As a business professional, you wear many hats often having a to-do list longer than the hours in your day. You recognize that if you are to grow your business without burning out, you need to create habits, improve processes and streamline your work.

You also recognize that you need to rely on your team. In today’s workplace, the challenge is to not only manage your own workload, but to have a team that stays continuously motivated.

So, how can you boost your team’s productivity?

When you’re under extreme pressures, it’s easy to get caught up in the next thing and the next thing and the next thing. One simple habit to boost your team’s productivity is to acknowledge them.

Acknowledgement is not a one size fits all. The way you acknowledge someone matters.

As a leader, deliver the recognition based on how your individual team member is wired and watch his/her productivity soar.

For example, Sandy walked around the office telling everyone “Wow! You rock!” “OMG! Your customer service evals are out of this world!”

While exuberant, her feedback to her staff, largely internal thinkers who were wired with a high degree of certainty and information were left feeling like they didn’t get enough specific feedback. To the employees, the acknowledgement felt a little phony.

As a leader, Sandy thought she was motivating her staff to produce more. Instead, she needed to understand that her staff wanted specific information. What was missing was her understanding of how her staff wanted to receive their acknowledgement.

After one of my sessions with Sandy, she tried a different approach. The next time she got the customer service scores, Sandy determined how each team member wanted to receive their information based on their individual wiring.

In one case, Sandy received positive feedback on Ann who is naturally wired as an internal thinker who also likes a high degree of certainty. Sandy realized Ann needed her acknowledgement to be specific to be effective.

Sandy personally approached Ann. She reviewed Ann’s customer service score with her and specifically reviewed one of the testimonials from a satisfied customer. The employee mentioned how grateful she was since she now knows what to continue to do. Ann was also motivated by the specific feedback and walked around with a big grin on her face. Over the next month, that same employee increased her productivity scores by 25%.

Acknowledging your workforce is a great habit to boost your team’s productivity. Make sure to do it with the employee’s wiring in mind.

Resources:

Read more about Sandy and Ann in Me, Myself, and Why? The Secrets to Navigating Change

Bring AcuMax Index into your organization to learn about your team’s wiring.