hours, and how colleagues report on their everyday work and any roadblocks that are delaying progress. By setting and sticking to the same rules, you minimize the risk of something important slipping through the cracks. Closely Manage Workloads It’s fair to say that maintaining control is more challenging with a distributed team than a co-located one. To optimize your team's productivity and avoid any duplicate efforts, keep a close watch on your team's workload and be very clear about assignments and responsibilities. If the task is a new and non-typical one, make sure the assignee has a clear understanding of the goals and what output is expected upon completion. Also, check whether you share the same vision of project priorities and where the new task stands among them. Maintain Constant Communication Remote team members must have a convenient way to communicate with their manager and with each other. It’s vital to keep ideas flowing, deadlines and responsibilities clear, and handoffs and workflows transparent. Keeping open lines of communication also ensures that plans and updates aren’t spread across everyone's email or personal storage, but get shared with everyone involved. Good communication helps establish a positive team atmosphere and culture of collaboration. Apart from discussing work-related questions, encourage your team to share personal news, funny articles, vacation photos, etc. I also believe that relationships between remote colleagues greatly benefit from the occasional face-to-face meeting, so try to bring everyone together in-person, even if it's just once or twice a year. Source: Daxx.com, Chanty Inc. Leverage the Right Technologies Following these tips will be much easier if your team takes advantage of technology that supports remote collaboration. Cloud-based collaboration apps can turn colleagues who are spread across the globe into a powerful team that benefits from collective intelligence. They help make up-to-date information visible to colleagues at any time, even if several projects are running simultaneously. They help users break down silos, keep work data and updates easily accessible, and make it easy for adjust their work. For the project manager, this is the foundation of good decision-making. Leading a Successful Distributed Team Have you had experience leading a distributed team? What do you think is the secret ingredient of successful remote collaboration? Read more tips on keeping your remote workers engaged, productive, and happy.
10 Ways to Make Your Team More Productive (Infographic)
Some days are just harder than others. It's the end of a week, or the day after a holiday, or there was yet another office birthday. (Cake-coma, anyone?) When your team is having a hard time focusing on their work, don't just sigh and hope things will change soon. You can actively help them jump back on the productivity boat with top-down productivity management. Check out the tips in this infographic and get your team moving today. And if you're always looking for more tips to help boost team performance, check out 11 additional ways you can increase team productivity. Share this infographic with your team, or embed it on your blog with this code: Infographic brought to you by Wrike
7 Easy Steps to Encourage Self-Organization in Your Team
Self-organization is a hot trend in many creative industries nowadays, and it can help your team greatly increase efficiency and motivation. The main aim of self-organization is to encourage self-actualization of the team members. When the team members can influence the decision-making process and are allowed to adjust their workload at least at some level, they feel more responsibility for the decisions made and, thus, are more motivated to execute them. So if you decided to move to this concept within your company, what is with the best way to start? Here are 7 easy steps to begin the process. So if you decided to move to this concept within your company, what is with the best way to start? Here are 7 easy steps to begin the process. 1. Arrange a short intro meeting A short introductory meeting is the best way to get the process started. Introduce the concept of self-organizing teams to people, as it may be new for some team members. Let them know about the benefits of it, such as improved efficiency, agile reaction to changes and self-actualization of the team members (you can find more of them in one of the previous posts). If the team isn't new, ask if there’s anything they’d like to improve in the way the team works right now. If it's a new team, find out what will make the team work well for them. While you are not obliged to implement each suggestion, they can be a great source of understanding of how the work process is really organized within the team and what can be optimized. Finally, let the team know how you are going to implement this concept, using the suggestions below as a starting point. 2. Set sensible milestones and checkpoints The point of this kind of team is that it only has to regularly check in, but there are things both managers and team members can do to make the self-organizing team work well. First of all, you need to do the planning at the beginning of each iteration. This means setting realistic milestones and checkpoints to enable the team to work efficiently to deliver results, and being sure that your team understands what is strategic capacity planning. Regularly working under the pressure of checkpoints is bad for the team’s morale. At the same time, the feedback cycle should be short enough so that you can quickly adjust things if you don’t get what you expected. That’s why you need good capacity planning strategies — split the workload into small, actionable items you can regularly overview upon completion. Team members also may set their own internal deadlines on the team meetings to enable them to meet the overall project goals. Your role here is to make sure that the team members' way of working is in harmony with the overall project schedule and recommend adjustments if necessary. 3. Let people leverage their talents Once milestones are set, allow the team to decide on the tasks to do for the next iteration cycle and then let team members choose the ones they want to accomplish. This way, they can pick what they like most or what they are best at. Of course, if some tasks turn out to be unpopular, someone will still have to do them. In this case, you can be guided by the team members’ experience in this area and their current workload. If the team has embraced the self-organization concept, everything will get done, as it greatly increases personal motivation and awareness. 4. Don’t interrupt people once they start It might be difficult, but you have to let the team get on with the project once they have started work. Give people their workload and set the checkpoints to see results. Don’t get into the minute details of how they do their jobs, and try not to switch priorities during the process. Of course, emergencies happen, but remember that each intervention lowers the efficiency of your team, and it should be done only if you find it indispensable for the project. Monitor progress according to the checkpoints you have set, and don’t forget: In self-organizing teams, the role of management is to check in, not check up. 5. Facilitate the information exchange Good communication is the key to making self-organizing teams work well. Set up a transparent communication structure for the team to keep each other up-to-date, as well as to provide feedback at set checkpoints and to talk to you if issues arise that need external help (such as altering team selection). All team members should participate in regular team meetings (ideally weekly) and have a chance to speak out. You and upper managers need to be open to dialog with the team and must be ready to compromise when needed. Also, make sure the team runs regular internal meetings where they can keep each other in the loop of what each member is currently doing and ask for assistance, if needed. 6. Avoid a culture of blame When things go wrong, it’s very human to start finger pointing and to try to find someone to blame. However, no one can avoid failure, and there are better ways to tackle it. For instance, the quite known conception of “little bets” suggests considering failure as an important feedback from the reality that can help to adjust your project and get closer to success. With a self-organizing team, managers must accept that this is part of the process of creation and innovation. Instead of assigning blame for failure, focus on the steps needed to achieve success. 7. Regularly review and readjust the team’s work process Use team meetings and check points as a great opportunity to review how the self-organization concept is working for your team and make readjustments, if necessary. Self-organization is sensitive to the team members’ personalities and circumstances. That’s why it requires constant balancing and individual adjustments to be made. For instance, if you see that some team members don’t get along with each other, you may make sure they don’t work together on one task or even move one of them to another project. Of course, fully adopting self-organization is quite a complex process, and you need to be sure that it is the right approach for your company. This type of team may not work well for banks and government organizations, which have a strict hierarchical structure. However, more creative organizations can benefit from this type of team structure. Self-organization also works well for distributed teams, which require a more flexible team structure, and good project management software can facilitate the decision-making process. Finally, don't forget to measure results as it is the only way to see if a self-organizing team is right for your organization. The real test of this type of team is productivity, efficiency, improved product quality and revenue growth. If your self-organizing team achieves all this, then it is a success.
Why Your Teamwork Sucks... and How To Improve It
Turns out we're not naturally wired to play nicely together. Anyone who's ever watched children playing team-based games will understand. Teamwork is just that — it's WORK. In case you think that's blindingly obvious, it's not. One UC Berkeley study says that high-performing (AKA powerful) individuals who are forced to work with other powerful individuals in a group actually end up with below average results. Partly because they end up bickering about who gets to be "the top dog" instead of working towards a consensus. And partly because high performers are less focused on the task, and do not share information as effectively. They are too distracted about their status as leaders to work harder as team players! The findings from that study are neatly summarized in the 50-second video below: [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hJuBlJiVfw[/embed] If top performers get better results as lone superstars, what hope is there for the rest of us? Why We're So Terrible at Teamwork In an eye-opening interview with the Harvard Business Review, leading organizational psychologist J. Richard Hackman shares why teams don't just naturally work: I have no question that when you have a team, the possibility exists that it will generate magic... But don’t count on it. Research consistently shows that teams underperform, despite all the extra resources they have. He goes on to state that there are multiple problems that erode whatever benefits there are in collaboration, sometimes negating all the positives. On one hand, teams have many advantages: They share more (and have a greater diversity of) resources than they would have had individually They have more flexibility in deploying their resources (i.e. If someone gets sick, a team can organize to fill in the gap.) They have many opportunities for collective learning (i.e. More often than not we learn via social interactions. And collaborating on every shared task presents an opportunity to learn.) They have the potential for synergy — that moment when things just work, and teamwork produces magic. And yet, in study after study, the actual performance of teams is often worse than if individuals worked alone. Why? In a talk that Hackman gave to the MIT Media Lab in 2005, he suggests that there are really only two major reasons for the failure of teams: 1. Teams are often used for work that is better done by individuals When you get a group to do the kind of creative task better suited to an individual, you're basically setting them up to fail via decision-by-committee. Think about creative output such as plays, operas, novels. While it's certainly possible to build them via a group, they are more commonly (and efficiently) created solo. 2. Teams are often structured and led in ways that stifle their potential This, by and large, is the difficulty of corporate life — that instead of enabling the conditions for a team to thrive, structures are in place that stifle team productivity and collaborative effort. Be it red tape, weak leadership, unnecessary competition, discouragement, or interpersonal conflicts, these things all decrease the likelihood that a team can perform in a productive way. So how do we get rid of those stifling structures and free our teams to work better together? Hackman suggests you create the proper conditions so that your team can function optimally and those conditions are in his Five Factor Model. Hackman's Model: 5 Conditions for Teamwork to Thrive In 2002, J. Richard Hackman published a book entitled Leading Teams: Setting the Stage for Great Performances. Hackman and his colleagues studied analytic teams in US intelligence agencies, symphony and chamber orchestras, hospital patient care teams, management groups, flight deck crews, and various other groups in order to identify three main attributes that all successful groups possess, namely: They satisfy internal and external clients They develop capabilities to perform in the future The members find meaning and satisfaction within the group His research then led him to identify five necessary conditions — the ingredients, if you will —that result in these three attributes appearing in a team. He called this his Five Factor Model. These five factors increase the probability of team effectiveness, eventually growing the team's capabilities as the conditions continue. The five factors are: 1. Being a real team -- not just a team in name Effective teams clearly delineate who is part of the team. Their membership is at least moderately stable. Plus, they have shared tasks. 2. Having a compelling direction that everyone strives toward Objectives are clarified, challenging, and consequential enough to get team members motivated to work together. Time for some SMART goals! 3. Having an enabling structure that optimizes teamwork The team's structure — the internal way it organizes and works — has to enable teamwork and not impede it. If, for example, only one person approves the work of 20 people, then that bottleneck won't enable the team to be effective. 4. Having a supportive context within the organization In order for the team to do their work effectively, they must receive these things from the parent organization: Material resources are sufficient and available Rewards based on team performance Easy access to information necessary for their work Training and technical consults are available to the team 5. Having expert coaching and guidance Effective teams have access to a mentor or a coach who can help them with questions and challenges pertaining to their work or individual skills. In a study by Ruth Wageman, the research showed that those teams set up correctly can benefit more from good coaching. The chart below shows how little benefit coaching gives a team who is poorly set up for success. Ready to Equip Your Team? The long and short of it is this: if you can fulfill these five basic conditions then your organization can create and maintain effective teams and you give them a more complete chance to develop into a productive unit. Teamwork is something we grow up trying to perfect. Whether it's out on the soccer field, within a household, or in a corporate conference room, it's important to acknowledge that teamwork doesn't naturally occur unless you've got the above conditions. A good team paves the way for success, enables collaboration, receives outside support, and appoints the proper leadership. With these five conditions for success: Together, Everyone Achieves More. And Speaking of More... Hackman isn't the only one to theorize on what makes teams effective. Read about 5 more models of team effectiveness in this blog post and discover collaboration tools for remote teams: 6 Different Team Effectiveness Models to Understand Your Team Better
How to Increase Productivity on Your Team
You've come to that point in your management career: work isn't getting done fast enough and your team's emotional well-being is dwindling. Your own stress levels are climbing as pressure from higher-ups increases. You're trying to help your team, but no matter how hard they work, nothing is getting done and they're wilting more every day. Your team is facing a productivity crisis. That means it's time to step back and take a look at the processes, tools, and management techniques that could be bottlenecking their progress. Read through this list of advice to help you identify productivity weaknesses for your team — every tip includes a hyperlinked article with more detailed advice to help your team break the cycle. Work Processes That Promote Productivity Create a system of accountability for your team. Public accountability triggers the willpower to work harder and better. Set standards for communication. What information is important to communicate? When should people give updates? Where should they share them? If you make your communication expectations clear, you'll mitigate the communication issues that so often bottleneck projects. Collaborate! It's true what they say: two heads are better than one. Don't miss out on the benefits of collaboration within your team. Improve the way you run meetings. Eliminate excessive meetings, only invite people who need to be involved, create a goal-oriented agenda, and end every meeting with "next steps." And ask the right questions during meetings, so that your time together isn't wasted. Encourage breaks. Lead by example and take them yourself. You can't run continually for 8 hours, and neither can your brain. Stopping for a 15-minute break from all work (not "stop doing X to go work on Y") gives your mind time to relax, so you can shake off the sluggishness and jump back into your day with full force. Read this article on the science behind the benefits of taking breaks at work. Use better work management and productivity monitoring software. Check out how Wrike increases team productivity for our users. Essential Productivity Trainings for Your Team Members Develop training and incentives for every employee, not just upper management. In our study on productivity, 77% of people said they were motivated by a sense of responsibility. Try giving more project ownership to the team members who ask for it. Host a workshop on the top productivity killers to help them identify what takes the most time away from their day (and subtly show them how they could be contributing to their teammates' slow progress). Learn about the science behind procrastination, and share the knowledge with your team. Understanding what makes the brain tick can help your team readjust those unproductive, "I don't want to do this," thoughts. Host a workshop to teach them how to build better work habits. Download this "Productive Work Habits" eBook for your own education, and pass it along to your team after the workshop. Share these six tips your team members can use to change their mindsets when they're stuck in an unproductive funk at work. Mindsets make a huge difference in productivity. Management Skills to Enable Your Team's Productivity Ask what you can do to improve your management. You could be hindering team productivity without realizing it. Make sure you're asking the right questions, sharing the right resources, and providing proper support. Avoid micromanaging. According to a study in the book My Way or the Highway, 71% of employees felt micromanagement was hindering their performance. Micromanagement obstructs the powerful motivators that come with the feeling of "I accomplished something great today." As a manager, it can be tempting to grip the reigns tightly, but it's important to trust your team and allow them to make judgement calls for the projects they own. Set attainable goals. Assigning one large project with a deadline two months out is overwhelming. Breaking large projects up into smaller steps shows clear progress and keeps people motivated as they advance toward the final product. Read about the power of "Small Wins" in this study by Teresa Amabile. Help your team members constantly prioritize and re-prioritize. As to-do lists get longer, it becomes difficult for employees to concentrate on one task without feeling overwhelmed by the mountain of work they haven't started yet. Make sure you constantly communicate the top team priorities, so everyone knows where to focus their energy. Provide constructive, meaningful feedback on a regular basis. This will develop a culture of trust and personal growth, so your employees take pride in improving their performance. Praise a job well done every time — for the large tasks and the small tasks. A study by Mindflash showed that while employers thought high wages were the best incentive, many employees felt that being fully appreciated for the work they'd done was far more important. Little Things That Make a Big Difference in Productivity Inspire your team with visual motivators. Post these motivational posters around the office to share quick productivity tips with your team and remind them that they're doing great. Invest in office cocoons (or something similar). Distractions are one of the biggest productivity inhibitors; lunch deliveries, coworkers walking past your desk, and job candidates being escorted to a meeting catch your eye and break your flow. Creating comfortable spaces for people to tuck away can help them stay focused in the office. Put real effort into creating a good work environment and company culture. Our productivity survey showed that 57% of people are motivated by a good mood — so make sure your team is happy. One way to check in on team happiness is by evaluating how they feel about respect in your workplace. Do they feel respected in their position? Can they respect their fellow team members and management? Employees who say no are far more likely to feel stressed and unable to focus on work. A team that plays together, stays together! When your team knows one another, they'll be more comfortable collaborating and sharing ideas — which leads to better, faster outcomes. Make time for bonding with this list of team-building activities that are actually enjoyable. Productivity is a Process, Not a State of Being "Productivity is never an accident. It is always the result of a commitment to excellence, intelligent planning, and focused effort." — Paul J. Meyer As a manager, you have the power to help your team achieve more. Use the resources above and around you, such as integrated project management, to help your team overcome roadblocks to their productivity. If you have any other resources or tips that have helped increase your team's productivity, please share them in the comments below. We'd love additions to the list!
Understanding the 5 Different Leadership Styles
Here's an infographic explaining the 5 most general leadership styles, each with a famous leader known for that style, and each listing strengths and weaknesses. Once you figure out which style your manager uses, it just might make it easier to improve your working relationship with him or her.
10 Phrases that You Can Never Say When You Delegate A Task
Here are 10 phrases that team members should never hear from you: 1. “I know you haven’t finished that section yet, but this needs to be done right now!” Good delegation is about setting priorities. While emergencies do happen, having “emergencies” every couple of days won't help productivity. It will hinder productivity. All that multi-tasking and switching around just isn't good for team morale. A better approach is to think over the goals, priorities and deadlines right from the start and make sure your team understands them, so that people won’t randomly put off their other assignments in order to meet a deadline with one particular task. Try this instead: "We have had to amend the project schedule, and this task should be next in line when you've finished your current task." 2. "I know you've never done anything like this before, but I'm sure you can handle it." There's nothing to raise a team member's stress level like hearing this phrase. Everyone wants the chance to improve their skills, but is it really fair to put someone in that position without adequate preparation or training? Not really, and your project won't be run efficiently that way, either. Try to always delegate tasks from one area to the same people, so that they can perfect their skills, and also let them learn from a different person, if necessary. Otherwise, be ready to dedicate some of your time to brief them if you want to receive worthy results. Try this instead: "I've arranged for you to work with a colleague so you can learn this skill; in the future you'll be able to can handle it on your own." 3. "Well, this is actually a super-easy task to do; anyone can do it." Usually saying this is meant to make the assignee feel less nervous about the task ahead. That's commendable, but it often has an unintended side-effect. People could think that you're really saying that they don't have the right skills to handle something really complex and challenging – and that's not the message you want to send at all. There are two things to keep in mind: never minimize the importance of the task you are delegating, and don't doubt the skills of the assignee. Someone who feels appreciated and trusted to do something important will step up and do a better job. Try this instead: "This task is important to the project; that's why I'm trusting you to do it." 4. "Just come up with something, and we’ll see if it fits." The issue with this phrase is lack of clarity, and we all know how that ends up. If you don't have an idea about the result you want, then how can the assignee deliver it? Most likely, you’ll waste a lot of time going over the options he proposes, based on his standpoint and skills, and it is possible that none of them will fit. A better approach is put together a list of criteria for possible solutions and ask the assignee to come up with different options, so you can select the best approach. Try this instead: "I'd like you to come up with a solution. Here are the criteria to use to assess possibilities." 5. "That's not the way I would have done it." A “my way or the highway” approach leads you directly to micromanagement and discourages others from taking responsibility for tasks and achievements – and that's the whole point of delegation. OK, so you would have taken another route, but as long as the solution works, does it matter if your colleague did things differently? In the end, the project benefits because you now have two viable approaches to an issue. Try this instead: "I hadn't thought of tackling the task this way, but well done for coming up with such a great solution!" 6. "I’m going on a business trip for a week. By that time, things need to be done." We all have to take business trips, but disappearing right before a project is due to complete is not ideal, especially if you're going to be out of touch for part of the period. When crunch time is approaching, that's exactly when team members need to ask questions and clarify things – and you need to be available. The only exception to this rule is if you still can stay in the loop with assignees, tracking their progress and guiding them if necessary with the help of an online tool. Try this instead: "I'm going on a business trip, but I'll check into our workspace [into Wrike project management software] daily to answer any queries." 7. "You should have shown me it before the deadline…" Ever had a project delivered and found it was not what you expected? That's where the phrase above comes in, but using it usually means a failure to set up the project properly. Your goals might be crystal clear, but the only way to know if you're on track to meet them is to set up milestones and checkpoints with the assignee, so you are not disappointed on the project delivery date. Do this, and you can get rid of issues before they become major problems. Try this instead: "Is the project on track? We should have a meeting to see where we are before the ultimate deadline." 8. "You should have asked me first before making such an important decision!" Delegation is all about allowing others to make some of the decisions. But if people involved don’t know their responsibilities, authority and the chain of command, you may get some surprises that you won’t like. It should be clear what decisions the assignee can take on his/her own, simply reporting the results to you, and which ones require your permission. Try this instead: "Here's an outline of the project team and responsibilities so you know what decisions you can make." 9. "I've asked your colleague to handle the task, as well." Delegating the same task to more than one person is a classic mistake. Some people think of this as a way of inspiring healthy competition, but it usually has the opposite effect. Instead, colleagues become obsessed with being the one to win recognition for getting the project right. That means they don't share information, and they don't collaborate effectively – and that can hurt the overall project. Another possible outcome is when people start shifting their responsibility to each other, so that no one feels responsible for the result any longer. Either way, it’s not what you want to get, right? Try this instead: "I want you to work with a colleague on this, but you each have responsibility for a different part of the project." 10. "This is not exactly what it’s supposed to be, but OK, I’ll finalize it on my own." Finally, good delegation is about clear accountability and knowing the deliverables. If someone is supposed to deliver certain things at certain times, and the project has been on schedule, then there's no reason to accept the poor quality result. Only accept thoroughly done work, and your employees will know the standard they need to achieve. After all, if you have to finalize it, what was the point of delegation anyway? Try this instead: "This isn't exactly right; shall we have a meeting about how you can fix it?" Do you have any phrases to add to this "delegation black list"?
11 Key Business Benefits of Team Collaboration (& Why You Should Work on Your Teamwork)
A collaborative culture is actually the single most potent element for an organization's survival. Here are each of the 11 benefits we've pinpointed and why teamwork is crucial to every company's day-to-day dealings:
The “We” in “Teamwork": How Marketers Can Drive Cross-Team Collaboration
Because marketing teams are highly collaborative by nature, they’re in a unique position to take the wheel and drive cross-departmental collaboration. Here are a few ways to successfully lead the charge.
The Top Challenges for Creative Teams
We surveyed creative teams of all sizes and asked about their biggest challenges, struggles with collaboration, and how they manage their work. We found that generally, most requests are given at random, too much feedback is a hindrance, and clients are the most difficult to collaborate with.
Why Visibility is Critical to Improving Your Team's Workflow
At any one time during a project, do you know who is doing what? What happens when your team experiences delays in turning work around, or mysterious bottlenecks in production? Can you figure out how to solve these problems?
7 Teamwork Terrors and How to Conquer Them
Since the dawn of man, teamwork and cooperation has been the preferred method of getting things done. From the pyramids of Giza to the Golden Gate Bridge, we rely heavily on teams of engineers and architects to create such majestic masterpieces. However, where there is teamwork, there is work required to be a team. Too many voices and conflicting opinions can lead to a giant headache and bring productivity to a grinding halt. Throw in egos, politics, and laziness and you've got a recipe for disaster. Here are 7 barriers that harm the harmony of your team: 1. Anchoring Have you ever been part of a group brainstorming session where, once two or three ideas have been shared, new ideas stop flowing and the group sort of shuts down? That’s anchoring. Teams get mentally stuck on the first few ideas and stop thinking of new solutions. Avoid the anchoring trap with these 7 brainstorming tricks, including brain writing. Be sure to keep all types of workers in mind with team building exercises for remote workers, so everyone feels included in the creative conversation. 2. Groupthink This teamwork barrier occurs when a majority of the group conforms to one idea despite their own concerns and insights, perhaps due to laziness, fear of judgement, time limitations, or being subjected to peer pressure from other members of the group. Because this is another common brainstorming risk, techniques like Stepladder and Round Robin brainstorming encourage everyone in the group to share their thoughts before settling on a course of action. 3. Social Loafing "If I don't get around to it, then someone on my team will just do it for me." If you've said this to yourself, then you're guilty of social loafing. Don't pat your lazy self on the back quite yet, you might have just cost your team some valuable productivity! Social loafing is the act of putting in less effort for a team project than you would for a solo task. This forces other team members to pick up the slack and possibility grow to resent you. One way to avoid this is by breaking a project into individual tasks and holding each team member accountable for certain steps. See how Wrike can help you assign tasks and delegate big projects. 4. Unresolvable Conflict Even the most successful teams sometimes experience conflict due to differences in opinion, perspectives, and experiences. However, if there is no way to resolve the conflict, then conflict harms your project's outcome. Unresolvable conflict can be caused by unclear goals and expectations for the project at hand, so avoid it by clearly communicating goals with the team and helping everyone understand their role. 5. Confirmation Bias Confirmation bias is the tendency to only accept information or evidence that confirms your own preconceptions. This bias can quickly become a roadblock when trying to iron out team conflict or justify a decision, and it can potentially lead to the Halo/Horn Effect (see below) and compromise good decision-making. To ward off this bias, challenge your beliefs and play devil's advocate. The Six Thinking Hats technique can also help you see a different perspective on the issue. 6. Halo/Horn Effect The way you perceive an individual strongly affects how you interact with them. If they made a poor first impression, or an offhand comment rubbed you the wrong way, you may have a subconscious bias against them. When that individual voices an opinion, you might automatically be more critical than you normally would. This can work to the opposite effect too. When someone you like shares their opinion, you might have a tendency to agree. When making big team decisions, try to be aware of this bias and focus on the best outcome for the team. 7. Overconfidence Effect Your perceptions and experiences inevitably shape who you are — but they can also lead to subtle mental biases that result in flawed decision making. The Overconfidence Effect happens when you accept or reject an idea based purely off a hunch with no evidence to back you up. (In fact, studies show that entrepreneurs are more likely to fall for this mental fallacy, rejecting others' ideas because of the false belief that they know what's best.) Don't fall for this mental trap! Always research new information and seek objective evidence to combat confirmation bias (and hopefully learn something new as well). What other teamwork barriers have you experienced? We'd love to hear how you resolved your teamwork troubles in the comments!
Rolling With the Punches: How Managers Overcome Their Anxieties of Change
If you find yourself huffing and puffing into a paper bag every time you need to switch up a process, this advice is for you. Let’s dive into why you feel hesitant about those changes—and how you can overcome those nerves.
The Post-Covid Work Habits to Make (and Break) as an Employer
Have you ever had a habit that you wish you could break? Biting your nails, scrolling on your phone at night, procrastinating — we all have our vices. Having our lives flipped upside down by the pandemic over the last year (and spending a lot more time cooped up) has forced us to reckon with the bad habits we’ve accumulated over the years, as well as the better habits we’d like to create for ourselves. But while many of us have done a great job of taking up yoga, cooking meals from scratch, or learning a new skill over lockdown, our work habits are still an area that may need some improvement. Working from home over the past year has allowed us to take stock of our life in employment — how our working style works (or doesn’t work) for us, and what we may want to change when things return to ‘normal.’ And now, as our ‘new normal’ begins to take shape and teams around the world begin to migrate back to the office, it’s a perfect time to make and break some work habits. Why good work habits are important to managing your team As an employer, you have a lot of responsibilities to your team. How you work every day sets an example to those around you — that’s why it’s vital for you always to be actively learning and trying to improve the careers of everyone on your team. The habits you invest in at work show your teammates what is expected of them and how you would like your team to operate. If you create good work habits, your team will be motivated to follow your lead and invest in their own positive habit-building. Now more than ever, it’s essential to motivate your team for success, as we all prepare for returning to work after COVID. Important factors in your return-to-work program To figure out which habits are most important for you to build as we return to the office, it’s essential to understand your employees’ mindsets. After working at home for over a year, many of us have reevaluated our work priorities and what we want from employers in the future. In a 2020 survey, the Adecco Group questioned 8000 workers across eight countries about what would be important to them in working post-COVID, with some interesting insights. A strong case was put forward for employer flexibility and favoring results over clocked hours, with 69% of employees suggesting that their contracts should be based on meeting the needs of the business rather than the hours they work. 74% of employees said they wanted their managers to demonstrate an empathetic and supportive leadership style post-pandemic, with 70% citing support for their mental wellbeing as an important factor in returning to the office. But while employees are stating emotionally available management as a top priority, employers need some help in that arena. More than half (54%) of the leaders surveyed said they need “support to be able to navigate these new expectations,” with just 12% “excelling” in holistic support of their employees during lockdown. So how can employers begin to support their teams in returning to the office post-pandemic? As with all great businesses, the example should come from the top. As a leader, the habits you invest in every day, both for your own working style and your employees’, set the example for how you want your business to succeed. With that in mind, we’ve compiled a list of essential habits to form as you prepare for RTO, as well as some to leave behind. The work habits you should make when returning to work after COVID Open communication The way you communicate with your employees has a direct correlation to your business’s success. Organizations with effective change and communication programs are 3.5 times more likely to outperform their peers. According to McKinsey, productivity can increase by up to 25% in organizations where employees are connected. As an employer, strive to create an environment of open communication and transparency. Employees appreciate being kept in the loop about important updates and changes, especially when much about the workplace is so uncertain. Practice regular updates and feedback sessions with your team, engaging with them on a personal level as well as on a corporate one. Use remote tools to your advantage and create a stream of consistent communication with your team, no matter where they're based. Your team should know that you are available to listen to their concerns and will communicate with them openly wherever possible. Active feedback Whether it’s to address an issue with their work or praise them for a job well done, it’s vital that your organization practices active and regular feedback for your employees. According to Officevibe, “four out of 10 workers are actively disengaged when they get little or no feedback”, with 43% of highly engaged employees receiving feedback at least once a week. Liaise with your team leads and ensure that a feedback policy is put in place for your organization. Celebrate your employees’ wins, both big and small, and advocate for them when their work is not up to par — ensure that they feel supported and work with them, not against them, to find a solution. Mentorship A 2016 Gallup engagement poll showed that 82% of managers and executives are seen as lacking in leadership skills by their employees. Team leaders have many responsibilities, but being a reliable and consistent mentor to their employees is perhaps the most important. As an employer, investigate implementing a mentoring program in your organization. Pair new hires with more experienced executives and encourage open conversations around career advice and development in the office. As an individual leader, make it a habit to check in with your team individually on how their career goals are developing at your organization. What can you do to lead and encourage them? Embracing hybrid working It’s no secret that COVID-19 has completely changed the game in terms of remote and hybrid working. The pandemic has accelerated the burgeoning trend of hybrid working worldwide, and, according to countless reports, the method is here to stay. While it can be difficult to pivot your leadership style to mesh with a hybrid working model, endeavor to make it a priority for you and your team. Ensure your remote workers are supported, both holistically and technically, with the right equipment and software to collaborate seamlessly. Investing in technology Over the past 18 months, innovations in technology have made it possible for teams to collaborate and communicate in unprecedented conditions. As we transition back to ‘normal,’ adopting a technologically forward mindset is just as important. Technology can be utilized in myriad ways at your organization — whether that’s in work management software to streamline projects, scaling AI to prevent failures and defects in your products, or creating a safe, post-COVID environment for your employees. While building your new work habits, remember that some of your well-practiced habits may not be serving you like they used to. Here are some that you should consider leaving at home as you return to the workplace. The work habits you should break in your post-COVID office Overdrawnpointless meetings We’ve all thought to ourselves, “couldn’t this have been an email?” in a Zoom meeting at some point this past year. As we return to the office, employees are less likely to politely accept unnecessary time-wasting. While regular meetings and updates are necessary for smooth project management, it’s worth keeping them to a tight schedule and only herding everyone into the boardroom when completely necessary. Make use of your newfound technology innovations and explore more efficient ways to communicate with your team. Multitasking You may pride yourself on being a fantastic multitasker, but is this skill beneficial to your work? Studies have shown that when our brain tries to switch back and forth between two tasks, especially if those tasks are complex and require active attention to complete, we become less efficient. Similarly, if you work on your tasks with your email or chat software constantly pinging you about other tasks, it’s difficult to complete anything to a good standard. When you return to the office, cut your multitasking, focus on one task at a time, and encourage your team to do the same. You may start to notice a marked improvement in productivity. Favoring time over output As your employees have gotten used to more flexible working hours, you should reevaluate how you measure their performance as they return to the office. Are you more interested in them staying late every evening or turning in a fantastic finished product? As we return to ‘normal,’ your employees will be just as motivated to do their jobs well, but time spent online should not be a marker for success. As a leader, set an example of not micromanaging your teams’ schedules, especially outside working hours. Research has shown that an ‘always on’ culture can be harmful to productivity and employees’ mental wellbeing. Scrap clockwatching and see how your team can get creative with their workloads. Disorganization A 2017 Staples survey of small business owners saw 1 in 3 say that workplace disorganization leads to less productivity. What’s more, 75% of struggling or failing business owners believed that workplace disorganization had contributed to their lack of success. Workplace disorganization means lost opportunities, lost productivity, and lost revenue for your workplace. As an employer, it’s imperative that you are organized and coordinated in your day-to-day work. Workers rely on you for guidance and assistance, and if you’re scrambling to locate a certain file, contact, or project deliverable, this can eat away at their confidence in your leadership. Invest in organizational tools, such as a flexible all-in-one work management system like Wrike that can keep everything in one place and give you more time to lead. Ignoring work-life balance According to Gartner’s 2020 ReimagineHR Employee Survey, employers that support employees with their life experience see a 23% increase in the number of employees reporting better mental health. This is of a huge benefit to employers, who see a 21% increase in the number of high performers compared to organizations that don’t provide the same degree of support to their employees. Over the pandemic, workers have experienced higher stress levels than ever before. As we transition back to the workplace, you must invest in their mental wellbeing, which starts with encouraging a healthy work-life balance. How Wrike can help your team form better work habits as you return to the office Using a work management system like Wrike can encourage your teams to do their best work. Here are just some of the ways that using Wrike can help to build positive work habits: Collaboration-focused software, including chat and email integrations and real-time feedback and editing, will allow your team to work together from anywhere and communicate seamlessly, cutting back on wasted time waiting on emails or bad connections. Resource management tools will take the stress out of organizing your return to work program. Create tasks and subtasks for all your RTO needs, and organize deliverables seamlessly. Our all-in-one software means that your hybrid and remote workers don’t have to worry about technology troubles or lack of access. Everything is right at your fingertips with Wrike. Interested in how we can help your teams to thrive post-pandemic? Try Wrike with a two-week free trial.
Simple Tips for Eliminating Procrastination Within Your Project Team
In the previous post, we discussed an essential soft skill for project managers - recognizing and beating productivity killers within your team. We started with ways to deal with unproductive interruptions, which almost 41% people see as the no.1 enemy for their work performance. Now, let’s move on to the productivity battle against procrastination, the second most dangerous efficiency killer according to our recent survey. Any habit, be it a good or a bad one, largely depends on the personality of the individual. For example, some people are naturally less organized than others and it's harder for them to stay on track. According to Dr. Piers Steel, who can be referenced as a procrastination researcher, 95% of people admit that they procrastinate occasionally, and for as many as 20% this is a chronic problem. Let's take a look at several common reasons why people procrastinate, regardless of differences in work styles, and how to deal with this problem within your team. A task looks too big and complex Even if an employee is very experienced and organized, a huge task might get him overwhelmed and prevent him to start on it immediately. Granular work breakdown is an efficient tactic that both managers and their team members can benefit from. Mark Twain phrased it very nicely: “The secret of getting started is breaking your complex, overwhelming tasks into small, manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one.” If you split an assignment into smaller tasks, they’re easier to understand for your team, quicker to tackle, and there’s a pleasant productivity feeling to mark a task completed. Some productivity methodologies, namely GTD, even go further and focus solely on the next action item. There is an incorrect sense of priority If a team member’s task list is relatively long, he might make an incorrect choice of where to get started. For example, he might pick something that looks easier, but a more difficult and also more important task will get postponed. Setting accurate priorities and communicating them to your team is the most efficient cure to this problem. Your guidance will help employees to act on first things first instead of procrastinating. A task doesn't feel important Many people say that they tend to put a task off when they don’t see much sense in it. So your goal as a manager is not just to prioritize things in your head, but also to convey the importance of the tasks to your team. Many tasks may seem mundane or insignificant, but are important steps to achieve the larger goal. Communicating this in a positive way helps your team understand that their work is meaningful and it makes them feel valued. Referring once again to our survey on productivity habits – a sense of responsibility was named as the most powerful productivity motivator. When people are aware that their work really matters, they feel inspired to achieve more! Interruptions get you off track The worst thing about getting interrupted is that it’s hard to get back on track afterwards, once the focus is lost. In this productivity battle, the weapon could be described as Prioritize-Filter-Plan. For more detailed recommendations on fighting interruptions, check out my previous post of this series that was dedicated specifically to this problem. Fatigue slows down work drive After all, we’re all human, and sometimes we don’t feel enough energy to tackle a task. But what if it just can’t wait? Recommend to your team to take short breaks. Typically, if you're in the flow, you won't need it. But when you naturally lose focus and feel distracted, it might be helpful to disconnect for five minutes and tackle the task later with your "second breath". Numerous studies show that switching your mind off of the task for a couple of minutes can help to lower tension and revive productivity. For example, a quick snack, a stretch, or a walk around the office – all these might help your employees make a fresh start. As a bonus tip - in the comments to our survey, one respondent said he feels extremely demotivated when he notices that someone on the team isn’t really focused on their tasks. So, to some extent, someone’s procrastination might be a “contagious” productivity threat that might affect other employees as well. This is why it's extremely important to "put out" this dangerous spark as soon as you can before it spreads wider. What’s your secret weapon against procrastination? Stay tuned for Productivity battle 3 (Inaccurate plans)!