As the leader you want to get the best out of your employees, but it can be a challenge to understand how to empower them into achieving on a high level. Here are 5 tips to powerfully empower your employees:
- Provide Generous Boundaries – It’s true that you have to establish boundaries. However, provide them in a way that highlights the freedoms within. This will get the employee’s eyes off of what he or she can’t do and it will give them permission to act boldly within the guidelines.
- Don’t Punish Mistakes – We all have to have some room to fail. If we aren’t failing then we aren’t striving for the best. If you heavily punish mistakes then you are essentially telling your team that they shouldn’t try to accomplish anything great. They will only pursue what the know that can win at and that’s not going to grow the person or the company.
- Believe in Them – Good leaders and managers know how to get results and pull the best out of their players. Discover the strengths of your team and lean into them. Also, be sure to praise them for their strengths and let them know what you see inside of them.
- Individual Growth Plans – If you want your employees to grow in a healthy way, you must help them establish a growth plan. If you have quality employees but there is not room for them to grow, they will likely become stagnant achievers or they will leave to pursue advancing opportunities elsewhere.
- Ask Challenging Questions – As the leader it’s easy to feel that you have to have all of the answers. If you don’t have the answer, the best thing is to identify the right questions and bring those to your team. They may have a particular insight, idea or drive to find the best solution. Ask the questions that you know will cause them to raise to a new level of thinking. This will help them to grow and may just help you to find creative solutions.