The habit of postponing important tasks until the last moment is the silent killer of all kinds of projects. Avoiding responsibility until the deadline is near is becoming a common issue nowadays. According to MyTimeManagement, project management has experienced a fourfold increase in procrastination during the last 30 years.
More often than not, procrastination stems from complexities in project management or situations wherein, team members find a task mundane and skip it for later. As a project manager, you can get away with one off cases, however, the bottom line is most likely to be affected if procrastination becomes a permanent activity. Procrastination frequently appears when PM team forget that doing tasks on time is not their only obligation. In those moments, you should remind them that an efficient team should work continuously and be consistent. Read on, because we are explaining how to do this, by providing the key answers to the burning question:
What Can You Do to Motivate Your Team Members and Keep Them on the Right Path?
To provide the best results, a project manager should take care of two vitally important activities. These are:
a. Effective and efficient task delegation
b. The implementation of simple project management software
These elements are keys to building a team that will not consider procrastination as an option. Hence, if you are willing to get in its way, think about implementing the strategies listed below.
#1 Break down a Challenging Task into Subtasks
It’s not a surprise that people tend to get scared by demanding and complex tasks. To reduce pressure in the office and motivate team members, divide overwhelming activities into easier assignments.
This way, the staff will not think about the size of the project. Instead, they will focus on:
- completing each part of the project thoroughly,
- providing the expected quality.
As a result, the stress from heavy workloads will radically decrease and team members will put more time and effort into every step they take. Finally, the fact that 30% of project managers tend to break down challenging tasks into smaller activities speaks enough about the productivity of this strategy.
#2 Let Team Members Do What They Know Best
When delegating tasks to team members, it is important to pay attention to their skills and preferences. If you delegate an assignment to a team member that lacks skills, you are giving them a reason to procrastinate.
Instead, make sure that every person gets an adequate task that they can handle successfully without unnecessary frustrations. It is vitally important that people feel comfortable with their tasks. When they are interested in what they do, they will be more likely to meet the deadlines.
#3 Introduce a Simple Project Management Software to Increase Efficiency
Have you already given your team members the tasks they enjoy? There is one more important thing left for you to do to get rid of procrastination. You would be surprised to find out how a simple project management software can improve the productivity of your team.
When there is a practical project software to keep track of everything, people will be organized in a better way and able to communicate easily. The importance of software of this kind lies in its comprehensive features. The well-designed software gives a PM team numerous useful options, such as:
- Tracking progress of projects and their elements,
- Creating time-saving task dependencies,
- Time tracking projects for a whole team or individual members, etc.
#4 Inspire Actions as a Team Leader
The fact that a project manager is supposed to delegate tasks to the PM team does not mean that managers get to do nothing while other people work on the given tasks.
A project manager is still the person who should inspire actions and provoke team members to work. This is usually impossible if the person in charge does not perform the tasks in a good way.
What does it mean?
If your team members are lazy and uninterested, the chances are that you are not the best role model for them. Remember that teams are as good as their leaders. This means that if you procrastinate and avoid responsibility, your team will do so, too.
#5 Organize Individual Meetings with Team Members
Do you want to build a dedicated team willing to work on their tasks without postponing them? To make it happen, you will have to talk to all members, individually.
This is important because one on one conversations are the best way for you to understand every employee. Moreover, it is significantly easier to explain a certain task to a person who should perform it rather than to do so in front of the entire team. This kind of meeting is supposed to identify and eliminate pain areas, so don’t hesitate to use that time to:
- address the potential issues,
- suggest the ways of solving them,
- track the progress after solving a certain problem.
This way, you will also make your employees feel more relaxed which leads you to open communication. Accordingly, you will prevent misunderstandings and show each of them that you appreciate their efforts.
Say Goodbye to Procrastination – Right Now
Finally, remember that being a role model manager requires not only having the right people and good timing but also the right tools.
Provided that you have adopted the listed strategies, the only thing left on your way to amazing, well-organized team is a simple project management software. If you are considering getting a reliable tool of this kind, you may be interested in testing ProProfs Project, which we developed to help you stay productive and organized.
Author Bio: David is a technical writer, his works are regularly published in various papers and top-notch portals. His rich experience in Project management domain helps him offer latest and fresh perspective on improved efficiency in work flows across organizations. His informative works on similar lines can be reached out on ProProfs Project.