Why Leaders Should Empower Their Teams

Many business leaders know exactly what it takes to achieve success. For many, it usually includes a strong vision, desire, and execution of a plan. This requires a lot of preparation, hard work, and sacrifice. In many cases, mistakes are made, but good leaders adapt, learn, and persevere. Also, somewhere along the way, leaders were empowered to make some very difficult decisions.

Empowerment is defined as the act of granting power, or authority to do something. However, in business, empowerment is a management practice where leaders share information and give power and autonomy to their key personnel. The goal of empowerment in business is to encourage employees to seek their own solutions that best serve the company.

Yet today, many leaders who became empowered themselves, are unable to empower their own teams. Perhaps they don’t trust the people on their team. Maybe they don’t know how to empower them or fear the negative consequences of empowering them.

I’m going to explore some of the reasons that keep leaders from empowering their teams, the consequences of not empowering them, and the long term benefits of empowering them.

Reasons Leaders Do Not Empower Their Teams

1. It’s a huge commitment of time to empower employees. Many leaders find it easier to make important decisions themselves than investing time to educate their people with all the possible outcomes or ramifications to consider before making a decision.

2. Leaders trust themselves more to make a difficult decision. Some leaders are unsure if they have the right people to entrust making difficult decisions for the company.

3. There may be an increased risk of business if a wrong decision is made. What is the total cost to the company if a poor decision is made?

4. Leaders lose their value if they empower teams. Some leaders believe their value is measured by making the difficult decisions for the company and feel vulnerable empowering their teams.

Consequences Of Not Empowering Your Teams

1. The company will struggle to achieve its vision and goals. Teams may not be fully committed to the organization if they feel they are not trusted by leadership.

2. Businesses will run less efficiently. When key employees are not empowered, processes are held up waiting for approval.

3. Companies will struggle to retain their best staff. Empowered staff are generally happier when they come to work and feel a greater sense of purpose when they are entrusted to make key decisions.

4. Leaders become burned out. It can be stressful and time consuming to always be asked for approvals and making business decisions.

   Benefits Of Empowering Your Teams

1. Empowerment will increase employee engagement. Empowered employees become more invested and aligned with the long term strategy and vision of the organization.

2. Employees will become more productive.  Process, operations, and workflow run smoother when staff don’t have to wait for approval from a leader.

3. Improved staff retention. Empowered employees are generally happier at work and will likely stay long term.

4. Leaders can focus more on business strategy. When leaders spend less time on day to day operations, they can focus more time on the company vision and long term strategy.

One of the biggest responsibilities of a leader is to motivate or lead a team towards achieving a common goal. In business, this often means directing teams to follow a strategy or process that helps the company achieve its goals.

As a leader, it’s important to share as much information and responsibility as you can with your team. By sharing your experience, and empowering them to find better solutions, you will support the vision of your company and the professional development of your teams.

Hi, I’m Kevin Marshall, a certified coach and mentor who is passionate about business and professional development. I help business leaders and professionals develop effective business solutions and strategies to improve their business performance and achieve their goals. I’m honoured to invite you to a complimentary 20 minute consultation to learn more about coaching.

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Setting Goals At Any Age

I met my new elementary school principal, Mr. Rose, on the first day of school in Grade 5. He ambitiously walked into my class and asked every one of us students, individually, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” After we all answered, he assured every one of us that we can achieve anything we want in life if we set our mind to it. That was the first time I really thought about my future and all the things I wanted to achieve in my life.

The next day, my teacher asked our class to write down all our school year goals for Grade 5. My goals included winning school athlete of the year, the school checkers tournament, and the spelling bee competition. I felt excited and motivated to practice and prepare in all three. Though I didn’t win all three competitions that year, the goal-setting experience inspired me to write down my goals for the next school year as well.

When Do People Start Setting Goals

As soon as children begin elementary school, competition and achievement become part of everyday life. They’re introduced to weekly quizzes, tests, and class games. Then, in secondary school, teenagers strive to achieve the honour roll, compete for spots on sports teams, debate teams, student council, and apply for acceptance into a college or university program. Goal-setting can inspire children and teenagers to focus, practice and prepare for the work involved in achieving their goals.  

Goal-setting continues to play a role once young adults graduate from university, build a new career, and start a family. As they work their way up in their career, young adults focus on earning job promotions, pay raises, financial goals for retirement, and purchasing a new house. It almost seems like goals are a common part of life when people are young. 

Why Do People Stop Setting Goals?

For many people, there comes a point in their life or career when they stop creating new goals.

One common reason is that people stop dreaming or looking into their future once they’ve achieved some success. Another reason is that people have been trained to start planning for their retirement since they began their professional careers and never think about other opportunities or possibilities.

It doesn’t have to be that way, nor should it. With years of expertise, knowledge and goals accomplished under your belt, you have an even better chance of achieving your goals, later in life than in the beginning. I want to share some simple yet effective strategies to help you set and achieve goals at any age.

Seven Ways To Achieve New Goals at Any Age

1.    Create a vision by asking yourself three questions:

·      What do I really want to achieve in my personal life and career?

·      What becomes possible for me when I achieve it? 

·      Who benefits when I reach my goals?

2.    Ensure your goals are SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely) to strengthen your vision of achieving your goals.

3.    Create a Goal Worksheet (1 year, 5 year, and 10 year). Write your vision at the top of your worksheet and then write your goals, first steps, and a date to complete it by.

4.    Tell the people you love about your goals. These people will hold you accountable and keep you on track to achieving your goals. When you’ve opened up to other people about your goals, your commitment to achieving them will increase.

5.    Write your goals down so you can see them every day. When you are reminded of your goals each day, it will increase your focus and deepen your commitment.

6.    Ask yourself what might keep you from achieving your goals? Acknowledging some bad habits or outside factors that might challenge your goals, support you to focus on the good habits and steps required to achieve your goals.

7.    Consider partnering with a coach. A coach is trained to help people define what they truly want and help them design a strategy to help them commit to and achieve it. They can deepen your commitment to achieving your vision and help you move beyond what you thought you could achieve. 

Setting goals at any age can inspire people to achieve more than they thought they ever could. The journey and process of achieving new goals can bring more focus, clarity, and sustainable joy in people’s lives.

 I’m Kevin Marshall, a certified coach and mentor who is passionate about business, sales, and health. I help business leaders and professionals develop more effective business solutions and strategies to improve their business performance and achieve their goals. I’m honoured to invite you to a complimentary 20 minute consultation to learn more about coaching.

Please subscribe to my newsletter for new posts.