Help your team focus on the details for less stress and wasted time
If you’re reading this article, you know how much attention to detail matters. There’s not much more infuriating than a consistent stream of sloppy mistakes.
You’re not trying to micro-manage. You don’t have time for that. But every time you catch a mistake it confirms your need to triple-check your team’s work. Plus, you’re a human-centered leader, and you don’t want to overreact to one small thing. But small issues add up and damage your ability to trust your team.
So how do you get your team to sweat the small stuff as much as you do, without coming across as a jerk?
7 Ways to Build an Attention-to-Detail Culture
Help your team understand why attention to detail matters and how to do it well.
1. Set Clear Expectations
Be clear about your expectations and why they matter. Explain what sloppy mistakes communicate to your customers, stakeholders, and to the rest of the team. Get specific about what meticulous work looks like with examples.
Of course, they SHOULD know this stuff. But if you want to make attention to detail a habit, get specific.
For example:
- Before you share a spreadsheet, ensure you’ve double-checked all the formulas.
- Greet every customer with a warm smile and offer to help.
- Run your writing through a grammar tool before submitting.
- If you’re using a template, be sure what you’ve created makes sense for this customer or situation.
2. Demonstrate Your Process
Demonstrate the behaviors you want to see. Show them how you check your work, ask clarifying questions, and ensure precision in every task.
For example, “When I review a customer communication like this, here are the steps I follow and the questions I ask myself before I consider it done…”
You can also flip the script and have them walk you through their process.
Talking through a process out loud is one of the fastest ways to help a team member discover a missing step or come up with an idea to improve the quality of their work.
3. Create Processes and Checklists
Another great way to encourage attention to detail is to create processes and checklists for recurring tasks. Even better, encourage your team to develop checklists and share them.
Of course, you’ve got to ensure these checklists stay up to date– and that your team stays on the lookout for better ways to do things.
Encourage your team to meet to discuss what’s working and to suggest improvements. This ongoing dialogue helps maintain high standards and adapt to new challenges.
4. Use Technology Carefully
Used well, tools like project management software, automated checklists, and collaborative platforms are great ways to ensure tasks are completed accurately and on time.
Just be careful that your team isn’t outsourcing functions to AI without checking the quality. Every day we hear from frustrated managers reviewing the “crap” their team has given them by using AI carelessly.
5. Provide Training and Resources
In addition to setting clear expectations on what matters, be sure your team knows HOW to focus on the details, as well as how to manage their time to prevent frenetic scurries that lead to mistakes.
One practical time-saving communication tool is the “check for understanding”. When you teach every team member to ensure the message sent is the message received, you can save a lot of time in rework or details slipping through the cracks.
6. Build a Peer Quality Check Process
You don’t always have to be the checker. Set an expectation that nothing comes to you without a peer review. Having another set of eyes on a project catches errors, improves quality, and offers different perspectives. This practice improves the quality of work and fosters a collaborative environment where team members learn from each other.
Plus, building a peer review process is another way to communicate how important quality checks are.
“On our team, quality matters. And we’re in this together.”
7. Recognize Excellence and Foster Accountability
Acknowledge and reward team members who consistently demonstrate great attention to detail. You get more of what you encourage and celebrate and less of what you ignore. Help your team to celebrate one another as part of their peer review process. When a co-worker checks the work and finds no concerns, celebrate that win.
You can also foster a culture of team accountability by training your team on specific techniques to hold one another accountable and techniques to talk about concerns when processes break down. On the highest-performing teams, accountability is a team sport.
These seven strategies will help your team pay more attention to detail, resulting in less stress, better outcomes, and happier everybody.
What would you add? What are some of your favorite ways to help your team get it right the first time?
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