How to get the most out of your startup team - a conversation around productivity
- Leadership
Here at Findrs we built startup teams, we know just how important it is to have that team working to optimal productivity. After all, our success relies on the success of the businesses we work with. We consistently say “The more successful our customers are, the more successful we will be”. So, we've done our research and found that there are 4 key elements needed to ensure peak productivity within a startup.
First things first, let's talk about the relationship between motivation and leadership. There's some great literature out there on this topic, and we've taken the best pieces of it to share with you.
Daniel Pink's Drive, Extreme Ownership by Jock Wilink, and Leaders Eat Last by Simon Sinek are three books that we highly recommend checking out. These books touch on important topics such as autonomy, purpose, and belief – all of which play a crucial role in productivity.
The 4 Main Elements of Productivity
Now, let's dive into the four main elements needed for peak productivity within a startup.
1) Incentive/Purpose
It's important for your team to have a clear incentive or purpose that motivates them to work hard. This could be anything from financial rewards to the satisfaction of seeing a project come to fruition.
There’s a huge bias towards purpose in today's rhetoric from thought leaders, but, are you telling me that every successful person has a “purpose”? No. Some people just have a good affinity to an incentive whether that be financial, status, or something else.
Find out if your team works best with incentives or purpose-led leadership and management.
2)Autonomy/Psychological Safety
Giving your team members autonomy and psychological safety is crucial for their productivity. When team members feel trusted and safe, they are more likely to take risks, share their ideas, and work collaboratively. If you micromanage people and tell someone to do something, you run the risk of productivity tanking. This is particularly seen in more experienced hires, who want less direction.
3) Belief
Belief is the foundation of productivity. There are 2 types of beliefs that are important and are separate from purpose. believing in the purpose (see, number 1) While it’s important the team believes in the company's vision and purpose there are 2 other beliefs that are just as important.
First, they need to believe they’re good at the task and can actually do it. Have you done enough training/L&D around this task so that the person knows they can do it?
Second, The team needs to believe that the task they’ve been delegated will have the desired effect on the business.
E.g. If you have a Sales Person who doesn’t believe that Cold Calling is a good use of time, but you keep pushing that, productivity will be down on that activity. Either change outreach tasks due to their feedback or speak to your team about WHY it’s worth the time and that it will yield results.
Psychological safety key here again, your team must feel safe enough to raise their disbelief in a task.
4) Energy
Finally, energy is key to productivity. This means ensuring your team is well-rested and has a positive work environment. When your team is energized, they use their Belief, Incentive, and Autonomy to get shit done.
2 things to add to this:
Eric Partaker’s recent post on Leaders energizing or de-energizing teams is awesome - Post here!
If you’re looking for a closer management tactic into energy levels to get the most out of the team, check out Loopin which is an incredible Slack Tool used to check in with the team and track energy and engagement levels. Check them out here: https://www.letsloopin.com/
For more info on how to Energize your team - a new post is coming soon! But a “reactive day” out of the office or buying the team lunch will go a long way to get you started.
Putting it All Together to gain 10x traction!
If you can get all of these elements right within your team, you'll be on your way to achieving awesome traction. By providing your team with a clear purpose or incentives, autonomy/psychological safety, belief, and energy, you'll see them work hard and achieve great things.
Findrs is a recruitment business for startups, we know that productivity is crucial for success. By focusing on the four main elements of productivity – incentive/purpose, autonomy/psychological safety, belief, and energy – you can create a highly productive team that achieves amazing results. So, start implementing these elements in your startup today and watch your team thrive!
