Check Your Employees Temperature

Do you have employees who are running in the red! You know like a NASCAR vehicle built for speed and the tachometer is so far into the red the engine is about to Blow! That's right employees need to have their temperature check sometimes weekly or daily depending on the project they are working on. It doesn't matter what level of technical experience or how much managerial experience you have. If you do not have enough resources or there are many constraints you could witness an engine blow, basically a mental breakdown with your staff or yourself.

Good communication is the foundation of successful relationships, both personally and professionally. Some employees are great when it comes to expressing feelings whether positive or negative. The staff members who are comfortable communicating and do not feel threaten make good eye contact and have a relaxed posture.

Are you able to understand subtle nonverbal signals, such as eye movements, body positioning, hand, and facial gestures? Are your employees under pressure to perform but feel as though they cannot say no or should not ask for help? By checking your employee's temperature, you could see that asking an employee to accomplish a new task amongst many other tasks assigned to them could cause an explosion. The employee may show signs of mentally rejecting the idea while verbally accepting the challenge.

Here are some red zone tips for keeping your employees from skidding into a wall at 180 miles an hour.

Don't over commit your team. Don't over schedule your team to please the powers that be, meaning let your management know your constraints. Ask for over time or comp time to complete the project.

Delegate routine tasks. The best way to balance workload is to get your top work performers involved with delegating tasks. The top work performers usually know who can handle more and who needs less to keep everyone error free. By letting go of routine tasks it allows the team to be assertive and take some initiative.

Balance Work Duties. Analyze your daily tasks. Make sure the workload is as evenly balanced as possible. Recognize employees who are under utilized, or better yet hiding under the radar.

Schedule / Unscheduled breaks. 15-20 minutes breaks can make the difference when employees are feeling deadlines and pressure to keep up the pace. Make sure they leave the work area and go into a break area or outside if possible. Definitely don't eat lunch at your desk, remove yourself to recharge your batteries.

Prioritize tasks. Make a list of tasks you have to do, or just create a work breakdown structure of everything that needs to be accomplished. Do the high priority items first. Make sure to chart your team's progress to give a sense of progression.

Are you the employee who feels burnt out? Your manager may not be aware that real problems could wreck his whole day as well as productivity. Instead of doing donuts on the race track help your manager formulate a plan by explaining how the staff feels. Do you see areas of improvement?

Following these tips and your team could click cruise control and still keep a winning pace.

Curtis Valentine (aka) Mr MakingUsmile