Empowerment is based on assumptions when motivating others and influencing others. It means providing freedom to people to successfully do what they want to do, rather then getting them do what you want to do.
Empowerment is a 'pull' strategy rather then 'push' strategy. Workers are attracted to the tasks. It means giving up the control and letting others making decisions, set goals, accomplish tasks and receive the rewards. Through an effective empowerment managers multiply their own effectiveness.
The empowerment means to enable. We help people develop the self-confidence. We help them to overcome the feeling of powerless and helplessness. We energise people to take action. People think about themselves differently then they did before. They feel more capable and confident. The source of empowerment is internal and inside the individual. It leads to cooperation rather then competition.
There is a formula for empowerment that is made up of five main components. In order for you to empower others successfully you need to demonstrate the five qualities in those we want to empower:
a sense of self-efficacy (sense of competence)
a sense of self-determination ( sense of choice)
a sense of personal consequence (sense of impact)
a sense of meaning (sense of value)
a sense of trust (sense of security)
When we create environment with these qualities it is more likely that people feel empowered. They will be more productive, confident, feel freedom, feel important and more confident.
Self-efficacy
Self-efficacy is the feeling that they possess the capability and competence to perform the tasks successfully. They are self-assured. They believe that they can learn and grow to meet new challenges. The lack of self-efficacy has been one determining factor for anxiety, addictions and depression.
People need to:
believe that they have the ability to perform the task,
believe that they are capable to putting the effort,
believe that no other outside obstacles will prevent them from completing the tasks.
Self-determination
Self-determination means that the people have the sense of having choices. They can voluntarily involve themselves in a task rather then being forced. They feel the personal freedom and autonomy. They develop a sense of responsibility, able to take initiative, make independent decisions and try out new ideas. They experience the internal locus of control.
Its about having choices to the methods used to accomplish the tasks, the amount of effort, pace of work and the time frame. They have the feeling of ownership for the task.
Personal consequence
Empowered people have a sense that when they act, they can produce the result. They have a feeling that they affect change in the desired direction. Through their own actions they can influence what happens. They have the sense of control and can influence impact. They do not believe that external obstacles control their actions, but believe that those obstacles can be overcome. Through empowerment, we help them to develop the sense that they can produce the desired result, regardless of the dimensions.
Meaning
Empowered people value the purpose and outcomes of the activity or task. Their own ideas and values are consistent with what they are doing. It 'counts' in their own principles. They feel that they can produce results and they care about what they produce. The activities create purpose, passion and sense of mission. They are enthusiastic and feel that they produce something that can have lasting benefits. Even serving for others can have a higher meaning then just personal reward. However, sometimes incentives or extra money will motivate people to do the work. However, when employee engage in work that they feel is meaningful they are more committed to it. People feel more excitement, energy, self-worth, they are more innovative, influential and effective.
Trust
Empowered people have a sense of trust and they are confident that they will be treated fairly and equitably. They believe that the ultimate outcome of their actions will be justice as opposed to harm and damage. They have confidence in their managers that they will be treated honestly. However, even if the people in power deem unfair a person can still maintain a level of personal security. Because the trust is kept in principles and not people. Trust only implies that individuals are also willing to put themselves in the position of vulnerability and trust the end result will be fair.
People with high level of trust are more open, honest, search-oriented and self-determined. They have a larger capacity for interdependent relationships, are more cooperative and taking risks. They are more willing to be part of a team. They are more honest and more able to listen. They are also more likely to be trustworthy themselves as opposed to wasting energy on self-protection, trying to uncover hidden agendas or playing politics.
The solution
Helping people feel a certain way about themselves and their work helps them to be more effective. Some people may say that others may only want to get by on as little as possible and do not want to get involve in teams, taking initiative and prefer to follow guidelines. However, this happens when people do not value the outcomes, when they believe that someone else will produce the result, when they do not trust that their contributions will be valued or they do not believe that they do not have anything to contribute.
Empowered people flourish and experience success. When situations are unclear, threatening, overly controlled or isolating, they experience inappropriate feelings, they feel still in their ability of what to do, when they feel uncertain on how to behave the people are in the need for empowerment.
Research have, however, a number of techniques to produce empowerment:
Articulating a clear vision and goals
Empowered individuals are guided by a clear goal and understanding on how they can contribute. When we give away tasks we are to set standards of performance. The goals should be SMART (Specific-Measurable-Aligned-Realistic-Timely). The individuals are empowered when they are given SMART goals.
Fostering personal mastery experiences
Empowered people experience a sense of self-mastery over some challenge or problem. By resolving issues, people develop self-mastery. We can provide people with the opportunity for accomplishing challenging tasks. We can start with easy tasks and progress slowly to more difficult ones. It begins with dividing big complex activities into small parts. We then developing the small-win strategy. Each small win generates a sense of movement and improvement and success. We can generate the momentum by celebrating those small-wins. This will make people feel empowered.
Modeling
Another way to empower people is to demonstrate the correct behaviour that they are to perform. If people observe others in challenging tasks it makes them feel that it is do-able. If we are unable to empower personally this way, we may want to draw attention to other people who have been successful in similar circumstances. Role models and mentors are also helpful.
Providing support
Empowered people are provided with social and emotional support. People need to be praised, encouraged, approved and reassured. We can write notes to them or their families about the valuable contributions they are making or providing feedback in the supportive way. We can provide opportunities for them to be part of the team or include in social gathering. It may be a simple matter of listening to people with empathy. People are empowered when they feel accepted, they feel that we care about them and they are an important part of the overall business mission.
Creating emotional arousal
Emotional arousal means replacing negative emotions such as anxiety, fear with positive ones, such as passion and anticipation. We make the work environment fun and attractive. We provide them with positive energy. This also happens when people are believing that what they are doing is connected to their values and they see it as something important. For example improving life of others, personal growth and development or even increasing profits.
Providing necessary information
Information is one of the most important tools for managers. When we provide people with more information they seem more empowered. They need to feel that we can support them and make them more likely to work with us. Leaders to let people know their plans, ideas and changes as soon as possible. We create a mindset that everyone is responsible for the business. When this happen, employee initiate improvements, morale increases as well as commitment.
Providing resources
By providing resources we help people achieve their objectives. This can be in the form of training and development, technical and administrative support, space, time, people, equipment, access to communication and, of course, discretion. We also need to provide them with self-efficacy and self-determination.
Connecting to outcomes
Employees are more empowered when they see the outcomes of their work. Visits to customers can help greatly or giving an employee discretion to resolve problems without approvals and sign offs. Giving the opportunity to accomplish a while task is also empowering. People get frustrated when they never see the the results of their work. Employees can plan, implement and evaluate the success of their tasks.
Creating confidence
People do not need to feel mistrust and be suspicious. When trust exists people feel more excited. They also create a positive energy among themselves. We need to be reliable, fair, caring, open and competent. Your actions need to meet your words. You must not take advantage of people. You must show a sense of personal concern for others and help them feel important. You remain accessible, share information openly and honestly. They also need to be assured that you have the ability and knowledge to solve problems.
If people do not believe you, they will never work that little harder.
They are not going to be receptive to change unless they understand that the things you say are true. Don't b.s anyone, tell them the truth.
Here are some summary actions to take:
Create a picture of the desired future;
Use emotional language to communicate your vision;
Identify specific strategies that will lead to success;
Establish SMART goals;
Associate the vision with personal values;
Break apart large tasks and assign one part at a time;
Assign simple tasks before difficult ones;
Celebrate small wins;
Explain clearly job responsibilities;
Give more responsibility to solve problems;
Demonstrate yourself accomplishing tasks successfully;
Facilitate interactions with high achievers;
Find a coach or mentor;
Praise, encourage and reassure;
Provide feedback regularly;
Foster informal social activities;
Provide time-slack and do not micro-manage;
Foster activities to encourage friendships;
Highlight comparability between personal values and organisational goals;
Clarify impact on customer;
Have clear goals, effective feedback system;
Provide task important information;
Provide technical information;
Provide access to information;
Clarify effects of actions on customers;
Provide training, technical and administrative support;
Provide needed space, time and equipment;
Create task identity;
Clarify and measure effects;
Show reliability and consistency;
Show fairness and equity;
Show care and personal concern;
Show openness and honesty;
Show competence and expertise.
Why people avoid empowerment?
People often feel that they are not competent enough to accomplish a task, overloaded with work already or believe that they should not be involved for someone else's tasks. They feel that the problem is with other people and not with themselves.
Some people are insecure and do not want to share information of fear of loosing power of position. Unfortunately, when they try to take all the glory by themselves, it never works.
Some people have a high need to be in charge.
Engaging others
It is impossible for managers to carry out all the work by themselves. Therefore, they need to engage their teams. To engage, we need to know when, with whom, and how. Engagement allows people to grow and develop as well as promote confidence and trust. It also improves the quality of decisions and bringing solutions closer to problems.
When
To decide when to engage we should ask ourselves five simple questions:
Do other people have the necessary information and expertise?
Is the commitment of these people critical to the successful implementation?
Will other people capabilities be expanded by this task?
Do other people share with you and each other common values and perspectives? Important people get told why and less important people get told what.
Is there sufficient time to do effective job of engaging others? Time must e available for training, explanations and discussions.
If the answers are positive to the questions, the engagement is likely to be enhanced.
Who
The figure below can help us decide who to engage.
First we ask ourselves on whether we should engage others in the task or decision. If there is a risk that they will be conflicts, others do not possess relevant skills, their approval is not important, time is too tight or development will not occur, we should answer "no" we perform the task and make decision ourselves. However, if we answer "yes" we need to ask another question on whether we should direct other people to form a team. We ask questions and take into account relevant considerations.
How
In order to determine how to engage others we can follow the below rules:
Begin with the end in mind. Be clear to what needs to be accomplished, why and what benefits it will bring.
Identify boundaries. Clearly specify the constraints, for example, deadlines, policies, authorities.
Specify level of initiative. For example by telling others to wait until they are told what to do, asking what to do before acting, recommending and then taking action, or acting and reporting results immediately or finally initiate action and report only routinely.
Allow participation. Provide others with opportunities to decide what tasks are to be designed to them and when, or what methods will be used and what resources. Others should feel free to express ideas and contribute.
Match authority with responsibility. People get frustrated when they are given responsibility but not authority.
Provide adequate support. This involves presenting clear expectations, providing information, and providing adequate resources. Giving credit is also part of support.
Focus accountability on results. Avoid close monitoring in which they accomplish their work. The primary goal is the successful completion of the goal.Specify what level of quality and achievement is expected.
Be consistent. Involve others not only when you are overloaded, but consistently. Take time for training, providing information, and engaging in two-ways discussions. Delegate both pleasant and unpleasant tasks.
Avoid upward delegation. People need to take accountability and responsibility for their work. Insist on people coming up with their own solutions. Instead of taking a task on ask "What do you recommend"? "What have you done so far?", "What do you think it would be the best first step?"
Clarify consequences. Be clear about the rewards, opportunities, impact on the business mission, learning and development that may occur. People want to become a part of something meaningful.
All the relationships of the engagement techniques are presented in the table below.
Summary
Strong leaders empower and engage their teams effectively. Empowerment means developing others in terms of self-efficacy, self-determinism, personal control, meaning and trust. Unfortunately, in these turbulent times, often managers when feel threatened they want to exercise control over the people. This is not a solution for a long run. Engagement also results in many beneficial outcomes. We help others flourish.
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