Why not treat your staff like kindergartners?

Teachers are some of the first “managers” people ever encounter. They organize each day to get maximum results from their charges and encounter a variety of motivation levels, aptitudes and communication challenges along the way. (Sound like your office?) In honor of back-to-school season, here are five ideas worth borrowing from teachers for your own workplace:

Make expectations known

“K-12 teachers often start the year by announcing classroom rules, college professors hand out a syllabus, and institutions give out student handbooks. All of these ideas share the same unifying theme: laying out the ‘law of the land’ so that people know what’s expected of them,” says Karen Southall Watts, an instructor at Bellingham Technical College and author of Messenger: The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Communication.

Acts such as establishing ground rules for meetings and providing new employees with a handbook serve the same purpose. As Watts notes, “Stating the rules and expectations in the beginning, and allowing time for questions, preempts a lot of negative behavior. Employees, like students, come in with diverse backgrounds, and it’s not fair to make them guess what is and is not acceptable behavior.”

Know what motivates

Effective teachers realize that a one-size-fits-all approach to igniting effort doesn’t always work. Instead, they look at what sparks each individual.

“In the classroom, some students wanted an extra-credit point, while some would work overtime for a piece of candy,” says Steve X. Miller, a former biology teacher turned account executive. “In the office, motivate each person on an individual basis with time off, monetary bonuses, a pat on the back, or whatever is meaningful to them, and you’re more likely to have happy, productive employees.”

Schedule in breaks

Recess isn’t just for kids. Taking breaks rejuvenates whether you’re 5 or 55, so budget them into the daily plan.

“Get up and move,” says Victor Neves, who has taught band and orchestra for 25 years. “Humans aren’t meant to sit all day. Moving helps keep the brain oxygenated. Also, stay hydrated. If you feel dull, sluggish or tired, you probably need water.”

Give constructive feedback

In order to keep growing and developing, students and employees alike need to know what they are doing right and what needs improvement. Nobody, however, likes to be yelled at or embarrassed in front of others. Being thoughtful when delivering feedback can help ensure your message gets absorbed rather than ignored.

“K-12 teachers often use the ‘let’s work on this problem together’ technique,” says Watts. “When many students are facing the same issue, this provides teaching and peer-bonding opportunities. When used one-on-one, this technique changes a conversation from criticism to problem-solving. Managers can use the same process to get around defensiveness and push through to performance improvement.”

Track progress

Finally, remember that people like to see their efforts paying off. Developing challenging (yet reasonable) goals and ways to measure them inspires action and promotes confidence.

“In the office setting, you don’t get graded with a letter each semester, so often you need to set individual goals for yourself and your team,” says Megan Davidson, a former math teacher who now works with teachers to implement online learning resources in their classroom with SolidProfessor.

“In my 7th-grade class, setting goals really helped my students—we had an overall goal of 80% mastery on each skill, and then by unit, we tracked progress and performance. This is a powerful habit for students to practice and can easily be applied in the office setting.”

And when achievement levels are reached, take notice! Nobody is ever too old to celebrate a job well done.