Three tips on preventing team members procrastinating

Even the most hard-working and experienced workers are not immune to a widespread modern lifestyle disease, namely procrastination - in other words, chronic postponement of duties due to less essential activities and distractions. If procrastination breaks out among team members, it can easily destroy the potential of an otherwise efficient team. Here are three tips on how to keep your team members from procrastinating in the long run and help employees who struggle with procrastination to overcome the problem.

Illustration

This article was published by Strategy-Business.com.

Introduce a clear vision to your team

The first and at the same time most important step towards preventing the occurrence of procrastination in your team is to provide strong motivation to work and a clear vision everybody wants to achieve, one that will make all team members work so hard that they will not be inclined to procrastinate. Present a common goal, "sell" it to the team effectively, then ensure on an individual level that all team members truly believe in this vision, are enthusiastic about it and want to help reach it.

Give employees sufficient power and include them in decision making processes

You cannot give your employees sufficient motivation to prevent them procrastinating unless you trust them and give them sufficient space for their work. To inspire your employees to give their best possible work performance, you must give them enough power and provide them with the option to make decisions for themselves, so that they truly believe they are able to contribute to the good results of the whole team.

Create a working environment in which employees are not afraid to talk about such topics

Last but not least, it is advisable that you offer employees such an environment in which it is normal to discuss employees' mental health issues, the mistakes they make and also problems with procrastination. Team members should feel comfortable coming to you and admitting they procrastinate, then talking about how to rectify the situation.

 

-mm-

Article source Strategy+Business - a U.S. management magazine
Read more articles from Strategy+Business