We have all experienced or observed a boss who was unable to give up control. This was actually a battle of empowering their team to step up to leadership. The definition of empowerment is to give someone the power to make a difference. As leaders we should be raising up leaders around us and the best way to do that is through empowerment. We all have stories of a mentor, teacher, coach, or leader who had an uncanny ability to empower us to be more than we thought possible.
According to Gallup, empowerment looks like your team being “energized”. Your team will aspire to produce excellent results in all that they do. Forbes analyzed data from over 7,000 employees and concluded that there is a clear correlation between employee empowerment and employee engagement :
Beyond the impact to overall engagement, a leader who empowers their employees will notice a number of other improvements to attitude and motivation. Here are a few questions to ask yourself about your team:
Do they come to work each day energized and ready to complete their responsibilities?
Do they enjoy their job so much that they can't help but spend time thinking about their work outside of work?
Do they stay focused on goals, overcome obstacles - often without needing much guidance from their manager?
Are they willing to stretch their capacity to be developed and learn new skills?
Do they share their excitement about their work with others on the team?
If you aren’t able to give a confident ‘yes’ to each of those questions, you should think about the culture you’re building. Are you trying too hard to be in control? If this is you, here are some practical changes you can make today:
Be open and consider new and/or different ideas from your team.
Ask your team what they would like to work on but haven’t had the opportunity to yet. This will show you their natural inclinations and strengths.
Once you understand their strengths, find ways for them to use them. Better yet, ask them how they would like to use them.
Have frequent 1:1 meetings with your team to build trust and loyalty.
Recognize, reward, and encourage your team as they take risks and exert above-and-beyond effort.
Empowering your team will also provide great side effects like creating a positive work environment, saving time, and eliminating the need for micro-managing.