How Empowering Your Team Makes You A Better Leader The Hoyt Organization

How Empowering Your Team Makes You A Better Leader

If you are in the race to build a successful company, then empowering your team should be a top priority. In fact, this is essential if you want to be a more engaging leader.

This means you should respect each employee enough to entrust them with more autonomy, responsibility, and accountability. In other words, after you’ve given your team the tools they need to thrive in the workplace, you should loosen the reins so they can take ownership of their accomplishments.

Below, we’ve outlined how you can empower your team and how your entire company can benefit from this practice.

The Importance Of Empowering Your Team

Empowerment opens the lines of communication within any organization. If you make it clear from the get-go that your office door is always open, then your team will know that they can come to you for help.

This means that when a task gets assigned, your team will have the opportunity to figure out the ins and outs of the entire process for themselves. However, if they see that something isn’t working optimally, they can always report back to you for guidance.

This setup will not only help you to practice active listening and be a more approachable leader, but will also help to solve any major problems in its initial stages.

Secondly, it can be empowering for your team to have a go at solving problems themselves before they ask for help. If your team manages on their own, they will gain self-confidence. This will help them learn to trust their own instincts and skillset.

As a result, you can build a work-force of confident, capable, and satisfied employees, which benefits your company.

How Empowering Your Team Makes You A Better Leader

There are numerous ways that you can become a better leader by empowering your team. Firstly, leaders who empower their teams create a closely knitted team. This can fuel the long-term success of your business.

Secondly, by involving your team and seeing them as equals, you can prevent micromanaging. As a result, you will create a more confident team structure. This will also allow for the consideration of more opinions and can open your company up to new, out-of-the-box ideas.

Thirdly, if you want to encourage problem-solving, and have a high-performing team then you will have to reward critical thinking and innovation. However, your team will only feel inspired to be innovative if they are given the opportunity to see their ideas come to life.

If you are committed to empowering your team, then you will be viewed as the gatekeeper that always opens the door to new opportunities. Instead of tiptoeing around you, your employees will have the freedom to share their success and greatest ideas with you.

If your team fails, they will feel safe knowing that they have your understanding and support which will give them the courage to try again. In essence, this is the golden standard that all leaders should be aiming for if they want their company to be successful.

4 Tips To Empower Your Team

Give Your Employees a Well-Defined End Goal

The aim should always be to paint a clear picture of the end destination. However, do not dictate how your team should get there.

Give your employees what they need to do their work, but be sure to also give them free rein when it comes to brainstorming and problem-solving.

A simple project management tool can help your employees to stay organized at work.

Define Employee Roles and Responsibilities

For everyone to work harmoniously, there should be no confusion regarding job roles or responsibilities. Everyone should know who makes the decisions, who delegates tasks, and who is responsible for what.

By not assigning clear task roles, important decisions could end up being delayed.

Upskill Your Team Before Tasks Are Assigned

You can save a lot of time and prevent frustration within your team by giving your employees the skills and tools they need before you ask them to tackle difficult tasks.

Whether your team needs to sharpen up their problem-solving skills, decision-making skills, or technical skills, be sure to fully equip each employee for the tasks at hand.

Lead by Example

Sometimes, a company has to undergo a culture shift for employees to truly feel empowered. The best way to show your team that you are serious about empowering them is to model the mindsets and behaviors that you are trying to instill.

For this to happen, leaders should rework performance management, company structures, or training processes where needed.

In Summary

These four steps may not seem like extraordinary measures to empower your employees. But, when implemented correctly, they could change the entire way your team operates.

The goal should always be to award highly capable employees who have earned your trust with more opportunities to shine.

~hoytorg