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Empowered teams (also known as ‘self-directed’ or ‘self-managed’ teams) are characterized by having greater freedom, authority and responsibility to complete tasks and make decisions than traditional teams. There are many reasons why, as a manager or leader, you might wish to empower your team. Doing this can help to foster a greater degree of creativity and innovation within your team, enable higher levels of employee engagement, and allow you more time to focus on your own objectives. Following these suggestions will help you to empower your team and its members, and adopt a management style that will support and enable them effectively.
Create a Culture of Empowerment
An empowered team will thrive within a positive working environment where individuals are encouraged to be self-motivated and to take full ownership of their actions and decisions.
Direct Your Team Towards Empowerment
It may seem contradictory, but to empower your team, you may need to provide some extra direction at first. Depending on the additional roles and responsibilities your team members may be undertaking, this could involve providing some technical training, or helping individuals to develop their softer skills (e.g. negotiating, managing conflict) to help them work more effectively together.
Encourage Creativity and Innovation
Urge your team members to challenge conventional wisdom and to suggest new ways in which the team could work more effectively. Even if every idea cannot be implemented, giving team members the opportunity to innovate in this way can be extremely empowering.
Treat Mistakes as Learning Opportunities
While it can sometimes be frustrating to watch others make mistakes, it is important not to react angrily or to simply take the new responsibility away from them. Instead, you should coach and support the individual to help them avoid the same mistakes in the future.
Promote Collaboration With Your Team
Encourage team members to work effectively together and to share information openly with one another when required. Empowered team members should feel comfortable working in partnership with one another, and should be committed to the collective success of the team.
Help Team Members See the Bigger Picture
Explain how individual goals and objectives relate to those of the wider team or organization. Doing this will not only increase your team members’ understanding of the strategic value of their work, but it will also help to make them feel more trusted and responsible.
Continue to Offer Broad Guidelines
Empowered teams still need this kind of guidance in order to understand your expectations. You might find it helpful to produce a written document outlining these parameters and circulate it around the team. You may even wish to bring the document to your weekly team meeting and discuss it with your team members to make sure they understand it fully and to give them the opportunity to ask questions.
Provide Your Team With Guidance and Support
As a manager or leader of an empowered team, providing advice and feedback will continue to be an important aspect of your role. The key to doing this effectively is to not be overly directive, and to guide team members towards solutions, rather than simply telling them what to do. It is also important for empowered team members to feel they can approach you if they have any problems or questions. Make it clear that you are happy for them to do this, and that you can provide further clarification and guidance if it is needed.
Develop Skills Through Coaching and Training
Empowered teams also require support from their manager in terms of developing their skills and expertise. You may be able to deliver this yourself through coaching, or by arranging external training and development activities for your team. As a further means of empowering your team members, you could ask them to provide you with their own suggestions as to what coaching or training interventions might best meet their development needs.
Show Confidence in Your Team
Working in an empowered way can be a real test of employees’ self-belief, particularly if they have not worked with such autonomy before. Let your team members know that you trust them and that you are confident in their abilities by providing them with regular encouragement.
Help Them Acquire the Right Resources
Ask your team to be proactive and inform you when new resources or equipment are required. If it is possible to do so, take the necessary steps to accommodate these requests. If you notice a need for additional resource that the team has not brought to your attention, speak to your team members about this and seek their input before deciding how to move forward.
Broker Relationships on Behalf of Your Team
As a manager or leader you provide a vital link between your team and the rest of the organization. Invite your team to approach you with suggestions about who they need to start building relationships with in other departments. If it is appropriate for you to do so, try to arrange a meeting between your team and these individuals.
