What it Means to Empower your Team

What are the benefits of not controlling everything, not attending all meetings….In other words, what are the benefits of effective delegation and empowerment? 

It’s fair to say about 98% of my coaching clients have delegation/empowering others as a goal for their own development. I’ve discussed before that a leader’s job is to achieve results through others. With this in mind, they may have to adjust where they focus their time and energy.. While they may be used to executing certain tasks, they now need to push those responsibilities down to their direct reports. They need to let go of control and transition to a role of oversight instead of execution. Sometimes this is easier said than done. 

Today I am sharing why it is important to build skills in delegation/empowerment as a leader and how it will benefit you as you take on greater leadership roles. 

Delegation has benefits for both the leader as well as the direct report. For the employee it drives higher levels of engagement. What does engagement mean, exactly? It is the feeling an employee has about three different things: 

1. The work they are doing,

2. The leader they work for, and 

3. The organization overall. 

One of the key drivers of engagement is “allowing people to do meaningful and challenging work.” (Gallup). When leaders ask the question to their direct reports, “What do you find meaningful and challenging?” they can react positively by delegating the type of work that aligns with their goals and their needs.  it demonstrates a leader’s genuine interest in the career growth of their employees. This is just one example of the benefit of delegation for your employees, but it’s a simple one to implement pretty quickly.

How does better delegation/empowerment benefit a leader? 

First, delegating to others frees up time for a leader to focus on more strategic work, and more coaching and development of the team. 

Let’s break this down a bit. 

One way delegation frees up time is when a leader removes themself from a number of meetings they may automatically be invited to. I regularly hear that calendars are full of meetings, and there is no time during the workday to actually get work done. n this case, that means the work of leadership-coaching others, etc., gets put to the side without clear focus. While I believe in the power of meetings to allow people to connect and collaborate, they are WAY too overused, particularly in this post-Covid, hybrid work environment in which  a lot of work is being done remotely. The default for people is to schedule meetings to cover topics. Meeting etiquette needs to be cleaned up in most organizations. Even when people block time, others schedule over that, making it near impossible to block time for real work. 

I coach leaders to decline meetings that their direct reports can manage, and ones in which they don’t have a particular role. It is ok to push back and question if it truly makes sense to be included in a given meeting. 

Sometimes a leader can take some time to adjust to the new white space on their calendar. When your presence is no longer required at a regular meeting, it frees up time to get things done. Having other team members attend the meeting and report back with highlights is a benefit to a leader. However, it can lead to someone feeling like they are no longer needed.. A bit of “FOMO” as the kids say. Once those meeting slots get filled with higher-level meetings, or actual work time, it’s easy to see how the benefits outweigh the negatives of being left off a meeting invite. White space on the calendar offers the opportunity to focus on strategic initiatives (think of it as working “on” the business and not “in” the business). Being able to take a step back from day-to-day details gives the opportunity for “big picture” thinking, the kind of thinking a leader needs to engage in. 

Empowerment

Empowering a person on your team is one of the best things a leader can do. We talk a lot in this piece about the benefits to a leader to promote someone and coach them into a higher-level position. But we haven’t focused on what might be considered the “softer side” of things, and that is how the team member feels when promoted or delegated to. Giving a team member elevated responsibility lets them know you think highly of them, that you know they are capable and are willing to give them a chance to grow. That leads to company and team loyalty, lower turnover and benefits to the organization.

When you directly help an employee feel good about their job, their leader and their organization, it leads to better engagement. As mentioned above, that level of engagement directly affects not only the quality of the work they are doing, but also how they feel about the work they do, the leader for whom they work and the organization as a whole. This benefits the individual, the team and the organization. 

Effective delegation takes time. I firmly believe that when leaders learn how to properly delegate, and commit to taking the time to delegate/empower, the long term benefits are powerful….for both the employee and the leader. 

Reach out to learn more.