“The world is changing very fast. Big will not beat small anymore. It will be the fast beating the slow.”
Rupert Murdoch, the owner of Fox News and one of the biggest media moguls alive, is setting things straight when it comes to how to improve your business efficiency.
Fast means – being efficient and productive in a specific unit of time, or other words, before your competition.
Time is the most valuable resource, and if you master it – you win.
Now, you can guess that for every Startup success, one thing is essential – it’s productivity!
Simple as that.
But achieving a high level of productivity is a dynamic process. And need to be in focus all the time and under constant surveillance.
That statement should be an excellent motivation for small startup owners.
If you think about it, it is pretty straightforward. It is easier to increase the productivity of a small team with few members, then in large corporations with hundreds of employees.
In the era of information, you can act quickly and, if needed, change a workflow or even whole structure to adapt to world trends rapidly.
But one thing you need to know is that even the quickest task has to be done, not set aside, and left for another day.
Small startups can compete with world-leading corporations for the first time in the history of the business. Use a unique workflow and use that advantage to react quickly and flexibly.
Why it’s Important?
The secret to success is the quick solving of problems – we may call it productivity.
Look at productivity as a living organism you need to feed, take care of, and nurture all the time.
It’s not something you should end up putting aside. It’s something you need to keep evolving.
In reality, however, you need to be concise – from A to Z, what you need to do right away that can almost immediately increase your efficiency and productivity.
There are five steps to achieving and sustaining a high productivity level.
Please give it a look.
Step 1: Priorities + Structure
It would be best if you considered putting everything on paper and making a list of priorities and their structure while building a successful Startup.
Here are some of the practices that have shown the most significant increase in productivity and efficiency:
- Team Roles
- Delegate Tasks
- Track Time
- Deadlines
To prevent duplication of work tasks, employees have to have a specific team role. According to their specialties, everyone in the team needs to know what their assignments are.
It’s easy to keep up with the process when you set up a team of people, know what their job is, and assign them tasks based on their team role.
How much time they spent on a particular task in general. And to manage the results with minimal effort.
“You have to decide what your highest priorities are and have the courage – pleasantly, smilingly, unapologetically – to say ‘no’ to other things. And the way you do that is by having a bigger ‘yes’ burning inside. The enemy of the ‘best’ is often the ‘good’.”
Stephen Covey
Step 2: Automation of Processes
Ok, the priorities are structured, and team roles are precise. Now, there is a catch.
How to monitor all of the real-time processes and information?
The answer is to automatize.
There is some excellent startup project management software designed to increase the productivity and efficiency of your Startup.
Project Management tools that help you to supervise processes such as:
- Planning
- Initiating
- Executing
- Monitoring
- Project closure
Once you’ve done that, know that you can control the effort you put into the project and choose what to do and what not, and therefore productivity will increase instantly.
You’re not going to waste your time on some trivial tasks – everything is going to be accurate and functional.
“The first rule of any technology used in a business is that automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency. The second is that automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency.”
Bill Gates
Step 3: Team Training and Education
It may sound like an obvious point, but in all research, team education and training are # 1 in productivity growth.
To have a direct effect on productivity and efficiency, you need to motivate your team members.
Well educated, trained, and highly motivated members of the team are at the core of every successful Startup.
Education and training is the most effective way to give your team a broader perspective and an opportunity to acknowledge:
- New skillset
- Get more confident
- Get motivated
- Revive old skills
- Increase employee satisfaction
There are many ways to increase productivity, and the basis for building a successful Startup is education and training.
“The key elements in the art of working together are how to deal with change, how to deal with conflict, and how to reach our potential…the needs of the team are best met when we meet the needs of individual persons.“
Max De Pree
Step 4: Company Culture
Every company needs to have a basic principle, a guide for its employees in which direction it is heading, and what processes it needs to take to accomplish it.
Productivity is directly related to the company’s culture. And it promotes the productivity of all members of the team.
A high-performance culture motivates and encourages workers to achieve more.
To accomplish this, you need to nurture:
- Building trust
- Open communication
- Work transparency
- Team collaboration
Company culture needs to influence thinking that engages work productivity and leads to a healthy environment where everyone has the space to grow as an individual and as a team in general.
“Determine what behaviors and beliefs you value as a company, and have everyone live true to them. These behaviors and beliefs should be so essential to your core, that you don’t even think of it as a culture.”
Brittany Forsyth
Step 5: Acknowledge Your Limitations
Understanding your limits is essential to development, either as an individual or as a team leader.
You need to know when you bit more than you can chew and spit it out. It may not seem connected, but limitations can significantly improve your productivity.
There are motivational quotes everywhere you look that says you can reach anything if you want to. Unfortunately, this is not the case.
But fortunately, if you plan and do things one by one, and give yourself time to grow by making mistakes and learning from them – everything can be possible.
Personal development is essential to enhancing your productivity as a leader. Recognizing your limits, you are accessible to others, and you begin to see things more realistic.
Be real, have a clear vision, and guide your team towards it, always knowing what you can and can’t do – and your Startup’s productivity will go sky-high.
Build your productivity on your limitations.
“It takes confidence and courage to acknowledge there are areas where you could improve–but this is true for everyone. No one is perfect, and everyone struggles with something. It’s the people who are willing to take an honest look at their weaknesses who consistently grow stronger.”
Albert Einstein
Conclusion
To sum up. Even the smallest changes can dramatically improve your productivity.
But, you have to know every aspect of that process because you need to achieve and maintain productivity at a high level most of the time.
Creating an efficient and productive environment, you need a precise list of every significant thing that can interfere with that. And remember – one thing at the time, and success will come.
As the quote says, “Rome wasn’t built in a day, but will stand forever.”
If you’re struggling, try these steps and let us know – was it helpful, or give some of your advice, we’re going to be happy to hear about it?
