In Part 1 of this article, we discussed the first 3 steps to working efficiently with your team members. Now we will discuss the remaining 2 steps that will help you effectively manage your workload while working along with your team.
4.) Once you figure out everything your team needs to do, make your workload and goals visible.
Talk to your team/members of management and decide what will work the best for you as far as how your team can visibly monitor your workload. Some options are a physical or electronic spreadsheet, a computer program, and/or a bulletin or dry erase board.
You could even simply list your tasks in a group email to everyone on your team, and for each task, list the goal completion or due date, and/or who is responsible for completing each one. The most current email could be printed out and posted at each person’s desk/workstation. As things are completed, the email can be updated and forwarded to everyone.
If you choose to use email in this way, you could also cc any higher members of management your team works under, so they can see your team’s progress and how much work each team member is doing. This would motivate everyone to get things done in a timely manner and likely prevent procrastination.
5.) Don’t forget to track other tasks that need to be performed on a daily or continual basis.
You could use a simple monthly checklist to track everything that needs to be done regularly, such as daily, weekly, or monthly tasks. These consistent tasks could be separated into 2 lists- one containing tasks that you need to complete yourself and one that lists responsibilities that need to be regularly completed by your team/department as a whole.
A list that contains regular tasks to be completed by individuals in your department could be assigned to specific members of your team or simply just initialed by the person who completes the task each time (if it’s something only one person needs to do.)
This will help track who is doing what, but will also help streamline your team’s regular duties so you can all stay productive. Getting into a routine with your regular tasks will help you to be able to focus on any larger projects you need to complete, without you needing to worry about forgetting to do the fundamental aspects of your job.
So those are 5 steps for working efficiently with your team members. These will help you optimize your time so you can be productive and fulfill a realistic workload while working side-by-side with others in your company.
