Employee Empowerment: The Right Way to Do It
In a post, we talked about building trust in teams, jam-packed with the importance of building trust and how it’s done. Yet we all know the need to empower the team to be the best. You know it takes a different kind of a leader to build a billion-dollar company; a leader that is surrounded by “empowered” staff.
In this article, we’re shifting our focus to employee empowerment in the workplace because the more you empower your employees, the more they will grow and thrive.
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What is Employee Empowerment in the Workplace?
Employee empowerment is all about giving employees a certain degree of responsibility for decision-making regarding their organizational tasks at hand. Empowerment is the process of authorizing an individual to think, behave, take action, and control decision-making in self-sufficient ways.
Employee empowerment provides some distinct advantages. Why employee empowerment is important is a common question from managers all over the world. Empowering team often leads to increased organizational responsiveness, increase in productivity, a greater degree of employee commitment to organizational goals, and many more. Research has demonstrated that when employees feel empowered at work, it leads to stronger job performance, job satisfaction, increased workplace productivity, and commitment to the organization.
How Do You Empower Employees at Work
Empowering employees is a culture. To empower employees, leaders should consider the following steps:
1. Delegate to Develop
Let an employee take on the new task, for example, ask an employee to lead a meeting or share the major projects or anything new. Not because you want to drudge work off your plate but with the intent to grow the capabilities of your employees. This empowers them to get the job done and do well.
2. Set Clear Expectations
Smart leaders know that each employee has unique powers. Define the boundaries within which your employee is free to act. By setting clear expectations, you’re giving your employees permission to make decisions that are in line with company goals.
3. Encourage Two-Way Communication
If you are not allowing for open dialogues between your team members, you’re probably making a mistake. Establishing better communication practices where both the parties should be on the same platform while communication should be encountered. ProofHub, a collaboration software provides an effective two-way communication platform taking care of the needs for communication.
4. Give Employees Autonomy Over Tasks
When you delegate, don’t do so with the intention of making them do the same way you’d want. Your employee should track time of each task and it may help complete the task differently by than you would. Avoid micromanaging and believe that your way may not be the only best way.
5. Support Learning and Development
Most of your employees would wish to develop professionally and not just work for a paycheck. Helping them to meet their personal goals is a part of empowering the team. Empower a learning environment to help them develop at the speed that most suits them.
6. Develop a Collaborative Team
Create a collaborative team spirit by encouraging employees to make decisions. Be more democratic by consulting your people on decisions that affect them, and relinquish responsibility to the team — while continuing to guide them to better solutions.
Pro tip: ProofHub, team productivity app, is the smartest way to bring teams together and collaborate in the best possible way. Teams can effortlessly share ideas, compile files and documents, and start discussions with this online collaboration software making projects easier and teams smarter.
7. Making it OK to Make Mistakes
If your team isn’t making mistakes, then you aren’t reaching high enough. When you stop blaming for the mistakes made, the employees will take it as a learning experience. Eliminate fear of failure to ensure that employees are not afraid of making mistakes.
8. Discuss the Vision of the Organization
There is nothing better than making employees feel like they are an important part of building something rather than making them just another cog in the wheel. Clearly, communicate the vision of the organization. EmployValues and vision provide employees clear focus and guidance when you’re not present. It empowers employees with the knowledge that their contribution is making a difference.
9. Provide Growth Paths
If you don’t make room to grow, you’ll force people to either leave your business or work half-heartedly. Of course, extra work can be a great opportunity to grow but don’t feel like you’re simply getting extra work out of them without the advancement such as new titles, raises, and bonuses. Go out of the way to provide robust ways for your employees to grow.
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10. Praise Efforts
Praise is one of the most powerful gifts you can give to your employees. It gives them the drive and motivation to continue. Reward great performances, recognize a project hero, notice your unsung heroes, highlight what you like the most, and tie their efforts to a big change. Be the encouragement for people to learn and grow, to be innovative, to take actions, and to solve problems.
11. Don’t avoid small talk
How often do you sit down with your employees and engage in a one-on-one conversation? If never, you should do that often. You can have a small talk with individuals in your office, in the break room, or a cafeteria. Ask about their work progress and get to know your staff on a personal level. Show that you care about them as human beings. In a survey by Glassdoor two-thirds of people agree that their boss had some kind of impact on their career — a positive one.
Lastly, ProofHub (project management tool) chat can help you increase transparency at the workplace by providing more productive solutions to empower teams to work together.
That’s all for now. When you start with the process of empowering your team members you’ll better understand why should you empower employees? Remember, employee empowerment is a key predictor of engagement (and other outcomes). Activities such as mentoring and team empowerment activities can help empower your employees by bringing out the qualities that make them special. To build your dream team start putting the above points to action. Empowered employees are more likely to:
- Embrace change
- Go the extra mile
- Be more productive
- Have a “can do” attitude
- Provide better customer service
- Help your bottom line
- Feel appreciated
An effective leader knows that when the team is empowered, good ideas can come from anywhere. Bring out the best in your team. Celebrate your team members, not yourself.
Cheers!
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