When it comes to managing staff, there are lots of tips and tricks out there to help you be a good manager and leader. But at the end of the day, it really comes down to a few simple tips and tricks that not only help guide your team to success, but really frees up everyone’s time to focus on the things that really matter. So today, I wanted to share with you the two most important tips to managing your staff and team.
Tip 1: Assign the Right Task to The Right Person
When you have a task or project that comes up- how do you decide who to delegate that task to? Do you choose someone that is reliable and quick to respond? Do you ask the first person you see in the hallway? Or do you choose the right person for the task at hand?
If you spent a moment thinking about the task and the core competencies and responsibilities of your team, the answer should be clear. Here are a few questions to get you started:
- What are they truly on the payroll to produce?
- What are the results that they are most responsible for?
- What do they own in their area?
- How do know they’re doing great work?
- How can they measure their own success in an area or ongoing functional responsibility?
- How does the company know that they’re doing a great job?
Tip 2: Do Quarterly Check-Ins
The second tip for managing your staff effectively has to do with having regular check-ins. And this is done with a quarterly plan which is a simple one-page document that lays out the priorities for each team member for this quarter to help them decide where to spend their most time and effort. Every month you want to sit down together with your direct reports and decide what the top three focus areas are this quarter and the criteria of success surrounding each focus area. It should be very clear at the end of this meeting what is expected of each team member and how success will be measured.
And since it’s just one page of action items, this can easily be done at 1-on-1 meetings or together as a group.
By focusing on assigning the right tasks and projects to the right individual and then doing regular check-ins together as a team you can ensure that more of the important work gets done in the time allotted, and you can then focus on growing and developing your business even faster.
