Recently, I was getting some maintenance om my car. I was waiting for my turn, but the personnel assigned to me didn’t turn up, and I was looking around for help. The manager of the service station turned up and started playing the role of the mechanic in charge. Finally, when the mechanic turned up, the manager politely introduced him to me by name, apologized for the delay, and encouraged his staff to do a great job with my car. The impatience I had faded away watching the way he handled people.
The manager did not ridicule his team. He apologised where necessary. He was ready to do the job of the mechanic when situation demanded. And encouraged his team to perform well on my car which made me happy. He made everyone feel empowered.
How often do we find such managers who knows how to handle a situation gracefully. Well, we can train people with the values followed in the organization.
“Train people well enough so they can leave, treat them well enough so they don’t want to.” – Sir Richard Branson.
Empowerment impacts the enthusiasm and productivity of the team. Below are the factors that encourage, engage, build and sustain the people in your team for growth.
Ways to Empower Your Team
- Be Honest and Trustworthy
The team looks up to the manager in charge for support in various ways. Unless they experience an environment of trust, people do not share their ideas. The role played by the manager is vital to the overall efficiency of the team performance.
People do no do produce results only for the salary they earn. They also do it for growth, creative expression, pride and recognition.
The manager must be a hands-on man who can get the job done even when the situation demands that he by himself must do it. And without blaming his team, thereby reflecting his enthusiasm, commitment, and strong character. This creates an environment of trust where people feel that they are safe in living to their potential.
- Delegate with Belief
Delegation is not just assigning tasks to the team. The team is heart of any tech company. Work has to be delegated with the belief and trust that it will be done well and on time. And even when things go wrong, the team still needs to be appreciated for the work done well, and then explore what more could be done to make it even better. In this way, the team knows and learns what to do the next time. This simple act empowers the team to perform to their optimum levels. Everybody likes to be trusted. Delegation of work and authority is the best way to build and grow your people.
- Recognition and Appreciation
When your team feels appreciated, they perform better. Appreciation allows your team to know that they can safely invest themselves in the next task to be accomplished. It is the role of the manager to ensure that teams efforts are duly recognized. An underappreciated team feels the task at hand as an obligation to perform. Genuine appreciation creates a sense of ownership. Your team performs because they want to, not because they have to.
- Nurture and Develop People
The best organizations invest in developing the skills of their people. The retention of the teams largely depends on their overall development as an individual. As loyalty and commitment increase, people feel ownership and start expressing their leadership abilities.
Here is a popular social media post that best explains the above:
CFO asks the CEO: “What happens if we invest in developing our people, and then they leave us?”.
CEO responds: “What happens if we don’t, and they stay.”
- Accountability and Growth
Tasks are accomplished based on proper planning and timelines. Improper planning leads to inefficient overworked teams. A good manager ensures that their team feels accountable so that they can meet deadlines and feel good in their accomplishments. Genuine praise always empowers people as they take pride and see their own personal growth. Once a manager habituates the culture of praise and accountability, the team instinctively raises to meet new challenges without being asked.
- Sense of Security
An old belief of long yesterday is that people give their best when they are cornered under high pressure. In reality people break when they are under too much pressure. Good managers ensure their people feel secure by trusting, nurturing, guiding, and then delegating the work to them. Sometimes this even means decreasing work loads when over pressured. This enables time for an over stressed individual to recover and return to their normal productivity level again. Only empowered people feel a sense of ownership. Secure people choose to deliver results out of responsibility rather than pressure or fear.
- Defined Pathway to Growth
An organization that has an open policy of projecting the growth trajectory of it’s staff empowers its people. They know what is expected of them in defined ways. They choose to excel in their work and grow within the organization. Lack of clarity of their growth usually creates an environment of mistrust over time. If you want your team’s buy-in, let them know they know they are here for the long run and new positions will be available for them as they grow.
- Build the Company Culture
Empowering people should be the heart of every organization. When you focus on building people, people focus on building the business and organization.