Are You An Empowering Leader?

Last week I attended the Lions Quest workshop and be reminded about these 3 simple but intriguing probing questions - What?  So What?  Now What? - that can be applied in almost every situation. Yesterday I was with a friend who asked me about the most important competency a leader must have to be successful besides values and integrity, and that can keep good people in the organization. The question asked by my friend is the ‘What?’ part and my answer to the question was the ability to empower people in the organization.

So What?

I'm sure that we all agree that organization’s success is really dependent on the individuals that make up the organization. It does not matter what type of organization, keeping our best people is very important. So what do you do to keep your best employees? 

Some people will say that leadership needs charisma so people will follow that charismatic leader. Others will say that a leader must have the ability to create vision, mission and other sort of similar stuff.  Organization does need a vision, mission and values and a compelling S.M.A.R.T Goals^TM. Organizations need leaders who don't need to be always out in front or on stage but leaders who are able to create and nurture an environment where everyone in the organization is empowered.

Such empowering leaders do not seek to get the glory and fame just for themselves.Those empowering leaders help their teams in building various required competencies and the capacity to get the works done productively. They also able to inspire and induce creativity. How do they achieve it? Certainly not just by giving moving and inspiring  talks and/or speeches. Not also by offering some trick and/or magical stuff.

Empowering leaders act based on their careful observations on various situations, not by gut feel or random actions. They create and nurture an environment where everyone is empowered.

As for the ‘Now What?’, the following 5 steps are based on my own professional experience. Based on my observation, they are practiced in many successful organizations, so you may want to consider them in making you an empowering leader.

Step 1: Master the basics.

“Understanding others and yourself is the basic foundation for mastering the art of empowering people.” (Paul J. Meyer)

For a leader, being able to empower people in the organization or practicing an empowering leadership is indeed one that every leader must have and/or acquire. Every leader can and must learn to master the art of empowering people. Organization will achieve its greatest success when there is an environment where its members, from the lowest rank up to the top, can participate and contribute to its success. As a leader, you are responsible in ensuring such an environment and in encouraging your people to react to it in a positive manner for the good of the organization and eventually for them as well. Empowering leaders don't rely on the stick or the carrot as a long-term solution as they may work for a while and in some limited circumstances, but they are ineffective over time in motivating and empowering people. To be successful, it's important for a leader to empower the team.

Step 2: Cultivating an Ideas Giving Culture

As a leader, you must give people the opportunities to participate fully in expanding their roles in the organization. Quite often when employees gave suggestions, some leaders just ignored them. When people in your organization feel that their suggestions matter, they will be more inclined to feel satisfied. Welcome those who offer ideas,and at the same time allow others to challenge the ideas. List down those people who  consistently offer ideas and/or critics in group discussions. Pick up also the non-verbal cues. Have brainstorming sessions from time to time. You need those information as they will allow you to determine what is happening, and what is really needed to adjust the environment so everyone is empowered and able to work to their full potential.

Step 3: Have Fun with the team

It is very important in your role as a leader to keep people focused on their tasks but focusing on work all the time can create a dull boring work environment. Empowering leaders observe their team capabilities and and recognize patterns of behavior that either positively or negatively affect the ability of the group to get the works done. Empowering leaders aware of the importance of information flow to constantly understand whether there are far too many constraints that can destroy spirit or on the other hand too few that can lead to lower productivity. The physical equipment and process arrangements will too affect productivity. You may want also to observe whether or not there are obsolete policies and procedures hindering the organization in achieving success? However, it is important to make the work environment an enjoyable and fun place to be. Sometimes all it only takes is a 10-15 minute break during the working hours and having a simple team building game once in a while to ease the tension and make the workplace fun. Just remember that games are not just meant to be used in training sessions. Those short breaks for a few minutes during the afternoon for instance can keep everyone's mind fresh. Be creative.

Step 4: Communicating

It is also important in keeping your team up to date on the prospects of the organization. It may not be a company-wide town hall review meeting, but you must keep your team up to date. It is important from time to time to let them know how the organization is doing and individually in separate sessions about how they fit into the organizations's plans for growth. A regular quarterly one-hour review meeting to inform your team about successes and failures would be able to make your team plan better and ease anxieties about the future. Communicate both the good and bad news without any attempt to sugar-coating the bad news, if any. Announcing during the session of those employees and/or departments that achieved good quarterly performance can also be a good way of encouraging and empowering your people. As a leader, you must ensure that this communication session happens every quarter. People will find that one-hour session very valuable and they will appreciate it.

Step 5: Listen to Your Customers

To be an empowering leaders, you must also have ample time spent visiting the market and meeting with customers seeking their views to better understand their expectations. You might also want to get a critical view on how the organization is working toward servicing the customers and whether or not the organization need to adjust the work environment to help everyone produce better products and services.

After all those steps and efforts to be an empowering leader, be realistic that the organization may still from time to time loose some of its best people to a bigger or better opportunity they are considering outside the organization. However, when you as the leader can show that they are important to the organization's success, and you are open and honest with your people on what is happening in the organization and what the empowered working together environment can bring to their future, some of your truly best people will more likely stick with the organization.

S.M.A.R.T. Goals^TM is a registered trademark in the US held by The Meyer Resource Group^(R), Inc.

Permission to use S.M.A.R.T. Goals^TM is obtained from: Copyright (C) The Meyer Resource Group^(R), Inc.