In a world where margins are frequently squeezed, and talent is hard to come by, sometimes you have to find ways to increase the productivity of your existing team. The quickest productivity win is to work harder. The problem is that working harder only gets you so far. After a certain point, you’re putting in more hours but not getting any extra output. As a business leader, I’m sure you’ve hit that wall yourself at one point or another. Working more for the same output means lower productivity, and that’s before the inevitable mental fatigue mistakes creep into the work.
So how about instead of working harder, you find ways to work smarter? Through most of human history, that’s how productivity is achieved. Whether it was using oxen to plow the fields, an internal combustion engine to transport us sixty miles in an hour or using high-powered chips to crunch numbers on a truly unfathomable scale, productivity has always been about working smarter.
Now apply that thinking to your team. Each person on your team has work that they:
- Enjoy doing
- Are good at doing
- Do not enjoy doing
- Are not good at doing
The sweet spot is to combine a + b together of course, but what’s interesting is that a alone is often quite powerful for productivity gains. Why?
Well, first of all a + b often does go together. But when you enjoy doing something, the task feels lighter. I’m a writer. Writing is easy for me. For others, writing is a horrible chore, even if they are good at it. But because I enjoy writing, I’m better suited to the task. Consider:
I can write a lot in a short period of time because I am experienced
I embrace the editing process
I want my writing to be effective
I am energized by the task of writing
The reality is that because I enjoy writing, I’m willing to put in the work to get it right, whereas someone who does not enjoy writing is more likely to do the bare minimum. Your best customer service person loves helping people. Your best technician loves solving problems. Your best salesperson loves closing.
This is one of the biggest takeaways from the work our team did with Patrick Lencioni’s Working Genius framework. We realized that in terms of productivity, there is a significant difference between doing things that you genuinely enjoy and doing things at which you have aptitude.
Join us at Build IT LIVE 2024 to attend a full-day workshop on the Working Genius framework and learn firsthand how you can change the way your team looks at productivity.
