How to improve the quality of work on your team

Would you say your peers are committed to doing quality work?

About 1 in 3 people in an average team strongly agree to that statement.

If you feel that the team is free of 'deadwood', those strongly agreeing will be 1 in 2.

Here's the catch though, if you feel someone is dragging their feet and letting the team down, it drops to 1 in 5.

How you feel about that statement is highly sensitive to the presence or absence of 'slackers' - someone who has the ability but doesn't try.

People who feel part of a solidly committed team are safer, better with customers, less likely to quit, and more productive.

People are frustrated by incompetence, but they're more frustrated with a slacker, and there's only one person who can make a positive impact.

You guessed it, the manager.

A manager has 2 choices:

1. Take the easy route - don't do anything about the slacker, and let your team be disheartened, disengaged, less productive and possibly leave (in reality it's easy now but much harder in the long run)
2. Take the right route - maintain expectations of quality and allow the group to enjoy higher levels of engagement and performance, ie, accountability.

The best managers create an environment of honest and complete communication, an understanding of each other's work, and respect for each other's efforts and results.

Underperformance can't be left unaddressed.

Here's 5 questions you can ask yourself right now:

1. Is every person on my team committed to doing a quality job?
2. Am I letting someone get away with underperformance?
3. How am I selecting and recognising hard working team members?
4. How do I define quality work? Does my team know what quality looks like? And are we aligned?
5. When was the last time I spoke to my team about their quality?

What's one action you can take right now to ensure your team are doing a quality job?

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