When it comes to business success, emotional intelligence beats IQ. Knowing how to manage our feelings is important. And understanding others is crucial for teamwork. In fact, managing emotions is a key leadership skill. Self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy and social skills. And it should not surprise us that empathy is the cornerstone of teamwork.
Team productivity always boils down to team dynamics. Also, team members and their interactions matter more and more. And teams exist to synergies and cooperate. Our series explores some of the most valuable tips on how to be a better team player.
Most entrepreneurs are quick to experience fatigue. It’s only natural. There are simply so many decisions to make. Anything can go wrong, anytime. And some days are plain awful. Some days you might want to shut everything down. And move somewhere and fish for a living. Or fix fishing nets.
It is the work. Being an entrepreneur is a lot of work. And everything about that work is special. You deal with countless items every day. Product, strategy, development, marketing. New markets, optimizing. Or too much optimizing.
Productivity hacks are not a cheat. Instead, think of them as an enhancement to your productivity. A regular working experience has certain limitations. Entrepreneurship does not.
As fast-paced and technology driven as the modern workplace might be, distractions and interruptions still manage to keep us still, slowing down our productivity. “Friendly” notifications that pop up everywhere and at any time, teammates who constantly ask for help or feedback, the continuous battle for balance between being able to do our job and working together with the team for a common purpose — known as teamwork — all that puts enormous pressure on our work and focus.
Productivity is a key issue for entrepreneurs. It has grown as an issue along with the number of startups. And the knowledge base on productivity is growing. Along with it, so is confusion. There are claims that the 6-hour workday is optimal. Others put in 60 hours of work every week and go on city breaks in weekends.
The world is crazy for enhancing productivity. Why? Maybe it’s because we’re so far from where we started. And we cannot reconcile our current success. Or maybe it is standard greed. We want more. And when you want more, you know what to do. Increase productivity. Or maybe we’re scared that in the future 80% of jobs will be lost to AI. It’s still productivity that we’ll be concerned with then.
Interruptions at work are like rain at picnics. Why? It is rare that anyone finds them refreshing. And while picnics have lost popularity, a lot of people still care for work productivity.
Although we spend approximately 60% of our communication time listening, we only retain 35% of what we hear. Actually, two months after a conversation, we only remember around 25% of what was said. That’s no surprise considering our average eight-second attention span, which makes listening concentration so hard to achieve.
Photo by kyle smith on Unsplash
Productivity and being productive. It’s a modern issue. Ideas come and go. They’re a dime a dozen. Having the idea is only 1 percent of the issue. Putting the work in, that’s an entirely different matter. Getting your team to be maximally productive, even more so. It’s tougher than ever to get everything done
Musk: Space X, Tesla Inc, SolarCity, and the list goes on. Just look up Neuralink, you’ll use it to download your mind, two decades from now. All eyes are on Elon Musk. After all, he figured out a cost-effective way to manufacture his own rockets. Alongside individual accomplishments come team achievements that might seem even more incredible.
Former employees and collaborators tell stories that paint a very vivid picture of life under the leadership of Elon Musk. Add to this the Hyperloop, Neuralink, and making plans for several decades at once. There clearly must be something about team management that Elon Musk does well. How else would you have the guts to sport a “Before and After” poster on your wall?
By Daein Ballard [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)], via Wikimedia Commons