Empower Your People
and Become a Better Leader
By Lee Froschheiser
As the boss or manager
of your company, do you frequently feel like things are spinning out
of control? If the answer is yes, you’re not alone. All too often,
employers find themselves struggling to keep pace with the day in,
day out responsibilities of the job. Yet it’s usually their
ownership of these responsibilities — and the fear of letting go of
them — that bogs down the workplace and stifles overall success.
If letting go has been
a challenge for you, then consider the following five secrets to
empowering your people and becoming a better leader. Each has the
ability to unlock the power and potential of your team, enabling
your company to achieve the success it deserves.
1) Find an accountability coach. Just as you would
consult an attorney on how to handle your company’s legal issues,
find someone who is impartial to assess and improve upon your
leadership style, as well as hold you accountable for your own
success. Tough as it may be to let someone coach you on your current
approach and make suggestions for change, this person has one key,
crucial mission: to help you achieve your full potential as a
leader. Businesses that fail to see the value of an accountability
coach rarely instigate crucial change on their own, or take their
leadership and the company to a greater level of achievement.
2) Become an empowering leader. To become an
empowering leader, you must first determine what kind of leader you
are today, using what’s called the “empowerment pendulum.” On a
scale of 1 to 10, do you lean toward the control side (1) of
managing your employees, or is your management style more on the
empowerment side(10)?
Ideally, you want to
empower others, and that’s accomplished through training, coaching,
accountability, and supporting employees by providing the resources
and opportunities to learn from mistakes. It’s also achieved by
trusting your employees and making sure their values align with your
company’s values.
Most importantly, you
must demonstrate empowering behavior. All too often, company owners
or managers say, “Hey, I want to be empowering!” But when an
employee asks for help, they give them the answers, rather than
require that person to seek the solutions for themself. Even worse,
they do the employee’s job for them, wearing what’s called the Big
Red “S” for Supermanager.
If you’re doing
everything yourself, it’s likely that you’re wearing this Big Red
“S.” Shed this responsibility by getting the right people around you
so you can delegate to your team, hold each member accountable, and
empower your staff. After all, accountability is empowerment.
3) Establish and maintain fundamental business practices, policies
and procedures.
In everything you say and do, you must stay focused on practical
solutions. Ask yourself what works and what doesn’t because the
answers to these basic questions will uncover the secrets to running
your business effectively. They will also shed light on the six
business fundamentals: leadership, mission, vision, values, and
strategies and goals. Ultimately, you’ll need to define, establish,
implement, track and evaluate each of these core fundamentals. If
this sounds like a massive undertaking, relax! The good news is you
will not be the one doing all the work for a change. Instead, you’ll
be training and managing your team to carry out these business
fundamentals. Through this effective leadership approach, you’ll be
able to relinquish unnecessary control of the company and turn your
attention toward developing your business instead.
4) Focus on the company’s vital factors. You know it’s
important to monitor your body’s health with regular checkups that
measure and evaluate your vital signs. For example, if you discover
that your weight or blood pressure is too high, you change your diet
and exercise. This often has a domino effect, improving other vital
signs as well.
When it comes to a
company’s health, an effective leader should also focus on vital
signs, or what is called the organization’s “vital factors.” These
are the crucial components that must be measured and accomplished
for an efficient system. As the boss or manager, it’s your job to
define both the company’s and your employees’ vital factors,
determine how to impact these vital factors, and then teach your
team to do so as well. This is most often done by measuring and
creating ways to improve, as well as using a planning checklist that
outlines how to fix each part of your company’s system. As you
repair the system, you’ll start a chain reaction of change — the
domino effect that enables overall business success.
5)
Create passion with your people. This is the final secret to
unlocking your team’s power and potential. And any leader can do
this by motivating and inspiring employees, but a truly effective
leader goes one step further and implements accountability. As
mentioned, accountability is empowerment, and empowerment breeds
passion. This boils down to measuring employee performance and
taking appropriate, timely action.
Many employers fail to
implement accountability out of fear or because they view “taking
action” as a negative. They believe this means pulling the employee
aside to discuss how he or she is not improving, despite training
and numerous opportunities to excel. But accountability can also be
— and should be — a positive experience. For example, when someone
is doing a specific task right, you can give positive performance
feedback, yet still hold this person accountable.
Whether you’re
delivering negative or positive feedback, don’t wait until
performance reviews to hold someone accountable. At that point, your
feedback is usually old news. Instead, impassion your employees with
daily feedback — whether it’s on the phone, in the hallway, or
during project status discussions, etc. Vital factor meetings, where
you’re discussing the company’s health, can also foster an
environment that’s great for performance checkups.
Always be on the
lookout for ways to proactively impassion your team. Accountability
is the most underused tool on the part of mangers, yet it’s probably
the most important. By learning to let go of the reins a little bit
and pass on responsibilities to your staff members, you will unlock
the power and potential of your organization.
Lee Froschheiser, president and CEO
of Map Consulting (MAP), works with many premiere business leaders
and companies nationwide. Lee is also co-author of the best-selling
book, “Vital Factors, The Secret to Transforming Your Business – And
Your Life.” His consulting firm, MAP, specializes in transforming
companies, and accelerates the performance of people, teams and
organizations. Clients include WebEx Communications, Cold Stone
Creamery, Los Angeles Clippers and KIA Motors. For more information
call 888-834-3040 or visit
www.MapConsulting.com.
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