A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves. —Lao Tzu.

We all have too much on our plates. And you, as a leader, would have a little extra on your platter. To master the skills of managing a team, you put in the extra effort. The art of planning, organizing, and streamlining work is not new to you. But is it the same for your teammates? Are they as efficient as you're even while working remotely? Is there a need for you to keep a tab on them regularly?

"Helping your team manage its time well is a critical factor for its success." Elizabeth Grace Saunders, the author of How to Invest Your Time Like Money and the founder of Real Life E Time Coaching & Training, agrees. Unproductive meetings, email bloat, and unnecessary menial tasks take up most of the time in an employee's workday. To ensure that there's personal and team productivity while working in a remote hybrid work model, you should turn on your badass boss mode! 

Here's how you can be the cool manager who aims at improving the productivity and efficiency of his team:

1.Organize yourself first

"Everything starts with yourself.."- Tony Dorsett. Image source : Giphy

You matter. Your values matter. Your work matters.

Firstly, as a leader, it is essential to be disciplined and organized. It is not only necessary to set an example for the team, but also to make your life easier. A laid-back manager leaves ample room for the team to look down on him. It is essential to have respect and organizational workflow between the leader and his team. If you, yourself, are not efficient and productive then, expecting it from your team makes no sense. For this, the boss should be a beacon of light who guides his fellow mates. 

Achieving this simple goal shouldn't be rocket science for you. Prioritizing personal tasks and allocating the work well between the team, you can very well accomplish this mandatory target. Set your daily, weekly, and monthly targets. Plan, execute, and streamline your work as to allocate it to your teammates. Having a clear vision and mindset will have you achieve trust and respect from your subordinates.  

2.Define OKRs and targets 

To get a handle on how everyone on your team should be spending their time, you have to "step back" and "think about what exactly you want your team to be working on," says Saunders.

After figuring out a plan yourself, you, the badass boss, should define clear goals and targets for your team. Analyze the team's capacity and accordingly set goals for them. By doing this, you're setting a definite and achievable goal for each individual in the team. As a leader, you must set boundaries for your teammates. This will help you get maximum team productivity 

3.Bring all tasks under the same roof

After having figured the work and its allocation, you should ensure that employees aren't wasting their time and energy juggling between software tools to get work done. Well, at least I find it overwhelming to switch technological tools in a day. It wastes time, reduces efficiency, exhausts the employees, and leads to mismanagement. 

Bottle as a collaborative tool offers a one-stop solution to work, time, and project management. By using Bottle, you will cut down the unnecessary video meetings, have an organized resource channel, and have it all under one roof.The tool focuses on building efficiency, transparency and team productivity. Adopting super cool technological tool like Bottle for task management, will surely ensure that you will get cool-dude-badass-manager tag. 

4.Give them a pat on the back.

A whopping 79% of employees will quit their jobs due to a lack of appreciation from leaders. 

Lead with empathy. Give your teammates the credit they deserve. It will boost their morale and confidence. By doing this, their work efficiency and productivity will also increase as they would be more pumped after the praise. It also gives the subordinates a sense of trust. The employee loves to be in the good books of their manager. Therefore, they will try their level best to do so. By appreciating their efforts, you will be a soft-badass-boss who is loved by all. 

Acknowledging the work of employees and giving them feedback will help you improve work efficiency and productivity drastically.

5.Don't overwork

Being ambitious is great. But there's a fine line between being ambitious and over-ambitious. You need to make sure the work isn't too much and isn't too less either. This is necessary as a leader because overwork might lead to burnout. Therefore will affect the work quality, productivity, and efficiency as a whole. 

How to ensure that the amount of work is achievable & not too much?

Communicate with the employees. Simply ask them. Clear and transparent communication will solve most problems.

The management of your organization should also ensure the well-being of the employees by providing them with health programs and benefits. Organizing informal meet-ups or eat-outs will help the team as a whole to collaborate and build a strong connection with everyone.

Bring out the best in your team

With great power comes great responsibility.

Be a badass boss with a tinge of empathy and compassion. Ensure that you move ahead in your career and life with your subordinates. This can be achieved by doing the above. Also, by ensuring that there's a development of an employee as a whole. Short meetings, greater autonomy, work-life balance, use of technological tools like Bottle, and clearly defined goals help achieve a productive and efficient work life.

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