Self Assessment: Is My Team Productive?

How do you know if your team is truly productive?

Most leaders have a gut feeling about it, but how can you know with more certainty? 

Here’s a self-assessment guide to help you determine your team’s productivity and what to do if you find areas that need improvement.

1. Does My Team Consistently Hit Its Goals?

If the answer is "no" or "some what", it’s a sign that there might be underlying issues affecting productivity.

Solution: Evaluate your productivity framework to ensure your team has focused time each week to make your goals happen. Implement weekly planning meetings where each team member can outline their priorities and align them with the team’s objectives. This will help in setting clear expectations and keeping everyone on track.

2. Is There a Clear System for Tracking Our Progress?

If the answer is "no", without a structured way to track progress, it's easy for tasks to fall through the cracks and for team members to lose sight of their priorities.

Solution: Introduce a time management framework like Time Boss, which emphasizes weekly planning and daily review meetings. This system helps in keeping track of ongoing tasks via Backlogs and Daily Lists, setting realistic deadlines, and reviewing progress regularly. By having a clear overview of what needs to be done and by when, your team can easily stay organized and focused.

3. Are Team Members' Workloads Balanced and Manageable?

If the answer is "no" or "somewhat", consider this a red flashing light on your dashboard. Overloaded team members will feel overwhelmed, and consistent overwhelm leads to burnout, reduced productivity, diminished results, and ultimately losing key team members to turnover.

Solution: Use a productivity framework like Time Boss to help team members manage their workload more effectively. Encourage them to block time on their calendars for high-priority tasks and to include buffer time (aka Whirlwind) for unexpected issues. You can also run your Weekly Planning Meetings as a team to redistribute tasks if someone is overloaded, ensuring that workload is balanced across the team.

4. Do Team Members Have Dedicated Time to Do Focused Work?

If the answer is "no" or "not much", good luck with your goals. Interruptions and constant multi-focusing can severely hinder productivity and the quality of work, and add to the feeling of overwhelmed mentioned above.

Solution: Give your team members permission to focus on priorities and say "no" to meetings if lower priority. Or consider designing specific times during the week where team members can focus on their tasks without interruptions. This could be achieved by setting "quiet hours" or "focus blocks" where meetings and communications (think Slack or Microsoft Teams) are minimized, allowing team members to get solid focus time on their priorities. 

5. Are Your Team Members Accountable to Each Other on Priorities? 

If the answer is "no" or "I don't even know what that is", we see you and we appreciate your honesty. Without accountability, it’s easy for priorities to shift, deadlines to be missed, and productivity to drop. The science of the power of accountability is wild, ensuring that team members are committed to their tasks and that their progress is easily verified by the team.

Solution: Check out the guide to Calendar Accountability here. It's a step by step process to walk you through it. 

6. Are Team Members Able to Disconnect After Work?

If "no" or "I can hear my phone pinging all night with notifications", you may want to start planning for team member burnout. If team members are always connected, they can never fully rest, leading to decreased productivity and burnout. Additionally, constant work leads to poor prioritization practices, leading your team to say "yes" to too many things. 

Solution: Encourage your team to fully disconnect after work hours, and only be available for emergencies (which should be few and far between).  Do the same with vacations. We wrote a guide for that too! Grab it here. 

How did your team do? 

If you answer "no" to any question above, we'd love to help. The Time Boss productivity framework addresses each of these areas, focusing on clear goals, effective time management, balanced workloads, focused work, calendar accountability, and proper rest. This helps you ensure your team operates at its Highest Sustainable Pace, delivering powerful results without the risk of burnout. If you’re ready to take the next step in enhancing your team’s productivity, reach out today for more information.