How empowering others can make you a better leader?

My first job out of college was in finance. I had to sustain my activism with a day job. At 22, after two months of on-the-job training, it was time for my first client meeting. A week before, my boss approached me and said, "Nikola, would you feel comfortable presenting in the meeting? You've done great in the first two months, and I trust you can do it. What do you think?" The idea of presenting to an important client was honestly terrifying. Seeing my hesitation, he reassured me, "Look, it's fine. I'll help you prepare. You'll do great!" I agreed.

The day arrived. I found myself in a large corporate meeting room, facing 30 serious-looking healthcare executives seated at a long brown table. I felt anxious, but every time I glanced at my team, my boss gave me a calm, supportive look that said, "You've got this!" I delivered the presentation, and it was okay. It wasn't perfect, but simply getting through those 20 minutes was an achievement for me. I felt my contribution to the team had reached a new level. Afterwards, my boss praised me, expressing pride in my breaking the ice as the first junior associate to present at a client meeting. He asked about my experience and helped me reflect on it.

That's the key! I was given a chance to have a new experience, face my fear, be supported in that process, and then learn through reflection. I felt empowered!

📃 What Does Research Tell Us?

Empowering leadership fosters innovation through psychological safety and risk-taking. It enhances motivation, leading to a 22% increase in innovative behaviors. This approach accelerates learning and adaptability across the organization.

Leaders who empower others boost their effectiveness and credibility. It builds trust, stronger relationships, and reduces workload. This often results in higher team performance and loyalty, while helping leaders develop their capabilities and create resilient team cultures.

❓ What Does It Mean to Empower Others?

To empower is to decrease dependency on authority while creating agency (new internal capacity) and fostering autonomy! Here is how you can do it:

🔹️ Create space for meaningful experiences: Let your intern present at the next meeting; let your associate handle the next pitch. It may not be perfect, or even fail. That's ok! The next step is to reflect to help them learn from the experience. Success or failure of a single event isn't as important as the journey of continuous growth that will develop a new capacity for everyone’s benefit. Even if you're not in a position of authority, you can empower yourself by actively seeking new experiences and requesting challenging opportunities.

🔹️ Delegate Authority, Not Just Tasks: Empower others by delegating real decision-making authority, not just responsibilities. Give the gift of experiencing decision-making and its consequences. This allows people to exercise and grow their leadership potential. Support, coach, and enable reflection throughout the process.

🔹️ Ask questions instead of projecting certainty & answers: When people ask you a question, respond with the most powerful question: “What do you think?” This will enable then to find their own answers, build self-reliance, confidence and break the dependency on authority. You will build more trust with them too. I even do this with my two toddlers!

🔹️ Enable people to create more trust: Connect people, teach them how to build trusting relationships, and facilitate conversations. The more people trust each other in an organization, the more collective power you have, and the more you can do together. Building interdependency over dependency is the essence of empowerment!

🔹️ Support them in articulating their purpose: Effective leaders have a clear understanding of their own purpose and empower others to do the same. By enabling people around you to articulate their purpose, you're supporting them in building their own moral compass. This leads to less dependence on authority and more initiative. Learn more about the purpose HERE.

🔹️ Celebrate and Recognize Contributions: Acknowledge individual and team efforts to reinforce a culture of appreciation, motivating people to take on leadership roles and contribute fully.

‼️ Most common pitfalls and what can you do?

🔹️ Fear of Losing Control

What you can do: Develop self-awareness by reflecting on personal fears and anxieties related to letting go. Start delegating smaller tasks to build confidence in your team's abilities, gradually increasing their autonomy.

🔹️ Lack of Trust in Others' Abilities

What you can do: Invest time in understanding your team members' strengths and weaknesses. Provide necessary training and resources to enhance their skills. Build trust by giving them opportunities to learn in action (success or failure) and acknowledging their effort.

🔹️ Perfectionism

What you can do: Embrace a growth mindset by accepting that there are multiple ways to achieve a goal. Encourage experimentation and view mistakes as learning opportunities. Balance between outcome (achieving perfect goals) and development (creating a new capacity).

🔹️Past Negative Experiences

What you can do: Reflect on previous attempts at empowerment to identify what went wrong. Learn from these experiences instead of letting them deter future efforts. Seek advice or mentorship from others who have successfully empowered their teams.

🔹️ Insecurity and Self-Doubt

What you can do: Acknowledge your own value and understand that empowering others doesn't diminish your role. Build confidence by recognizing your contributions to the team's success. Encourage and celebrate your team members' achievements, viewing their growth as a reflection of effective leadership.

💥 Action Item

If you are in position of authority (teamlead, boss, …): This week, identify one task or project you can delegate to a team member. Clearly communicate the objective but give them the autonomy to approach it in their own way. Offer your support if needed, but resist the urge to micromanage. Afterward, ask them for feedback on the experience and use it as a learning opportunity to refine your approach to empowerment.

If you are not in a position of authority: Ask your supervisor for more responsibility—request to deliver a presentation or take ownership of a task. Challenge yourself to see how far you can go independently, but don't hesitate to seek support and feedback when needed. This process will help you redefine your relationship with authority!

📚 Book Recommendation: "Turn the Ship Around!" by L. David Marquet

For a deeper dive into the power of empowerment, I recommend Turn the Ship Around! by L. David Marquet. This book offers a practical and inspiring look at how Marquet, a former nuclear submarine captain, transformed his crew by shifting from a leader-follower model to a leader-leader model. By empowering his team to take ownership and make decisions, he created a culture of trust, accountability, and excellence. It's a great resource for anyone looking to develop empowerment strategies that lead to high-performing teams.

Remember! Everyone can exercise leadership. How do you use power and authority determines what kind of leader you are becoming. Do you use power to control or to empower?

🎁 Join us for our birthday party!

To celebrate the 1-year anniversary of Pulse of Change, we’re offering something special—a free workshop on Storytelling as a Leadership Practice. This live session will be held on November 6th at 9 AM EST (3pm CET) on Zoom. Whether you’re looking to inspire your team or communicate your vision more effectively, this workshop will help you tap into the power of storytelling in leadership. Spots are limited, so make sure to grab yours!