Khamisi, a manager in a tourism firm in Malindi, encourages deep workflows among his employees by embracing daily planning tendencies and strict scheduling boundaries.
Khamisi meets staff team members each morning to establish major priorities so that each schedules two hours of deep thinking and uninterrupted work.
Witnesses confirm there is a more relaxed pace during the day, fewer crisis emails, and less disruptive interruptions. Khamisi maintains an open calendar on a shared board so that coworkers are aware of project deadlines and coordinate effectively.
Employees appreciate knowing expectations with respect to tasks, and they have confidence in Khamisi’s approach because clearly set objectives and well-established expectations mitigate stress.
All employees in the department follow Khamisi’s lead by turning off phones for half a day, which saves mental energy for planning and problem-solving tasks.
Nuru, a waterfront hotel office manager in Malindi, on the other hand, puts unchecked pressure on employees. Evening emails fill up inboxes, including at midnight, causing ongoing stress and sleep deprivation.
Nuru conducts marathon meetings without any defined goals, and members leave with bewilderment about tasks and follow-ups. Employees are still sucked into conversations that go nowhere, so they are frustrated and demotivated.
When weekend queues are crammed to the brim with high-priority messages, morale dips even more. Burned-out personnel cannot mix leisure and duty, and productivity and creativity suffer. Productivity in the long run is harmed by this kind of haphazard setup, and nobody on the team wants to work under such kind of pressure.
Research outcomes collated by Julie Mosow detail leadership dynamics and environmental configurations that either mitigate or increase stress within teams. Studies demonstrate that disorganised workflows, never-ending to-do lists, and frequent interruptions lead to burnout and shatter focus.
Successful leaders have a tendency to shield their teams from non-essential work, focus employees on crucial responsibilities, and insist on reasonable working hours.
Unclear priorities have a tendency to create wasted energy and confusion.
Productivity professionals recommend that managers should aim at giving the brain a rest, calendaring focused work sessions, and abolishing low-value meetings, which gives working professionals a sense of fulfillment.
Take a moment to catalogue your own workplace tendencies. Are you scattered or very intentional with sectioned out segmentation to your and your employees’ work days?
Research and data collection from several time management and workplace culture analysts were the basis of the research.
Researchers looked into instances of burnout teams, polled managers on scheduling, and reviewed trends that contribute to or detract from productivity.
Productivity analysts also commented on how subtle tweaks in daily habits pay dividends for entire departments. Evidence from interviews confirms that projects flourish when executives create clear objectives and respect employees’ psychological space.
Behaviour patterned from leaders who tried out new norms, such as no evening emailing, corroborated the main findings.
Managers and executives can minimise stress by matching workloads to the respective department’s ability as individuals, cutting out activity with no purpose, and minimising the number of live projects altogether. Leaders also do well by scheduling uninterrupted focus time that is visible on each calendar, which means deep work must receive priority.
Upper-level staff members can set solid boundaries, like technology boundaries, so workers know that supervisors and co-workers respect rest and creativity. Leaders who are self-managed and plan intelligently will tend to inspire personnel to do the same.
While this may sound obvious and straightforward, over 70 percent of managers time usually gets taken up by unexpected urgent issues that pop up throughout days and weeks. So, becoming deliberate requires meaningful focus and intentionality.
Individual workers can safeguard their health and productivity by continuously monitoring and early reporting their work pressures, asking nonessential work to be identified by their supervisors, prioritising tasks and sharing their prioritisation lists, and reserving prime time for difficult responsibilities.
Peers can exchange tips for greater efficiency and look out for productivity-sapping meeting requests. Employees who make rest a key component of peak focus can politely notify managers and colleagues of personal limits.
Whereby leadership does not dictate policy, employees can work together to establish norms, such as deactivating alerts or covering for one another.
Have a management or leadership issue, question, or challenge? Reach out to Dr Scott through @ScottProfessor on X or on email [email protected]
