Empowerment
Much is written about empowerment, and the way in which the approach can unlock performance, creativity and initiative. The headlines below give just a very brief outline of the empowerment approach and why it might be particularly relevant in the University context:
Leading through empowerment involves:
- Giving freedom to act within known boundaries to achieve agreed outcomes (giving ‘licence’)
- Clarifying required outcomes, not dictating inputs
Thus, an empowerment culture requires high levels of trust, respect, and communication between leaders and those led. It starts from the assumption that individuals have the ability to achieve the agreed outcomes but relies on the manager to provide feedback, guidance, coaching and support where needed.
The key attributes of a successfully ‘empowering’ leader (very similar to our own leadership attributes!) are:
- Provides vision
- Motivates
- Respects and trusts others
- Forms good working relationships
- Has strong inter-personal skills
- Acts as a coach and mentor
- Clarifies objectives
- Describes behaviour in feedback
- Devolves responsibility
- Stimulates as a mentor
The two most important of which have been found to be:
- Respects and trusts others
- Clarifies Objectives
The approach uses SMART Objectives:
- Specific
- Measurable
- Achievable
- Rewarding
- Timebound
But focuses on defining measurable outcomes, not outputs! You can find further guidance on
objective setting here.
The empowering leader embraces the importance of giving feedback regularly and effectively:
- Feedback should be like a dripping tap
- Rather than turning the water on or off full at SR&D time, the leader provides feedback to team members little and often (in small drips)
The empowering leader:
- Keeps empowerment going by giving descriptive feedback – what they saw, heard and felt. This de-personalises it and reduces tension.
- Keeps giving feedback via one to ones and in other fora
Thus, there are no surprises, and the individual grows in confidence in their role (and so will the leader!)
The empowering leader approaches performance enhancement discussions by:
- Using the individuals self assessment as a basis for discussion
- Inviting input from others for whom the individual has achieved outcomes
- Assessing against previously agreed desired outcomes
- Objectively determining whether outcomes are ‘Achieved’ or ‘Not Achieved’ (rather than a subjective judgement)
- Discussing reasons for non-achievement
- Agreeing outcomes for forthcoming period
The empowering leader motivates their team members by:
- Seeking their ideas and contribution
- Devolving decisions
- Involving the team at the planning stage
- Mentoring and guiding, not dictating
- Giving credit and praise for individual and group contributions
- Focussing on outcomes, but also considering the process
- Providing training and coaching as relevant
- Allowing risks, and helping people to learn from their experiences
- Getting to know their team members, their strengths and areas for development
- Being open with information that affects the team
Further reading on empowerment can be found in the Leadership and Management pocketbooks.
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