Speak openly and build trust to help your team grow
As machines become more accurate and intelligent, we humans will have to hone our human skills. I’ve put together a series of articles titled “eLearning Skills 2030” to explore all the skills that can help future-proof your career and make your job easier. One of your primary responsibilities as a Learning and Development leader is to ensure that you enable your team and staff to develop these skills. This article explores how to promote empowerment, why it’s critical, and how to hone it.
What is empowerment?
Empowerment is the process of becoming stronger and more confident in making decisions and actions. As a leader, you need to empower others within your team and your organization by giving them the opportunity and leeway to grow and lead in their own context. In his groundbreaking research on lead self-managing work teamsKimball Fisher outlined four critical components of empowerment:
- Authority, where employees need the leeway to evaluate situations, assess risks and take appropriate action to improve processes or solve problems without additional approval.
- Resources, giving employees access to people, time, money and training.
- Information, where employees must have access to timely and accurate information and data so that they can make effective and timely decisions and take action.
- Accountability, a crucial complementary element of empowerment. Empowerment does not mean free play. I often define leadership as a two-sided coin: empowerment and responsibility. When we are empowered by others or empower ourselves to take action, we are also responsible for the decisions we make and the results we deliver.
Why is promoting empowerment critical?
Fostering empowerment is vital to employee experience, customer satisfaction and organizational performance. It is also a fundamental leadership skill to develop. US Army General Colin Powell discussed the importance of empowerment in his book It worked for me: in life and leadershipstating that empowering junior officers under his command boosted confidence, built stronger teams, and improved mission results.
How can you promote empowerment in your organization?
Promoting empowerment requires continuous effort. It’s not a “one and done” deal. While, as mentioned before, you need to give your team authority, resources and information, these are not enough. In addition to these elements, you must employ several tactics to ensure you do it right, including cultivating open communication, building trust, creating psychological safety, rewarding creativity and innovation, and demanding accountability.
Model of open communication
Open communication is critical and you can cultivate it by communicating openly, both verbally and in writing. Share your perspective authentically, asking questions† active listening, and encourage your team to do the same. Well-known GE CEO Jack Welch said that candor is one of the most important qualities of a leader who communicates well.
Build trust
To build trust, you must ensure that your values, ideas, words and actions are always aligned and conveyed authentically and honestly. You must fulfill your obligations and not be afraid to show vulnerability in the face of difficulties. Without trust, it becomes a challenge to communicate, collaborate and achieve results with your team. Building trust increases credibility and trustworthiness in the team, which is vital in delivering performance results.
Create psychological safety
In her groundbreaking research on psychological safety, Harvard professor Amy Edmondson discusses that psychological safety in the workplace exists when people in the organization feel safe to speak their mind and are confident that their voices are heard. She argues that the more employees feel psychologically safe, the more involved they are. Psychological safety does not mean that there is no conflict. In fact, there will be conflicts because people feel comfortable sharing their differing opinions. However, psychological safety in the context of empowerment does not mean free play or slacking. As a leader, you can model psychological safety by speaking thoughtfully with candor, welcoming opposing views, and working together to find solutions.
Cultivate creativity and innovation
In 2004, Google conducted the 20% time rule, which allowed employees, in addition to their regular projects, to spend 20% of their time on what they thought would be most beneficial to Google. As a result of this initiative, several successful Google products, including AdSense, Google News, and Gmail, were created by employees during their 20% on-time efforts. This rule is still in effect at Google. As a leader, you can foster empowerment by encouraging your team to cultivate their creativity by exploring new ideas and learning new skills. Even if the projects fail, the team has learned a few things to apply in their next effort to create new products and services for customers.
Requires responsibility
To demand accountability from others, you must first hold yourself accountable. To do this, you have to show up and follow up. Showing up means completing your work on time, providing clear direction to the team and being there for the team to answer questions and provide support where needed. Following up means being involved; you monitor each team member to learn how they are doing and if they need help, and you consistently and continuously join the team to communicate, ask questions, and listen. Once you model accountability, you can demand it from your team members as well.
Conclusion
Promoting empowerment is vital to your organization’s team and performance; it is also complex to implement and must be continuously promoted to be effective. As a leader, you must continue to communicate authentically, build trust, create psychological safety, cultivate creativity and innovation, and most importantly, model and demand accountability so that you can successfully empower your team and give them the tools, data, and resources they need. today, in 2030 and beyond.