In recent times, companies have been trying to increase the performance of staff by improving wellbeing in the workplace. There are workshops, mandatory yoga classes and meditation nights put in place, but are these tools helping staff achieve high performance in their work and life?
5 essential tools to build a high-performing team
It’s been said we need to ‘work smarter, not harder’ to drive results. But how? A high-performing team is an essential component of a productive workplace and a profitable business. A positive, energetic and collaborative team environment needs to be carefully fostered by individuals in leadership positions to enable the best results for your employees and for the organisation as a whole.
Create a workplace that’s well equipped for the future
Over the past 10 years or so, we have seen remarkable changes, advances and progression in the workplace, and while it’s easy to think that we’re hitting the mark, there are still many ways we can improve and evolve.
Use technology for good, not evil
Technology. It’s quite incredible when you think about what a major impact it has had on our work and our life over the past decade. It’s opened up communication lines, given us social media, allowed us to have access to emails on the go and so much more. But the question is, are we letting technology control us and is it having a negative impact on our lives? If you look around, you’ll see someone on a phone, another typing away on a laptop and someone else plugged in listening to a podcast. Technology is everywhere and it’s letting us live more flexible, mobile lives. But why do leaders still see their employees being tied to a desk as a sign of being productive? The pressure to be seen working from your office desk is still alive and well, even with the increase talk of work–life integration and flexibility in the workplace.
How to lead a team to ongoing high performance
Leading a team to ongoing high performance is tricky, as old leadership techniques may no longer apply during business evolution.
Since the 2007 GFC people have been required to ‘do more, with less’ and were told to ‘work smarter, not harder’, and this is something that’s translated into our work ethics almost a decade on. Telling your team to operate this way is like giving the keys of a Ferrari to a 15-year-old and saying, ‘drive safely’.
How to manage your energy, not your time
Kick old time management habits out, and introduce techniques to manage your energy.
Time management demonstrates a one-size-fits-all approach to managing meetings, tasks, agendas and so forth. In fact, most people have been taught that, to effectively time manage, you should always do the most important task first. However, this often requires us to use a large amount of mental energy on the ‘important’ tasks, resulting in decreased productivity in the long-term. Instead of focusing on time management, we should be aiming for sustained high performance.
Achieving high performance at your natural pace
To achieve high performance in its truest sense, you need to be free from burn out and restraint. The only way to maintain high performance is to not solely focus on getting your performance up, but to shift your mindset and learn how to reduce your perceived effort levels.
f you’re struggling or it feels hard, then your productivity is not where it could be, which could also lead to unnecessary and unproductive stress. While a certain amount of stress is required for high performance, too much of it becomes unproductive and can have some serious long-term impacts on your health.
