Use leadership to improve focus

How Leadership Improves Focus & Concentration in a Company

No matter how big or small your company is or how many employees you have, ensuring they remain focused on their work is not only beneficial for you but helps your employees move up the ladder to bigger and better positions.

Improving your concentration can be tricky, and enhancing the concentration of others is a whole other kettle of fish. Here are some steps you can take to quickly and effectively improve your employee’s focus.

Have a Comprehensive To-Do List

One of the most important things you need is a comprehensive to-do list for all your employees. Focus starts when you know what you have to do and when you have to have it finished.

Part of this list should also include daily updates or weekly meetings where tasks and project updates are discussed. This also allows employees to discuss any problems they may have and if they need assistance.

Lead by Example

You can’t expect your employees to be focused and dialed in if you aren’t. Much like every other task in an office, the best way to encourage your employees to do something is to do it yourself and set the baseline of what is expected.

While this won’t always be possible as you have a lot on your plate, if an employee asks something of you, do it as quickly as you can and move on.

Separate Work & Fun

While an office or company shouldn’t be completely devoid of fun, a mistake that some people make is blurring the lines between fun and work too much. Downtime should be part of any office environment, but employees should know there is a time and place.

The enemy of productivity and focus is a distraction, but a distraction also allows your employees to refocus; the best plan is to find a balance for both.

Help Employees When Needed

There will be many times when an employee won’t know how to approach a situation or figure a problem out. This can lead to too many distractions and too much talking, and productivity will drop almost instantly.

To prevent this, offer immediate assistance if and when needed. If you can’t help, assist your employee in finding the right resources or tools to find a solution and get them back on track.

Let Employees Know They are Valued

Many bosses forget that employees feeling valued leads to increased motivation and therefore increased focus and productivity. To achieve this, there is no need to throw a celebration or party when someone reaches a goal; instead, simply let your employees know they are doing a good job and that they are a necessary part of the company’s success.

As mentioned, it is essential never to forget the role of a positive attitude and motivation when it comes to focus and productivity.

Limit Mistakes

There needs to be a clear list of goals, a methodology, and communication to limit mistakes. If you think about a very simple task, it is easy to do without making a mistake; you can focus on it easily and get it done in record time.

This is because the end goal of the task is clear, and there is an effective manner of achieving it. Having set guidelines allows your employees to stick to a “script,” so there is a lower chance of making a mistake.

Encourage Focusing on Individual Activities

While multitasking can be a way of being more productive and getting far more work done and can lead to burnout, boredom, and, more often than not, a decrease in productivity. This is due to most people not being able to give 100% of their effort, time, and brainpower to four, five, or six different tasks at once.

This isn’t surprising and shouldn’t be expected, either. Encourage employees to start and finish tasks one at a time. You should also ensure that deadlines don’t stack up on top of each other, and if multiple tasks must be completed simultaneously, offer the support and assistance your employees need.

Have a Comfortable Work Environment

While work and productivity should be the number one focus of an office, it doesn’t mean that it is the only important part. People can work better and more efficiently when they are comfortable and “looked after” in a sense.

Incorporate comfortable office chairs, air conditioning, great lighting, plants, and a coffee/tea bar with cold drinks. This allows your employees to stay calm, and when their comfort needs are met, they can focus on their work.

Provide the Tools Your Employees Need for Productivity

Depending on the type of business you are in, the tools, software, or equipment you will need will differ. To maintain steady and consistent productivity, your employees must have these available to them if they are to do their jobs.

Whether that is a particular type of power tool or software like Adobe Photoshop, having it available keeps the wheels turning and prevents stoppages in work.

Lower Stress in the Workplace

We can all remember a time when a piece of work or a project stressed us out, and then this stress prevented us from doing our job properly, and then we ended up getting more stressed; this is a cycle that is very difficult to break.

Stress is one of the biggest killers of productivity, and a lot of time and effort should be used to lower stress in the workplace. This can be done in a few ways; the first has already been mentioned above, making the workplace more comfortable, but several more are just as effective.

Include break times in the work day, and encourage your employees to use those breaks to forget about work for a bit. Encourage communication across all levels of management and employees, as being able to air grievances or problems will lead to solutions.

Finally, don’t treat employees like they are a cog in a machine and that without them, everything will fall apart. Allow for sick or personal days, as this will give employees a chance to relax and come back more focused than ever.