5 Tips That Will Help Empower Your Team

As leaders, we all hope that our teams feel empowered and that they will take ownership, and show initiative without us prompting them to do so. But from experience, I can tell you that that rarely happens, whilst we might feel we have empowered our teams, that is different from them feeling empowered.

Just recently I was looking at the definition of empowerment and in Merriam Webster’s dictionary, their definition of empowered is having the knowledge, confidence, means, or ability to do things or make decisions for oneself.

If we don’t make sure that each of those boxes are ticked, the chances of our teams feeling empowered and taking the actions we desire is low.

So here are my five tips for ensuring your teams feel empowered and deliver the outcomes you are looking for.

1. Encourage autonomy:
   Give team members the freedom to make decisions and solve problems on their own. This helps to build confidence and improves problem-solving skills. It also means that they don’t need to keep coming back to you for approval.
2. Provide resources:
   Make sure team members have the resources and tools they need to do their jobs effectively. This can include training, access to technology, and support from other team members. Companies can now utilise the new AI tools that are available to them to help, such as ChatGPT for customer service. When teams feel they have all the resources they need they will feel confident that they can deliver the desired outcome.
3. Offer opportunities for growth
   Encourage team members to take on new challenges and responsibilities. This helps to build skills and expand knowledge, leading to personal and professional growth.
   Offering opportunities for growth is a desirable quality in a leader and once you build a reputation for doing this it will help you attract more, and better quality talent.
4. Recognize and reward success
   Acknowledge and reward team members for their successes, both big and small. This helps to build motivation and reinforces positive behaviors. Remember what gets recognized gets repeated and when our teams do good work, this is exactly the kind of thing we want them to repeat.
5. Foster open communication
   Encourage an open-door policy and regular check-ins with team members. This helps to build trust and improve communication, leading to better collaboration and decision-making. It also makes your teams feel safe and supported. It’s a bit like having a safety net, and even though it might not be used it does help increase their self-confidence which is critical for growth.

Just follow these 5 simple tips and it will help you create teams that are knowledgeable, confident, capable, and empowered that will drive your performance and outcomes to the next level.