Doing a Steve Jobs and wearing the same outfit to work every day won't solve your problems, though it will make getting ready in the morning easier.
When teams burn the biscuits on every single project it can look like a productivity issue... but if these are the symptoms, you might be looking for a different cure.
Not motivated
You could have too much micromanagement and not enough empowerment.
Audibly tell your team you trust them with the job and then show you do, by asking each member how it is going during reporting meetings, rather than undercutting their role by doing tasks behind their back that they were expecting to sort.
Ask each member how frequently they would like accountability check-ins, as some thrive on more and others suffocate on it.
You might also have a lack of ownership/agency – this is often a side effect of the previous point but also occurs from not setting roles and responsibilities properly from the start.
If people don’t feel like they have the freedom to perform a task in their own working style (open office vs. closed cubicle, focused work in the a.m vs. the p.m, sitting at a desk or walking while you work...), or they don’t feel like they can emotionally invest in something because they have not been given permission to really sink their teeth into it, they end up lukewarm and the project dies of hypothermia.
Troubleshoot the tasks when you are setting up a project and be prepared to give people boundaries they can explore within, rather than trying to please everyone now and suffering later.
Have people explain back to you what their roles and expected outcomes are.
If you are setting up the project but not managing it, clearly hand the reigns over or people will assume it isn’t an important project.
Mostly, people who are passionate are motivated, so find the sweet spot where everyone feels like they can run with their tasks, and they will!
Not efficient, focused, or timely
Firstly, your team might lack clarity on the aim/outcome, which means work will be done tentatively and with a lot of guesswork or “looking at someone else’s exam paper for the result”.
Looking to see what everyone else is doing never helps finish a race, but team members may be nervous to ask up the chain because they don’t want to appear incompetent.
Remember nobody can read minds, so once again, asking them to explain the concept to you and how their role plays into it, can help.
This is a good exercise to do with those who don’t speak up much in the meeting and like to work independently before the team disperses to begin working on it.
This point is also massively caused by the fear of decision making or prioritizing.
This is a result of trying to start a task that needs something else done first, generally because the tasks were not broken down enough or in the right order.
Always allow room for this in the project deadline – that they person in the role might come up against a roadblock that all the planning in the world didn’t foresee, or that tech or software or supply limitations are not sufficient for them to make speedy work of it.
In fact, lateness often comes down to decision paralysis when two options seem to have equal value -- so even some of your most talented members might benefit from leaders who can help them decide what to prioritize next.
Some might find this more helpful for sticking the course than general accountability; so offer it during check-ins.
Worth a mention is the working smarter-not-harder debate: if your team feels the culture is all grind, they won't take a break to reboot their brain for fear of being reprimanded.
The solution there is to vocally give permission for it -- and notice the difference in results.
Make sure the team knows that the only way to break isn't to go get another coffee to bring back to their desk, too... it could be a brisk walk or chat with a fellow break-er!
Some research has shown that the brain is able to focus for 90 minutes at a time, however many find they need more frequent but shorter breaks.
More ways to work smarter not harder
Not communicative
If you have ever heard the words “well, he reports to x but in reality, is under x”, or “she has two managers”, this might be the fatal blow in your cookie recipe.
Having an inter-hierarchy structure that only works on paper is commonly called Too Many Cooks and truly burns everything.
The only cure there is to stop it.
Your team being able to get work done is more important to both culture and profit, than pacifying the titles on management badges.
There is a cost to trying to keep one or two people happy at the sacrifice of everybody else.
And finally, sometimes it is the tools’ fault.
Not enough tools and the project slips through the cracks, but too many and people end up overwhelmed.
Whether you use Slack or email or daily huddles, keep tools simple and cut it down to the essentials.
Like a CRM that takes longer to keep up to date than the actual sale itself, make sure the software and other tools designed to aid the project are not in fact its downfall.
If the process of communicating is distracting or keeps taking people in and out of their workflow, well, have fun with that – because even sparrows don’t eat burnt cookies.
