Shun the negativity

Tips to make your team work effectively under short deadline

It's the Monday morning staff meeting, and the week's urgent projects are on the agenda. As your team faces the plethora assignments in line for them, you hear a collective groan or grumbling – a blatant sign of negativity. You wonder: what Grinch has abducted the cheer from my team and how can I bring the vigour back? Funny thing is that this is a common dilemma for every manager/supervisor to tackle on a daily basis. The core villain of this situation is “NEGATIVITY”.

Negativity, the proverbial baddie that is prone to sulking, is omnipresent in every workspace. The current work environment that we have espoused has pushed us to be on our A-game, 24x7. This has created an undue sense of pressure, especially in the timely deliverance of stellar projects.

While the best execution requires a great deal of mulling and brainstorming, the current work culture facilitates rapid deliverance in supermodel-thin deadlines. The inability to meet these deadlines breeds a sense of negativity- professionals feel low on moral as they miss out on integral timelines.

To boost up their morale, while getting crucial work done, follow the following steps:

Deadlines aren’t bad as they make you get working, even when you might not feel like it. You as a team leader should make the team realise that meeting deadlines successfully is one of the best motivating factors out there

Dish out the “Cheerleader” in you
Supportive team leaders/ supervisors harbour a happy and dedicated team - a notion that is essential to keep in mind. Keep reminding the team of their positive attributes and help them uncover their hidden potentialities. Your task is to nurture the saplings into strong trees and now is the time to be reminded of their resourcefulness, more than ever.

Gain commitment
Encourage teams to clarify what they understand of the task and summarise the task at hand. This helps build better u understanding and commitment. There is a study that proves that when an employee commits to a task, the chances of success in the first attempt goes up by four times. This helps prevent rework and thereby increasing the on-time task completion rate.

Clarify the term “deadline”
Set the basics clear - When exactly is the deadline? Clarify whether “end of the week” means 5 pm Friday or first thing in the morning. Intimate your team on the intricacies of requirements and don’t forget to hammer down the results, requirements of the client and how effectiveness is measured through timeliness.

Make it OK for people to ask for help
It is common to have a “Superman complex” as professionals surge out to be the “shining star of the organisation”. Yet, no one gets extra points for trying to be a hero. It’s far better for the team if employees understand their limitations and ask for help. Check in often and provide a viable solution for your team to bank upon.

Break the task down
Step by step procedure is the best way to tackle such delicate projects. “Complete big project by Friday” is not a healthy approach to harbour. Start with the biggest tasks and break them down into individual steps that have their own deadlines - this would be easier for your team members to tackle and complete.

Buffer up the time
It is wise to cushion up time, as you plan to delegate tasks. Mark the due date a few days ahead of the actual deadline so you have time to deal with changes or last-minute emergencies. This grace time or buffer makes a great difference as it keeps individual performance rate and rate of completion into consideration- a morale boosting task, approved by many HODs.

By: Teja Gudluru
The writer is CEO and founder, UDo mobile app