5 Ways to Empower Employees

What is empowerment?  To empower is to give power to someone else, hence taking it away from yourself or someone else, and giving it to them.  In the context of a job, it usually means giving ‘ownership’ of a task or project to someone and then stepping back.  You will still have to do work, but you will only do work that the empowered one asks of you.  There  is plenty of research that shows the benefits to Morale, Productivity, and Results by empowering employees.  In fact, I’ve written about this before in my green & clean post, but this article will give you 5 methods to empower employees, that maybe you never thought of before.

1. Be Explicit
You can’t empower someone without both letting that person know, they are in charge, and really also the entire organization.   Here’s a great way to do it by email:  “Hello everyone, just want everyone to know that I’m stepping away from Project X and putting XXX in charge.  She/He’s empowered to take all actions necessary to get the job done within the approved budget.”

2. Set Boundaries
Empowerment can be daunting, especially when it’s used infrequently, for the first time, or with new employees.  In these cases, it’s best to set boundaries!  Set a budget, explain the goals very clearly, explain what all the resources available are, and be sure to include yourself in those available resources.

3. Help Prioritize
In any organization, there is usually a lot going on, so much so that many employees feel overwhelmed and not sure what to work on in any given moment.  You can help by being clear with each individual what their priorities should be.   If you have projects that just need “a little attention each day” set a specific amount of time you think would be appropriate.  In general, set a clear priority to all work/tasks and try not to change it.  Remember, something you are empowered to do, will naturally be a higher priority.

4. Be Supportive
Supporting means touching base and reminding the person who is empowered of their resources (including you).  The more junior the empowered person, the more you should touch base.

5. Don’t Take it Back!
Yes, you should be measuring and tracking results, but when things aren’t going how you think they should, RESIST the temptation to jump in and take over.  If you do, you’ve destroyed empowerment, and it’s hard to get it back.  They’ll always know that you could jump in at any time, and start to expect it if they fail.  You have to let them fail, if its going to fail.  This is the hardest, why?  Because you know you can do it, and probably better… but YOU MUST RESIST!  Just offer support, help prioritize, and get out of the way.  Long term, if there is a performance issue, you can address it later, for now, don’t break the empowerment you gave, or it will kill your credibility.

5 Things You Should Say Every Day at Work

Want to love your job more?  Want to work in a very positive work environment?  Want a raise, more responsibility, or a promotion?  Then these are the 5 things you should be saying every day at work.  Five simple phrases that can lead you to a more rewarding and rewarded career.

1. “I’ll take Ownership of this, and see that it gets done.”

Everyone is busy.  Managers and Co-workers both love it when someone else takes responsibility.  Making it explicit with this phrase will win you friends, especially when you build a reputation for actually delivering what you own.  Fail to deliver though, and people will stop letting you own, a very bad thing.

2. “Is there anything I can do to help?”

Similar to taking ownership, people appreciate help when they are swamped.  In this case though, your not saying you’ll take charge, just that you’ll help in a task or two.

3. “I’m sorry, I messed up and here’s how I plan to fix it.”

Nobody likes to mess up, but it happens.  And when sh*t happens, it’s always best to own up to it, with an action plan to fix it.  Even if fix it means minimizing the damage, a plan is always better than not having one.

4. “Do I understand correctly that you are saying …?”

Fill in the blank with exactly what you think they said.  If you can demonstrate that you have completely heard them, even without agreeing, it goes a long way towards letting the other person open up about your feedback.  Dr. Stephen Covey said “Seek first to understand, then to be understood.”.  This simple phrase can change your life.  Suddenly, people will prefer to speak to you because “you listen”.   Even if you don’t agree, you at least listen!

5. “Great job!”

We all have a little puppy deep inside our hearts.  We don’t want to be yelled at when we poo on the floor… we know we did wrong.   But we DO love praise when we do something right!  Say it often, but of course, only say it when you mean it.   Don’t praise poor work, no comments are needed.

photo via cc