Giving team members and colleagues autonomy and control over how to complete tasks and assignments motivates and inspires them to do their best work.
Research consistently shows that team members who feel empowered, valued, and trusted to execute on their own become more productive and effective.
Leaders who have learned the benefits of empowering others often give people all the rope or room they need to make the decisions they want regarding how to achieve the desired goal or objective.
This is a good thing.
But it is also common for empowering leaders to rob people of the guidance they need to do their best work. Even empowerment requires a confident and organized liftoff.
The best leaders provide the needed guidance prior to a project, task, or assignment so that those empowered to execute understand the guardrails, roadblocks, and strategic congruency critical to success.
Providing direction while allowing for individual expression and creativity is the ideal mixture. Strong guidance before autonomy is the recipe that works best for everyone.
Besides establishing the goals of any project or assignment, good leaders clarify five issues before empowering people to take the ball and run with it.
First and foremost, it is essential for everyone to agree about what a successful outcome looks like. A discussion about the “criteria of success” paints a picture of what must happen for the project or task to be considered successful.
This defines the standards of quality the project must meet, the intended effects of the work, the role of stakeholder satisfaction, and how sustainable the impact must be.
Of course, these criteria usually clarify budget, timelines, and other procedural issues.
Second, any limits or constraints should be addressed upfront before the project takes shape. Think of this part of the discussion as clarifying the guardrails for the project. What boundaries exist, and how should the project adhere to them? What is the lane that the project team must stay in?
The third area to discuss is the potential pitfalls and obstacles likely to occur during the project. What challenges are likely to arise? What are the common mistakes or errors that might impede success?
Far too often, leaders rob the team of hearing about their experience and insight regarding the project.
Fourth, good leaders share their wisdom and learning but insist they will not hold the team accountable to how the leader themself would approach the project.
Describing what they have seen work in the past can be a tremendous asset to the team, as long as they are free to reject some or all of the advice.
Lastly, leaders must set clear expectations for how they want to be updated about the project. How frequently do they want to learn about progress, and in what mediums or channels do they prefer to receive this information?
Empowerment doesn’t mean abandonment or a total lack of oversight. Good leaders still want to be updated on occasion so they can help if needed.
By setting guidelines for the project or assignment, the team is now poised for success. Empowering others starts with a strong sense of direction and constraint.
Before people can climb, they must first embrace the ladder. The leader brings the scaffold.
