Promoting better results demands an optimization in internal processes, and that always means automatizing them. So, it is frequently interesting to any executive manager a good teams and actives management in IT, once all of them are responsible for a great part of automation of processes, regardless the market they are inserted in.
To help you achieving an upgrade together with your technology team, we have gathered some really objective tips. Check them out:
1. Have your internal processes well tidy
Remember: no one likes to work in a messy and/or unstable environment, in which they can never know which the following step is, or if the team is managing to well perform their activities or not. Insecurity brings instability, and a high turnover.
So, it is not possible to have satisfactory results with a disorganized household. Having that in mind, follow your team working routine closely.
Assess every process by checking if they follow a well-structured logic, if there are bottlenecks, and some need for re-working.
After doing this mapping and identifying what can be improved, plan somehow to eliminate these setbacks to make your workflow easier.
2. Keep your communication open
In all teams there are more and less extrovert people, but this cannot affect the team’s outcome.
Talk to your collaborators and let them free to search for you individually. Also encourage them to take part in all meetings.
You will see that great ideas will come up, besides letting everyone more involved in the department’s responsibilities.
However, just showing yourself available is not the solution. Sometimes it is important to implement varied communication channels, such as Ombudsman, improvements/suggestions emails, and/or even count on businesses social media network as Facebook Workplace (previous Facebook at work), or Fluig.
3. Set a good workplace
Usually, in our day-by-day rush, we leave aside some matters apparently unimportant regarding our workplace. Do not make this mistake! Check out what can be done to improve the comfort for everyone (including your own).
It is not necessary to exceed your budget. Sometimes, less or even no investment is necessary to make the mood more favorable at work, or less exhausting, for example, by removing physical partitions or moving tables.
We should highlight here the main companies’ benchmark from your department. Searching for what has been doing to improve your workplace is interesting. You will find some radical ideas such as Ricardo Semler’s (check his TED here (Portuguese only) – How to manage a company without (almost) any rules), and also those ones not so radical like inclusive meetings and confraternizations and, as we said before, changing the workplace’s layout.
4. Take a leading posture
If guiding your team through obstacles and challenges is up to you, take the lead with them to get better results, and show them that you are also part of the effort.
Always aim to give examples, otherwise, there will not be conditions to charge for anything from your team.
5. Line up the goals
Even if you are the one in charge to control deadlines, tasks, and responsibilities, it is essential to have everyone from your team knowing where you are leading them to.
So, having a good communication and advertising system, and lining up your goals and status is essential to have the feeling of presence of the group in the company, and in the project.
6. Set goals
A little bit different from our previous tip, this moment we are dealing with the responsibilities assignment. This must be done both to the whole group and individually and, sometimes, to small sub-groups with punctual tasks.
Knowing exactly what is expected from a collaborator helps a lot, both at the time when they are charged for some results, and it makes it easier to identify when something is not going well.
Another important observation: assign these goals in a way they can be feasible, although they cannot be achieved with so little effort. It is needed to balance it. Remember that a good goal is a SMART goal:
| S – Specific | WRONG – | RIGHT: I want to save more money |
| M – Measurable | WRONG – | RIGHT: I want save a billion. |
| A – Agreed upon | WRONG – | RIGHT: I want to save R$ 1.000.000,00 |
| R – Realistic | WRONG – | RIGHT: I want to save R$ 1.000.000,00 to invest in a new business. (and maybe in a second moment, I can reach a billion) |
| T – Time-Related | WRONG – | PERFECT: I want to save R$ 1.000.000,00 this year so I can invest in a new business next year. |
7. Choose your indicators
Focus on listing the indexes you aim to reach, but do this by using fast and easy methods.
A good indicators selection will help you showing every time how much it has been possible to evolve on a determined service, process, or project.
Check them periodically, and you will be able to act in a faster way to correct routes, if necessary.
Be careful not to set too many indicators. If you do that, you can end up abandoning this follow-up routine.
8. Motivate your team
Besides giving good examples, it is important to keep the mood up in your team.
This doesn’t mean to keep on complimenting them all the time, nor discouraging external tasks. We mean here that you should defend your collaborators’ interests, and always encourage them to show their good work.
When something goes wrong, or can be done in a better way, explain it and show them how it could have been done, besides showing the benefits of it. Do it by using a friendly tone of voice, and do not take a superior posture.
Have in mind that everyone is human just like you. So, work on your empathic skills.
9. Invest in tools and infrastructure
Your work demands a lot from tools and solutions. Pay close attention to keeping them always working properly.
Assess the stability of your infrastructure and if every software is appropriate, and consider substituting those when necessary.
Avoid offering reasons why some collaborators could have excuses to be idle or reduce their working pace.
Everything must be working well, so there won’t be unnecessary stops that you harm your productivity.
10. Provide continuous feedbacks
Keep on offering returns about the projects in progress. If you don’t have this habit yet, cultivate it.
For a formal feedback, it is interesting to plan a better date and time to provide it. However, a good feedback is always “fresh”, which means that timing is essential. If the person did something that overcame your expectations, give him/her the feedback NOW. But, always remember that you must get a grip, or you will be controlled by your excitement. So, have a culture of giving feedbacks at moments that you have your emotions under control.
The most important thing about these returns is to properly assess what has been done in the best way possible, congratulating who was remarkable in the process, and also understanding what happened that could have been done in a better way so, in the future, the situation won’t happen again.
Managing to have a mastered IT team management is something that few people can do, but after some practice and experience, the path is much easier.
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