April 29, 2025
For this episode of Bringing Simplicity Unfiltered, Greta pulled three daily topic ideas from vidIQ and had Judy pick one at random. The winner: how to revamp your team’s productivity in five steps. Nothing was planned, which is very on brand for Unfiltered.
Judy and Greta meet at least 30 minutes every day (sometimes two hours) to talk through exactly this kind of thing, because it drives the success of our business and the businesses we run on behalf of our clients. They ended up sharing a lot more than five ideas. Here are the big ones for improving team productivity.
The first step is knowing what it takes for you to be most productive, then communicating it to your team. Maybe you want a daily message in the morning with your meetings, top priorities, and anything that’s falling behind, like “we’re 48 hours from launch and so-and-so hasn’t done this yet.”
Some people want that in Slack, some in email, some by text. As the leader, you need to know how you want information delivered so your team can make it easy for you, and stay productive on what they’re assigned.
Visionaries tend to move fast, have high standards, and have a way they like things done. To your team, that can feel like nitpicking or micromanaging. If they’re just doing it your way, they have no ownership or buy-in.
Greta’s fix is to be intentional about:
The more buy-in and appreciation your team feels, the more productive they’ll be.
You can’t praise wins if your team doesn’t know what a win is. Give them clear metrics and KPIs for each task or project:
Of course someone can make something great in three months. But if you need it in three days, they need to know that. Without a clear picture of great, people may think they’re doing well when the work isn’t usable, and you end up draining yourself on unnecessary fixes.
Greta has read Dan Martell’s book three times, and she leans on his 10-80-10 approach: 10% prep, 80% your team completes, and 10% finishing up and checking the work. Productivity lives in that first 10%:
If your team always has a million questions, you probably didn’t give yourself enough time to provide that first 10%. As Judy points out, that 20% you put in as the leader is what gets you 80% of your team’s productivity. It’s a lot of time, and it’s worth it.
During that final 10% of review, Judy pays attention to what’s coachable and what isn’t. If someone is still delivering average work after the fourth or fifth time, it’s time to reflect. What are you not giving them? Are they in the right role? Often people underperform because they’re bored. If 80% of their work doesn’t interest them, they won’t stick around.
Sometimes it isn’t a culture fit issue. It’s a leader and team member fit. Ask yourself whether you’re the right person to lead this person into their genius. Sometimes you’re not, and that’s okay.
The one common denominator among the very successful entrepreneurs we work with is concentrated effort on a specific outcome. They know which three things move the needle in their business, and they focus there.
When there’s too much on everyone’s plate, it’s easy to be a dog chasing squirrels all over the neighborhood. Set focused energy around what matters most and what has to get done. Judy reminds Greta that she’s thinking 50 steps ahead, while a team member is thinking about checking off today’s list. Share the why so they understand a task isn’t just busywork.
When someone has a concrete understanding of the goal, like improving the percentage of booked calls that show up, they know exactly where to put their energy. They also need to know what to do when they hit a roadblock, instead of waiting hours before reaching out.
End-of-day reports are huge for us. They give team members time to reflect and give us a quick read on where to step in or offer resources. We ask questions like “What’s one thing you learned today?” and “What’s one thing you’ll do tomorrow to improve?” That preserves your energy as a leader and helps everyone rebound quickly, like a team in the playoffs after two losses in a row.
People come into the entrepreneurial space looking for uncapped earning potential, and many team members are 1099 contractors who technically own their own businesses. So how do you keep them motivated without constant turnover?
Judy’s answer comes back to leadership:
Greta adds that if you’re a really good leader, be prepared that some people may eventually leave for more money because of the experience and exposure they got from you. That’s part of being an entrepreneur.
We promised five steps and probably gave you 30. Don’t try to do all of them. Pick one thing from this episode and start doing it this week, whether that’s daily reports, telling your team how awesome they are, or telling them how you want to receive information. That one thing will probably take more of your time than you expect, and that’s okay.
Start with one change: tell your team how you prefer to receive updates, define what excellent work looks like with clear deadlines, or introduce end-of-day reports.
Build buy-in by asking how they would approach a task, giving specific praise, and giving them clear metrics and timeframes so they can own the work.
Include progress on key metrics, plus reflection questions like “What’s one thing you learned today?” and “What’s one thing you’ll do tomorrow to improve?”
If work is still average after four or five rounds of clear direction and feedback, reflect on what you may not be providing and whether they’re bored or misaligned with the role.
If you want a second set of eyes on your team’s systems or daily reports, reach out to us or learn more about how we work.
Want more? Watch every episode of Bringing Simplicity Unfiltered on our YouTube channel.
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