by Glenn Magas

Created on: October 09, 2009   Last Updated: April 04, 2011

Leadership is the ability to serve and influence employees through positive motivation. A leader who is effective in influencing employees, serving their needs, developing their growth, and helping them understand the overall mission statement of the company, will be effective in increasing employee productivity.

A great leader will give an employee a sense of purpose. Employees come into work every day doing the 'same old thing' as the saying goes. If there is a sense of purpose to accomplish 'the same old thing' there will be more productivity.

Here are 3 incredible tips a leader can use to influence an employee and motivate increased productivity:

1. Daily Task Lists
2. Team work
3. Rewards

By incorporating these 3 simple tips, and working together with employees to achieve them, employee productivity will increase.

1. Daily Task Lists

A daily task list will set goals that an employee can achieve on a daily basis. Success on a daily basis will lead to motivation and more success. When creating the list, think (as Stephen Covey states) with the 'end' in mind. What is the overall goal of a project at hand? The daily task list should have no more than 5 tasks a day. Any more may seem overwhelming and never ending.

By tracking daily tasks, a supervisor will know where a project stands. If tasks are not accomplished and they start backing up, a supervisor can step in, offer their help (which a great leader does), and gets the employee back on track. This builds a great relationship with an employee and supervisor and together they are accomplishing the 'good' of the department. Both are aiming for a specific purpose of serving - instead of an independent/selfish purpose of serving themselves.

By accomplishing one, two, or five tasks it represents a 'win' or success. Building up these 'wins' and each minor success will lead to the 'bigger picture'. The sense of purpose is now ingrained in the employee as a day-to-day accomplishment. Their task lists is being tended to and every time they cross a task off the list they have succeeded every day!

Daily goals gives an employee focus - and focus on the job will lead to less distractions - and less distractions leads to more productive work!

2. Teamwork

Have employees team up and be accountable to each other and not just to the boss. As a leader, assign accountability to the employee and have them be accountable for each others tasks. A leader might want to stay away instead of 'hovering' over their employees; which could

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