Empowering your Employees
If you are in a management position, it is vital that you realise that for you to be successful, your team needs to be successful: you are as good as the team you manage. And an empowered team is a successful, healthy one. But how do you achieve this elusive empowerment? Here are some tips on how to do this:
Put your ego aside: You are not the most important person in the room, and the ideal is that the team functions equally with or without you. Many leaders and managers forget this important fact, and this is where they struggle as leaders. We need to listen more and talk less.
Ask meaningful questions: Instead of making demands or lecturing, the real value is in spending some time observing to understand what is going on and asking meaningful questions to help gain understanding.
Listen attentively: Give your team space to give you proper, honest feedback – that is how you will succeed to harness the power of your team’s brain
Give employees leeway: Allow space for your employees to make their own decisions, empowering them by giving them this freedom. By giving them the authority to make certain decisions, they can shorten the cycle, allowing them to act faster, and are also encouraged to come up with solutions themselves rather than depend on management for solutions. This is also a super way to develop talent and encourage growth. Research shows that millennials look for ownership and slow and steady is a great learning ground for this.
Be forgiving of mistakes: Empowering your employees may lead to some mistakes, but it helps to provide employees with the security of mind that they will find support when they make mistakes. This will enable them to act confidently and grow within their role. A culture of fear or blame can only damage, instead establish boundaries and guidelines on which type of mistakes are acceptable and which are not. For example, negligence should not be encouraged but genuine mistakes can be done when the team is on a learning curve to achieve higher levels of performance.
Give employees space and time: You may not be able to give your team members the level of salary they wish, but giving them flexibility, space and time can be a benefit that they would value. You can give employees sufficient space to learn, to experiment, and even flexibility to take care of their personal affairs. Flexibility and time is today regarded as a valuable resource and is a very strong retaining factor for employees.
Build teams: encourage teams to work together synergistically rather than setting them against each other. Find out what each person does best and bring this out and get team members to support each other to achieve a higher level of performance. In this way, you will manage to achieve a sum that is better than its individual parts.
Create paths for advancement: Allow space for your employees to grow as otherwise, your business will stall and stagnate, or your employees will be forced to leave to find growth elsewhere.
Reinforce the right attitudes: It is not necessarily important to do things right, but to do them with the right attitude. If our team feels secure in taking risks and pushing boundaries, and moving out of their comfort zone, as long as this is done with the right intentions and with the correct attitude, the company will flourish and grow as the employees go from strength to strength.
Put your team at the forefront and you will achieve new heights of success.
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For more information about our services or if would like us to help you empower your employees, please contact us on: info@mdina.com.mt
Katrina has always had a passion for learning and development and has a drive for seeing others succeed.
She spent 7 years in a reputable telecommunications company, designing and delivering a wide range of training programmes. As a Training Manager within the HR team, Katrina was involved in talent management, call centre upskilling, leadership and development programmes as well as product launches and sales training.
Katrina is an avid learner herself. Whilst reading her MSc in Work Psychology with the University of London, she focused on the use of technology to support the needs of different generational learners. She has also received training in Italy on using technology for learning and followed an Advanced Diploma in Leadership and Innovation with the University of Strathclyde and MIM.
Katrina’s experience adds value to learning as she applies experiential learning while ensuring all sessions are interactive, explorative, relevant and fun!
Katrina has remained an active trainer and coach throughout her career, currently lecturing in HR and leadership programmes
