Empowering Employees … A Leadership Approach That Reinforces Career Advancement and Organizational Growth
Empowering employees leads to a different vision of their career advancement. And enhances their creative capabilities that contribute to their success and progress on the professional and personal levels. Empowering Employees is a philosophy of giving more responsibilities. And decision-making power to individuals at lower levels to take on greater responsibilities. And authority through training, trust, and emotional support. Hence the importance of the role assigned to business leaders. While their mission requires exceptional specifications based on challenge, patience, and perseverance.
“We are looking for leaders who move mountains .. and lead change .. and create the future .. their determination is in the sky..and their ambitions are embracing the stars.” H.H. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum.
Must nurture Passion and Ambition
Business organizations face a significant challenge: how to recruit and retain the best talent. While recent data and studies confirm that large and record numbers of workers leave their jobs because their passion and ambition go beyond salary. They seek to enhance and apply their skills and talents in a mission they believe in. And an organization that supports their personal and professional development. Therefore, the gradation of the employees on the career ladder is insufficient if it does not fulfill their passion and ambition regarding their skills and talents. Thus, as a successful business leader, you must create a mission, a compelling vision, and values to help your team achieve, and advance. You should also provide the tools that allow your employees to develop and grow in their professional and personal lives.
Today’s creative innovation economy requires a different approach to human resources, talent management, and leadership. Therefore, today’s business leaders must provide employees with tools to gain self-awareness, including discovering capabilities, setting their own goals, and KPIs for capabilities. And work that energizes and motivates them to lead change and shape the future.
Empowering employees is a priority and a need.
When employees know what they like to do, it aligns with what the organization needs. The primary beneficiary is the organization and business in terms of engagement, morale, retention, and outstanding performance for continued growth and customer service.
Employees cannot be traditional and follow the script. They must be change-makers, challenge the status quo, and achieve high performance and creativity in their jobs. It will not come from employees who do not care about the mission. And vision of the organization or who have no passion for work and are not suitable for their capabilities. Knowing this requires employees who give their best for their jobs. And have a personal interest in seeing their projects succeed and do everything in their power to make them happen. The career path and career they aspire to align with who they are, what they care about, their passions, and their capabilities.
As business leaders, if we support and empower employees in their journey to become better, those employees will perform well at a high level. We all need to learn, grow and evolve to achieve ourselves and become better if we stay in the competition. We need to hold our empathy and humanity to have positive relationships. And trust required for us to work together as a high-performing team. To achieve this, by way of example but not limited to, I suggest some of the following actions and steps:
1) Manager training
Training the future manager is the key to leading the process of empowering employees in organizations. So as a successful business leader, it would be best if you encouraged the manager in your organization to act as a coach. And use the following statements with the team: “My job here is to deliver results, and the way I will do that is to make sure that you are ready to enter your skill set and growth quickly… I support you, but you will always be under administrative accountability and follow-up.”
2) Choosing the right communication tools
The communication tools and media should facilitate healthy conversations and help build trust and psychological well-being. They should also help in training both hard and soft skills. It should also allow the manager and employee to get to know each other through joint discoveries to start that relationship and work together effectively as a team.
3) Using questions
As a manager and leader, you can use questions to help your employees think for themselves. So, ask employees to list all they do in a week. And then answer these questions: “What are the things that give you power?” What are the things that drain your power? Their answers are important clues to where they should spend more time, Where they should change their role or delegate tasks.
4) Encouraging self-reflection
Not every employee will want to think for himself. It is, therefore, essential to encourage this process, particularly as part of a performance review. And you, as a future leader and manager, must ensure that the outcome provides long-term benefits to the employee’s career path and the organization’s growth.
Some employees may leave your organization because they realize they are on the wrong path. Or there won’t be internal opportunities that align with their capabilities and develop their best. Note that leaving for these reasons is suitable for the organization. An employee out of step with his job may not be the best performer.
The empowering employees approach creates a creative and productive environment with a real profit between employers and employees. Employers benefit from high performance and loyalty; employees feel fulfilled, learn more about their strengths. And feel happy to align their work with those strengths. The added benefit is that as a future leader, you create a culture where people are passionate about being there and doing great things together.