How does leadership style affect efficiency?

Leaders motivate. That’s what they’re there for. The performance of a team or department is usually down to the way it’s led. And this means you have some real opportunities to get everyone working efficiently.

What makes a good leader?

According to the Association for Talent Development, “good leaders ensure that their teams have the right tools, resources, and training to be effective”. Providing their team with all they need to do their jobs well is a good leader’s top priority.

But there are so often questions about how this can be done. If you’re finding it challenging to deliver this, you can start out by taking stock of what you’re currently providing to your team members. Once you know, you can gauge whether your company is really giving your team members what they need to succeed.

If you find out it’s not quite there in this regard, you should take a look at each aspect: tools; resources; and training. Do you need to change anything or improve delivery on any of these?

Training is one area we can help you plan things better for your team. With our system, you can store and manage all training records for your whole company, across all sites. You can assign training courses by job roles or to individuals. With this module, you’ll know exactly who needs training on what.

This’ll also help you identify where your team’s strengths are and if you need to invest in more development. And this makes it even more straightforward to increase efficiency. Once you’ve trained your team up, you’ll be in the best position to crank up your efficiency.

Engagement and efficiency

The more engaged your team, the better their productivity. This isn’t just good logic – a Gallup study found that highly engaged employees are 21% more productive. A separate Gallup poll found that engaged employees are 27% more likely to report an “excellent performance” at work. If you want to be the leader facilitating this kind of efficiency increase, you know what to do. Get your teams involved and get them engaged.

When you want to increase engagement, you need to get your teams involved. As ATD points out “the saying goes, ‘No involvement, no commitment’”. Involving your team in your processes will lead to more engagement and buy-in from them.

So what can you do to increase engagement in your team?

Making sure your colleagues feel valued is one of the most important things you can do as a leader. If they feel like they’re cared about, they’ll be more likely to stick with your company. This has been shown in plenty of studies. When good people leave, they take their skills and experience with them. And it’ll cost your business to replace them – from recruitment costs to productivity downtime, it’s expensive.

When you let your team just do their work and you get them involved in what you’re trying to achieve, you show that you trust them. And that’s a huge vote of confidence in them, which will empower them to boost their own efficiency.

Comfortable conditions

Making people comfortable at work will also lead to efficiency gains. The right conditions can have a major impact on people’s ability to work.

For example, a 2014 study found that 29% of workers reported that they don’t work for up to half an hour every day because of an uncomfortable temperature. A Cornell University report also found that warmer workers make fewer errors and increase output by 150%. Definitely something to consider in the winter months.

Lighting is also an important factor. Businesses that give their workers the appropriate level of lighting will see higher productivity. This has been shown in a study by Northwestern Medicine and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The researchers behind it found that people who see more natural light sleep better and longer and are more physically active.

To ensure you’re keeping on top of all the aspects affecting workers’ health, you need the right systems in place. DRI has just what you need to carry out your operational checklists, which means you’ll always know the safety situation in your workplace. Whatever checks you need to make, you can with DRI.

To find out more about how our Dynamic Risk Indicator can help your company improve efficiency, just give us a call on 0161 967 1616 or pop your details in our simple form.