Morning Motivator - How Do You Empower Others?

"Empowerment in business today really just means allowing people to do what you already told them to do."
- Anonymous

I overheard this quote from someone in the past days and have not been able to get it off my mind. It made me begin to THINK about the ways business owners, managers and community leaders EMPOWER the people around them to ACHIEVE higher levels of success and productivity. I wonder what YOUR experience is with empowerment - giving power or being "empowered."

I find it very INTERESTING that empowerment is such a "buzz word" in the business community. To me, empowerment giving someone the FULL control of achieving the goals set before them. If you ask a manager to cut costs by 30%, if empowered, they are given the RIGHT to make what adjustments THEY deem appropriate. If empower a sales rep to achieve their goals, then you are saying, "I trust in your ability to find the best way - for you - to make this happen within this time frame."

Commonly, what we see is the word "empowerment" used by management, and then negated in EXECUTION. Why? Is it that the people asked to execute are not APPROPRIATELY placed in their role? Is it that they lack the INTELLIGENCE to complete the task? Is it that they are just not TRUSTED to do it? Remember, by CONTROLLING everything within your reach, you are LIMITED in you ability to reach farther.

2 DEGREE SUCCESS STEP:
If you are one that has difficulty "LETTING GO," then allow yourself an opportunity (and those around) to TEST the waters of empowerment. So often, we believe that once a DECISION is made, we are unable to ever go back and adjust it. This is NOT true.

Allow for a 30 day EMPOWERMENT session in your business. For 30 days, delegate tasks to your "trusted" partners with specific time lines and end goals - then step back and let it ride. If you CLEARLY define the end result and time frame, while placing the task with a COMPETENT and CAPABLE individual, then you should have no challenges seeing the end results you are seeking.

Oddly enough, you may even LEARN something from their execution patterns and creativity. Always REMEMBER - just because it YOUR way, does not make it the BEST way. Trust yourself and your people - you may be SURPRISED by both!

Have a great weekend!

Cheers,
Zach

*To enjoy past editions of the Morning Motivator go to – http://grow-learn-lead.blogspot.com

The Morning Motivator is a copyrighted publication. The use of this article is open for print or publication with proper citations.