As a leader, you’ve got to empower your team, motivate them, and ultimately guide them to achieve their full potential. It’s a tall order, but it’s one that we’re here to help you with today.
With that said, scroll on down for our list of fifteen ways to empower your team.
15 Ways to Empower Your Team
#1: Get to know them personally
Before you dive into strategies for empowering your team, you need to get to know your team on a personal level. When a workplace culture is purely transactional – ‘here’s a task for you to do’ – your team will become disengaged and won’t put in any discretionary effort.
#2:Allow your team to use their strengths every day
When employees use their strengths in their day-to-day role, there’s a 15% uptake in employee engagement. As a frontline leader you should dedicate time to uncovering what each individual’s strengths are. This will help you in delegating tasks and encouraging collaboration between team members.
#3: Challenge them to think outside of the box
A great leader brings out the best in their people. They can face procrastination and resistance to tasks and in that moment give their teams the encouragement and guidance they need to think outside of the box.
#4: Give them what they need to be successful
Not sure what your team need from you? We’ve got a hack for that – ask them. Okay, so while that wasn’t a ground-breaking hack, it is something you’ve got to do to effectively empower your team. You could create a team ritual to encourage open dialogue and support your workplace culture.
#5: Ask insightful questions
Get curious and ask insightful questions. It’s an integral element of taking a coaching approach; a framework that great leaders use to empower their teams.
#6: Create a circle of safety
Simon Sinek has brought us a lot of awesome content over the years, including the belter of a book Leaders Eat Last. When you create a circle of safety (otherwise known as psychological safety) your team will be more motivated and will push through challenges and roadblocks like they’re wafer-thin.
#7: Show your appreciation
It may not seem like a big deal at first but taking the time to show your appreciation goes a long way. The most important thing is to thank your team members for the effort they put into their work, rather than simply saying ‘good job’. Get specific about the behaviours that your team members have displayed that you’re really grateful for.
#8: Develop their skills
One of the best ways you can empower your team is to invest in developing their skills. It might be investing your time in 1:1 catch ups to coach your team members, or it could be sending your team along to an interactive workshop.
#9: Role model the behaviour you want to see
Truly empowering leaders walk the talk. If you want your team to get more involved in culture-strengthening rituals, you’ve got to champion them. If you want your team to step up their customer service game, show them what great customer service looks like.
#10: Embrace empathy
A core skill for every leader is empathy. Without it, you won’t be able to relate to your team members and it’ll detract from your efforts to empower them. Often seen as the soft-fluffy part of science, the rigour that sits behind empathy demonstrates quickly that it’s one of the toughest human skills to master.
#11:Communicate and reiterate your purpose
Your company’s mission or ‘purpose’ shouldn’t be something that lives in a document. Rally your team around a shared purpose and talk about it often. Harvard Business Review has researched the business case for purpose which revealed that 58% of companies that are truly purpose-driven report 10% growth or more over three years.
#12: Encourage cross-team collaboration
When teams collaborate, creative solutions are found, and perspectives are challenged. It’s a great thing for your organisation, and it’s something that can ramp up results like nothing else. Explore our guide to the four different types of teams to figure out where your team are sitting.
#13: Show that you trust them
As a leader, you’ve got to show your team that you trust them in order for them to go above and beyond. Next time you give someone a task, give them a clear outline of what you’d like them to achieve and then let them approach the task in their own way.
#14: Have regular catch-ups
When was the last time you checked in with each individual member of your team? Do you give them the opportunity to ask questions and air concerns in a one-on-one setting? Quality time is one of the most important factors in creating an empowered, engaged team.
#15: Give them something to own
Ownership is a powerful psychological construct that we’ve been helping teams, leaders and exec boards to understand for a few years now. If you’re willing, breaking the top-down approach with a self-led performance plan, it can make all the difference.
There you have it, fifteen things you can do to empower your team to reach their full potential and achieve results within your organisation. It’s time to get cracking.
If you want to take your leadership capability to the next level take a look at our Coaching Mastery program. Effective coaching can shift individuals and teams from ticking boxes towards being more cohesive, curious and collaborative… who doesn’t want more of that?
