Why aren’t your employees as productive as you want them to be? It’s an age-old question…and one usually answered the wrong way.
Some leaders tend to think it’s a matter of the carrot or the stick. Those systems look something like this:
- Reward good productivity
- Punish bad productivity
- The folks with poor productivity will learn to be more productive
But what if that doesn’t work? What if you’re targeting the wrong problem?
Maximizing your employees’ productivity takes a more creative approach – one that will change the culture at your credit union or community bank for the better.
The Real Problem
It sounds hokey, but your productivity problem may really be a fulfillment problem. That is, employees aren’t fulfilled in their current positions. And when they aren’t fulfilled, productivity declines.
Research by Oxford University supports this theory. According to the study, happy workers are 13% more productive. Happiness makes a huge difference!
Increase the happiness (a.k.a fulfillment) for each individual employee, and you’ll increase productivity as well.
How Do You Increase Employee Fulfillment?
Each employee is pre-programmed with a certain skillset. These skillsets give different employees different strengths, and those strengths are suited for different parts of the workflow.
What does this workflow look like? Think of your workflow like an airplane coming in for a landing:
- 30,000 ft. – Recognizing an opportunity/problem
- 20,000 ft. – Generating an idea to address the opportunity/problem
- 15,000 ft. – Critiquing/refining the idea
- 10,000 ft. – Rallying the team behind the refined idea
- 5,000 ft. – Helping/encouraging team members in need
- 0 ft. – Pushing the project to completion
Certain altitudes feel natural to staff members. Putting them in natural positions increases productivity. Meanwhile, putting them in unnatural positions decreases productivity.
So, an unhappy (or unproductive) employee may be a square peg in a round hole. They’re doing their best, but their best at something not suited to their abilities is subpar.
Genius? Or Not?
Patrick Lencioni’s Working Genius Model describes employee strengths and weaknesses as “Working Geniuses” or “Working Frustrations.”
Working Geniuses are the workflow tasks giving an employee a sense of fulfillment or happiness. There are six total geniuses, and each person has two core strengths. Discover those strengths, and you discover how to encourage greater productivity.
On the other hand, Working Frustrations are geniuses turned upside-down. They are the two parts of the workflow an employee can’t stand. Frustrations deprive an employee of energy and joy at work.
It’s important to note that one person’s frustration is another person’s genius (and vice versa). You need every skillset in your credit union or community bank. It’s just a matter of leveraging those skillsets the right way.
Set up a thriving team. Find the right balance of skillsets to maximize employee fulfillment. When you do that, you’ll maximize productivity too.
If you’re ready to unlock the secret of employee productivity, then book a Working Genius training with On The Mark Strategies. Email us today, and build a thriving work culture at your institution.
