Empowerment is defined as an increase in a worker’s sense of confidence in their own competence – generally including greater spontaneous contribution to innovative practice and persistence in the face of setbacks and obstacles1.
As a manager or leader in our industry climate of constant flux, you will need to build empowered teams and you should be seen as a facilitator. Your job is to encourage the development of an empowerment business culture, and this change of culture means that your leadership style needs to change into that of facilitation.
What is the purpose of your team if not to share the workload when tackling issues or innovation? Each of the individuals in your team have a variety of skills and experiences, and expertise that can add to the growth of your business.
What is facilitation?
Stephen Covey2 states: “A facilitator shares credit, a traditional leader takes it. Human beings are not things needing to be motivated and controlled; they are four dimensional – body, mind, heart, and spirit.”
Facilitation is achieving desired outcomes through the actions of others. As a facilitating leader you aim to create the environment for individuals to grow their knowledge and skills, but more so, allow them to think for themselves. You need a set of skills to initially design and manage the processes needed to build an empowered team and bring people and plans together. You need to be a developer of people.
The individuals in your team will need your support and the support of others in the business in order to grow skills, and this may be through areas such as mentoring, coaching, resources, and training interventions.
A key skill of facilitation for leaders/managers is the ability to encourage others to participate and to share their thoughts and ideas on a topic or area. Your aim should be for an inclusive business that can listen to others and learn. It can be highly enlightening hearing about an issue or opportunity from a different perspective than your own. As a facilitating leader you don’t necessarily have to have all of the answers, but you should aim to find and empower someone who has the specific answer for a situation.
You will also need to mediate between competing ideas so that a team or group may move forward together with a shared goal that benefits the business. This is imperative in making sure that an individual feels safe to contribute an idea in the knowledge that you will intervene if there is unwanted destructive criticism by the owner of an alternative idea. You must lead by example and set the tone for healthy debate.
It can be all too easy for projects or teams to drift without your support. As a facilitating leader you help build a clear vision and through skilled interventions, help the team maintain the clear vision.
Through planned interventions and meetings, facilitating leaders ask good questions, listen well, mediate and support focus. They champion or support others to share the ideas and innovations of their team to stakeholders. They take responsibility for the process but share the glory of the outcome.
Leading your empowered team
In her article, ‘Top 10 principles of employee empowerment: empower employees to ensure success’3, Susan Heathfield illustrates the 10 most important principles for managing people in a way that reinforces employee empowerment, accomplishment, and contribution.
1. Demonstrate that you value people
Demonstrate your appreciation of each individual’s skills and talent. Think about what you convey to your team and how you convey it, be that words, body language, etc.
2. Share leadership vision
Make sure that individuals have access to and understand the overall mission and vision of the business.
3. Share goals and direction
Share the meaning behind the goals and direction of the business to allow individuals to identify their contributions. Where possible, involve others in goals setting to increase ownership. Make sure that goals are SMART.
4. Trust people
Through clear expectations, individuals can focus on achieving the desired results. Remember that their methods may differ from those that you would have chosen, but allow them to explore those alternatives in a safe environment.
5. Provide information for decision making
Make sure that individuals have access to the information needed to make the required decisions.
6. Don’t just delegate drudge work
Delegate authority and opportunity and not simply ‘more work’
7. Provide frequent feedback
Feedback should be encouraging and also give your views on progress achieved and if any further improvements may be needed.
8. Assume the problem is systems and not people
Begin by asking what may be wrong with the work system/process rather than jumping to a conclusion that the individual involved may be at fault.
9. Listen to learn and ask questions
The aim is to provide guidance. Give individuals the opportunity to identify solutions by asking the right questions to direct their thoughts. Don’t simply tell them what the answer is (assuming you know).
10. Help employees feel rewarded and recognised
Recognition for a job well done and your appreciation will go a long way to helping individuals feel truly empowered. Rewards may also be a key factor.
Objectives of delegation of tasks and empowerment
A culture of trust is essential for empowerment through delegation. The individuals need to feel that they have all of the information needed and have been given clear outcomes and expectations. The authority delegated to your team members gives them permission to carry out assigned tasks. Depending on the level of delegation, this trust can both empower and motivate.
Empowered individuals are typically happier and, therefore, more likely to show increased productivity. By delegating work, you are expressing confidence in, and acknowledgement of, the ability of an individual or team to complete work to the required standard within the required timeframe – and for team members to make their own decisions and choices for this to be achieved successfully.
This does not mean leaving team members feeling isolated and with no support. They should also be clear in terms of who they can go to for additional support and when they can come to you also. Whilst employees must take responsibility for their actions, empowerment does not mean that managers abdicate responsibility and delegate all decision-making.
References
1. Conger J.and Kanungo R. The empowerment process: integrating theory and practice. Academy of Management Review. 1988;13(3):471-482. https://doi.org/10.2307/258093.
2. Covey SR. The 8th Habit: From Effectiveness to Greatness. 2006. Simon and Schuster UK.
3. Heathfield SM. The 10 principles of employee empowerment. Available at: https://www.liveabout.com/top-principles-of-employee-empowerment-1918658. Accessed 14 June 2023.