The best leaders are passionate about developing emerging leaders around them. They continuously work to improve their skills, knowledge, emotional intelligence and they know that strong team culture is the foundation for accomplishing great things in their organization.
As a leader, empower your team by giving them ownership of their work and trusting them to do what they think is best. You did hire them so you might as well trust that they will do their job right.
Confident leaders know that their teams will be able to handle the responsibilities they are given. If they don’t, then they aren’t confident, right?
Empowerment is an action given by the leader to their team members. It is not a word, it is a series of daily actions from the leader that gives enough room for trial error and most importantly growth. It is a series of daily actions, interactions and relationships that are the stepping stones towards your “empowered” culture. You see micromanagement is the complete opposite of empowerment. You can’t empower while you are micromanaging your employees every single move. Your team members need to not only know that their leader trusts them but they must feel that through your daily actions- not only words. Giving them the freedom to use their expertise to get the job done without micromanaging their every single move, judging their actions and labelling it. Let them do mistakes and let them know that YOU will be the first one to teach them how to do it right the next time. Through their mistakes they WILL grow. If they fail, you need to know that as a leader YOU failed first. As a leader, your job is to teach your team how to get the job done. Not just telling them what to do but also showing them the steps they need to follow to do it. Enlighten them with your experiences can give them enough guidance and feedback to see them succeed not fail- isn’t that why you are the leader. And if they fail, which will happen along the way, learn to man up and stand up and say, I didn’t give them enough support, I didn’t give enough instructions of how I want this task to be completed, I messed up that’s why you did.
Developing leaders in your organization is more than just a task, it is a lifelong learning experience that will be part of your everyday job day in and day out. It is not a “thing” you will be able to tick off on your to-do list. It is a culture mindset- I’d like to call it the “leadership mindset”. Be a leader who strives to create a work environment where everyone thrives and succeeds. An environment where members are working smart, not hard, empowered not blamed, supported not judged, and heard not ignored.
Strive to create an environment where leadership qualities speak louder than a thousand words… You see anyone can “say” I’m a leader, but trust me you will need to do way more than “say” you are.
