Are You Challenging Your Team Enough or Allowing Them to Get Complacent?

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Being able to face challenges during the workday is critical for engagement. If none of a worker’s tasks requires them to push outside of their comfort zone or explore new areas, their level of interest in the work is going to diminish dramatically. Over time, this can lead to complacency and decreased morale, both of which harm productivity and the quality of their outputs.

Three Ways to Challenge Your Team to Avoid Complacency

While you do not need to challenge your team every moment of every day, at least some of their duties or projects should fall outside of the norm. Whether the assignments require them to acquire new skills, think in a new way or explore a subject they have not encountered previously, being forced into the unknown on occasion is beneficial. It can lead to skill development, increase morale and improve creative thinking.

The goal is not to stress your employees to the brink. If every task feels daunting and unfamiliar, that can be just as damaging as never challenging them at all. Ultimately, there needs to be a balance between the new and every day. Here are three tips to help you effectively challenge your team, without pushing them to the edge.

1. Rotate Job Duties Between Team Members

If you have several architectures, engineering or construction professionals on your team who have similar positions and capabilities, consider rotating core duties on a regular basis. This approach reduces boredom and stagnation. Additionally, it can encourage skill development while also giving them a broader perspective of business operations.

Related Article: Three Key Tips for Communicating Company Strategy to Your Team

2. Encourage Your Team to Improve Processes

Opportunities to be innovative and creative are great for fighting complacency. By encouraging your team to look at standard processes and procedures for chances to improve them, you can keep them engaged. Whether the proposed improvements make a task more efficient, cost-effective, or merely simpler, the mental benefit of finding that solution is still there. Plus, it allows them to assume a bigger role in the team’s and company’s success, which can be motivating in its own right.

3. Adjust Deadlines

If you do not have any projects or tasks that involve something new, you can make a typical assignment more challenging by modifying the time to complete. This adds a bit of pressure to the scenario, making it necessary for your employees to adapt and increase their efficiencies.

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