Empower Employees

Employee empowerment is a term that describes an employee mindset of responsibility, accountability, capability, and autonomy. In terms of business, empowerment is the opposite of micromanagement. This is why it is beneficial for managers to empower employees, thus fostering employee reliability and a team-work environment. If you are interested in promoting employee empowerment in the workplace, you do not have to be a college business major to succeed at this task.

Steps

Being a Strong Leader

  1. Adopt traits of a good leader to promote employee empowerment. To empower your employees, you have to be a role model. If they don’t respect you or think you’re hypocritical or lazy, it’ll be hard for them to feel empowered by you. Here’s how to be a good role model for your employees:
    • Be accountable for what you say and do and expect the same from your employees.
    • Listen to what your employees say.
    • Show sincerity when dealing with employees.
    • Be a good example of discipline.
    • Avoid taking credit for team accomplishments.
    • Communicate regularly and effectively.
    • Focus on positive, winning attitudes.
    • Keep asking "What are the key traits of highly effective leaders?" Make a list, build and develop those skills.
  2. Delegate tasks clearly and concisely. Make sure there are no gray areas when assigning specific duties to specific employees. That way, employees will know exactly what is expected and there will be no room for passing the buck. Also, entrusting employees to responsibly complete a task improves their confidence and pride in their work.
    • If you tend to be a micromanager, you want to empower your employees by trusting them enough to let them work on their own.
    • Give employees more responsibilities so they will feel motivated to succeed. If they feel like they’ve been working at the same company for a long time without being given additional tasks or duties to perform, they will feel like they are not progressing.
    • When delegating tasks, make sure each employee knows exactly what is expected of him to avoid any future miscommunication.
  3. Give up some of your power in favor of employee autonomy. When you feel more certain that your employees are skilled and dedicated enough to take responsibility for their own tasks, allow them more freedom in defining the methods by which they will accomplish those tasks. This makes their work feel more exciting and rewarding since they’ll feel like they have more of a say in the work they do.
    • For example, if your ace marketing exec insists that telecommuting part-time would aid creativity and productivity, provide for that flexibility.
    • You can set routine meetings with your employees and check in with them about their progress without making them feel stifled.
  4. Be friendly without being a friend. Though you should avoid being that “cool boss” who is too friendly with all of his employees, it doesn’t hurt to smile at your employees, make small talk to show you care about them on an individual basis. Don’t be that boss who is too busy to say hi to his employees, and who storms by looking busy and frazzled all the time; take the time to make your employees feel cared for, no matter how busy you are.
    • If you want to empower your employees, you have to make them feel like you actually know each of them a bit. They’ll have a hard time wanting to do a good job if they feel like you don’t know who they are.
    • Get to know a little bit about each employee, such as the names and ages of their kids, their favorite things to do outside of work, or where they’re from. Asking about these small details will make them feel like you care.
    • If you are too busy to say hello to your employees, get to your office 15 minutes early every day. This will give you time to feel less frazzled when you walk into the office each morning, and to make more time for your employees.
  5. Be respectful. To motivate employees, you have to respect them as human beings and employees. Give instructions in a respectful manner, don’t be rude and take the time to acknowledge their questions or concerns before embarking on a new project. Also, be respectful of their time and don’t ask them to stay late last minute every evening or act like they don’t have a life outside of work.f
    • Don’t make employees feel unworthy of your time. If they want to meet you, don’t say, “I have 7 minutes to meet!” or, “I am swamped with meetings this week.” Sure, you’re the boss, and they know you’re busy, but you don’t want to make them feel like they are wasting your time every time they want to meet.
  6. Be positive. To be a good leader, motivate your employees with a positive attitude and environment. If you always look stressed out or are obviously in a bad mood or if it just always feels like doom and gloom in your office, then employees won’t feel empowered to do their best. You should smile, talk about positive developments at your company, give lots of reinforcement, and make your company a great place to work.
    • Of course, if things are going poorly for your company, then it may be difficult to have a smile on your face. Be honest with employees about the struggles your company is facing while focusing on the positive developments in your workplace.
    • Make sure employees hear laughter. Seriously, don’t be the boss who is so serious and stressed out that his employees haven’t heard him crack a joke or laugh. Another way to empower your employees is to make sure they know exactly what it takes to succeed. You don’t want them to feel like they are getting mixed signals or that things at your company are changing so fast that they have no idea what it actually takes to do a good job. Your expectations should be crystal clear if you want employees to feel empowered and motivated to do their best.
    • Sometimes expectations do change. If this is the case, make sure you let your employees know about the changes and explain your reasoning so they don’t feel like they are in the dark about company policy.

Encouraging Employees

  1. Acknowledge employee achievements. Make it a point to cite successes at board meetings and to verbally congratulate employees on a job well done. It is a great way to create an office atmosphere focused on success and to empower employees to keep up the good work. When you feel that it is earned, acknowledge hard work with bonuses or other types of rewards so your employees feel that you really see that they are making a difference.
    • Sometimes, your employees will make a big effort without getting the results they hoped for. Even if they don’t succeed, you should acknowledge them for trying and giving it their all.
    • Know that monetary rewards help empower employees, but that money can’t be the only thing that gets them going.
  2. Open your door to employees. An important part of empowering employees is letting them know their opinions are valuable. Adopting an open door policy lets employees know you care about what they say and enables them to give their input and play an active role in the well-being of the business. Employees who feel involved are empowered employees.
    • When employees talk to you, make sure you give them your full attention. Don’t listen to their complaints while checking your phone or munching lunch; even if you can only give them a few minutes of your time, make sure they have your full attention.
  3. Give more compliments than criticism. Though criticism is helpful if given correctly, you should focus on all of the good things that your employees are doing instead of nitpicking them and making them feel like “no news is good news.” Compliment them and let them know they’ve done a good job and do so as often as you can.
    • This policy can help establish a positive environment, instead of making employees feel like they’ll only hear from you if they’ve made a mistake.
  4. Criticize constructively. You can’t succeed in your job if you never criticize your employees, but when you explain something they’ve done incorrectly, make sure you do so in a respectful manner. Instead of making it sound like they have completely messed up, yelling, or threatening to fire them, have a civil conversation. Discuss how they can improve.
    • Employees don’t work well when they feel discouraged or like they can’t succeed, no matter what they do. Giving them a goal to reach and making them feel like they are capable of success is a much better strategy than making them feel like they are constantly failing.
    • When criticizing, make sure you are also pointing out things the employee is doing well. For example, say something like, “You’re such a hard worker and I know how much you want to succeed. However, if you let others take on more responsibility during team work, I think the results would be more balanced, and you would feel less pressure to do everything yourself.”
  5. Understand what motivates each employee. To empower employees, know what makes them tick. They won’t all be motivated by the same thing, so if you want them to succeed, you have to know their strengths and weaknesses to make the most of their abilities. Pay attention to their skills and what they say in meetings and find a way to help each employee reach his or her fullest potential.
    • For example, if one of your employees loves working with others, make sure he or she has plenty of opportunities for teamwork.
    • If one of your employees has an analytical mind, ask him to help you analyze the latest company report. Make the most of each employee’s strengths.
  6. Make employees feel like they are part of the company. To empower employees, you have to make them feel like what they do for the company really does matter and impacts its success. Whether you give them statistics, charts, data, or testimonials, make an effort to make them see the bigger picture.
    • Keep employees up-to-date on company developments. If you’re hiring more employees, starting a new branch of the company, working on a new project, or making other big changes, let employees know as much as they can about what’s going on. You don’t want them to feel they’re the last to hear about big changes because this will make them feel like they don’t really have a stake in the company.
  7. Show employees there’s room for growth in the company. To empower employees, you can’t make them feel like there’s no room for them to move forward. If they feel like they will just do the same old job year after year without any additional responsibilities, opportunities, or promotions, then it’ll be hard for them to feel truly empowered. Make sure they have a clear path to success and that they feel recognized as they get better and better at their jobs.
    • Additional bonuses or raises can really help your employees feel like their job has a future. If they’ve been working the same job for over two years without a single raise, for example, then they can start to feel like they’ve reached a dead end.
    • Talk to your employees about where they want to be in the future. Help them get there. They should feel that there are opportunities to grow, to learn skills and to take on more responsibilities the longer they stay at the job.

Going the Extra Mile

  1. Promote employee education. Provide a means for employees to get whatever training is necessary to their optimal performance so that they can truly master their job responsibilities. Also, show that you are invested in their professional success by arranging for them to attend career development seminars and courses. Not only does this provide for employee empowerment, but it is also a great way to gain employee loyalty and improve employee performance.
    • Helping your employees gain knowledge and skills not only makes them better at their jobs, but it will excite them about their work.
  2. Invite feedback from your employees. You can go a long way in empowering employees by asking them how you could best aid their empowerment. Put out a suggestions box and ask for opinions at meetings and one to one. Consider well-intentioned suggestions and let your employees see that they really do have a role in the overall success of the business. Then acknowledge their ideas have been looked at and or implemented.
    • The worst thing you can do is to ask for feedback, receive a lot of negative feedback, point it out, and then do absolutely nothing about it. If you ask for feedback, then make sure you’re willing to take steps to address it. If certain complaints simply cannot be addressed, make sure you explain why instead of just ignoring it. Transparency is important during this process.
    • If you make a habit of asking for feedback and receive a lot of negative feedback, then you shouldn’t just stop asking for it. This shows that you really don’t care what the employees think or want.
  3. Be willing to do what you ask them to do. Then stand “shoulder to shoulder” with them assisting them with the task; this helps to build your respect as a leader. At times, you might need to “take the lead” and take over the task for a while as you coach them along the way. This will also make them see that they have a competent boss. You don’t want them to feel like you’re asking them to do work that you have no idea how to do yourself.
  4. Make the workplace a welcoming environment. Another way to empower your employees is to make your workplace a fun and friendly place to work. You don’t want them to feel like they’re entering a prison cell every time they walk into the office. Even the little things you do to make the environment more friendly can make a big difference. Here are some things you can do:
    • Have fresh flowers around the office; they can spruce up any workplace.
    • Have some holiday decorations up around Halloween, Thanksgiving, or other holiday seasons, so the work environment feels more festive.
    • Have some fresh pastries, candy, fruit, or other treats in the office kitchen for your employees to enjoy from time to time. You don’t have to spend a lot of money to make the office feel more like home.
    • Have warm, friendly lighting in the office. Fluorescent lights can be too bright and oppressive. However, a dimly lit room with poor lighting and covered windows can make the office feel like a cave.
  5. Encourage outside team building activities. If you want your employees to feel empowered, then you have to make them care about work outside the workplace. While you don’t have to put pressure on them to go to every single event after work, you should present a variety of options for the employees so they can have a variety of ways to feel more included in the workplace; you can have weekly happy hours, volunteering sessions, work bocce, softball, or soccer leagues, or other team building activities that help empower your employees.
    • If your employees spend more time outside the office with one another, then they’ll build deeper bonds with each other and will care about their work more.
    • Make sure you also have at least a holiday party every year; this will help your employees feel like they work for a welcoming, warm place.
  6. Make employees feel like they are contributing to the mission of the company. Another way to make your employees feel empowered is to make them feel like they are really contributing to the mission of the company and making the world a better place. Whether the mission of the company is to encourage people to learn to read on their own or to improve the environment, you should make each and every employee feel like their hard work is contributing to that mission.
    • Sometimes, it can be hard for employees to feel like they are really impacting the world or helping further the company’s mission when all they do is sit in front of a computer. It’s your job to remind them that their work does have a big impact outside of the office.



Tips

  • Check out and learn about personality types, building rapport, and how to 'influence' people, speak their language, and keep them onside.
  • Read books on success psychology to grasp what individuals need to work toward empowerment.
  • Collect articles on leadership, create a journal of information, and get better at leading.

Warnings

  • Although it is advisable to trust employees to their responsibilities, beware of becoming too slack with your own responsibility of monitoring and maintaining efficient business operations. Empowering employees toward autonomy does not mean less accountability for you, the manager.

Related Articles

Sources and Citations

You may like

Retrieved from "https://kipkis.com/index.php?title=Empower_Employees&oldid=355137"