Create More Capacity In Your Team: 3 Immediately Applicable Tips

Feel like you have too little capacity in your team? Often find yourself on the back foot because you always have too much work for too few people? As a CTO, CEO, or head of engineering, this is probably a familiar challenge. But here are three practical tips designed to help you increase capacity within your team.

Tip 1: Nurture talent and encourage purpose

Every person has a different talent. And in effective teams, people perform tasks that give them energy. By putting the right people in the right places – i.e. where they excel – you can build capacity in your team.

Start by looking at each employee’s strengths and weaknesses, and determining where they can add the most value. When you achieve this in your team, you get both synergy and momentum. Capacity also increases when employees have a clear vision of the goals the team are working towards.

Physical environments matter too. This is especially true for developers. As hybrid working takes root post-pandemic, ensuring they can work in a clean and tidy environment when they’re in the office will have a positive effect on their productivity.

Tip 2: Prioritise communication

Honest and open dialogue are essential when it comes to productivity – especially right now with more people working remotely. While developers need autonomy to thrive, they also need the ability to give updates and feedback to leaders and their teams. This allows everyone to maintain the same level of autonomy and identify any issues the team is facing. Having the right communication channels lead to faster problem solving. This eliminates non-value adding activities and creates more capacity for teams – allowing them to engage in more urgent matters.

Tip 3: Look closely at your own way of working

A better world starts within – so begin with some personal introspection and improvement before addressing your teams. Ask yourself: are you spending your time on the tasks that give you the most energy? How many distractions do you face throughout the day? How clear are your goals and what steps are you taking to achieve them?

Confronting these challenges yourself will ensure you can offer real benefit to your teams – as you’ll have experienced them firsthand!

Need some help implementing these tips in a smart way? Contact the Gapstars team today! We can offer insight and advice, and provide your team with the increased capacity needed.