What do you do if your team members are constantly procrastinating on projects?

When my team members procrastinate on projects, I address the issue by first understanding the reasons behind their delays. I hold individual meetings to discuss any obstacles they're facing and offer support or resources to help overcome them. I also set clear, achievable milestones with specific deadlines to encourage timely progress. Regular check-ins and progress updates help maintain accountability, while recognizing and rewarding timely completion fosters motivation. By actively engaging with my team and providing structured guidance, I can effectively minimize procrastination and boost overall productivity.

First, I try to understand the reasons that are leading my team to procastinate, this is an important step to be able to deal with it in the best way. In other words, if procrastination is related to the task, or amount of work, I understand that after identification I should distribute it differently. However, if it is not related to activities, I look for a 1x1 so I can adjust the course and resume so that the project is completed.

As the statement itself mentions, informing everything that is pertinent is important. This means that the team has greater engagement and greater dedication, as they know all the details and feel like they belong.

Recognition in public and adjustment considerations in private. It will always create an environment in which there is trust in management, never making any kind of derogatory comments, gossip or demoralizing jokes among members. You need to create a welcoming environment and not a culture of fear.

This probably isn’t a conventional method in the professional business world, but when I was a company executive I would go out of my way to treat employees like family. If there’s a motivation issue, there’s a possibility they don’t see their importance to the mission. I wanted my employees to understand how important they were, if I saw them down in the dumps I’d take them for a steak dinner. I still practice that today despite not having a supervisor role at current company. You just never know what they’re going through so little positive things can make all the difference to them, the customers, and the business as a whole. Also I never expected them to do something I could not. Lead by example.