Employee empowerment has been such a prominent buzzword in the field of leadership that the concept has almost become cliché. We’ve all heard about the amazing benefits gained by empowering organizations, such as increased productivity, employee engagement, job satisfaction and morale – not to mention lower turnover and reduced operating costs.
But if employee empowerment has such a high return on investment, why aren’t more leaders and organizations successfully empowering their employees?
In some cases, it’s because leaders and managers feel reluctant to give up their sense of power and control. They may have worked for years – if not decades – to climb the career ladder and achieve the status they enjoy today. Depending on the organization (or the generation they belong to), they may have endured years of taking orders from superiors without complaint. They paid their dues to get where they are, and they expect others to do the same.
They have earned the respect of their supervisors and peers by demonstrating their depth of knowledge and ability to make effective decisions. At this stage, being in charge and making important decisions is what the organization expects from them. In fact, it’s what they’ve hired them to do – or so it seems.
In other cases, a manager or leader may genuinely want to empower their employees. They understand the benefits and agree wholeheartedly with the empowerment movement. Maybe they were lucky enough to have their own careers nurtured by an empowering supervisor or mentor and want to do the same for someone else. On the flip side, maybe they came up under a micromanaging control-freak and are committed to treating their people better than they were treated.
But even with sincere intentions, many of these managers are at a loss as to exactly how to go about empowering their employees. Although it sounds good on paper, they fear – somewhat rightfully so – that if everyone is allowed to make whatever decisions they want, the organization will lack structure and direction and chaos will ensue.
How Empowering Employees Benefits Leaders
What managers in the first group often don’t realize is that empowering employees doesn’t just make employees happier or improve the organization’s bottom line—it directly benefits them as leaders.
Increased Loyalty
Employees who feel trusted and respected by their supervisor usually return the favor. Clients we work with at all organizational levels typically describe the best boss they ever had as someone they “would do anything for.”
Need your staff to work late or on the weekend to meet a deadline? No problem.
Need your team to take on an undesirable project because it has to get done? OK.
Need support to get a new idea implemented? We’ve got your back.
Empowering managers reap the benefit of having employees who will happily follow them anywhere and stand by them even through the toughest of times.
Increased Buy-In
Leaders who rely on a “my way or the highway” approach often face pushback when they introduce new ideas, decisions, or directions. Even well-thought-out decisions can meet resistance when the people affected haven’t had an opportunity to weigh in.
Conversely, when employees play an active role in thinking through options and helping craft the best solution, their commitment to carrying out that decision increases dramatically.
Decreased Burnout
As a leader, the more decisions and tasks you make yourself personally responsible for, the more likely you are to experience overwork, exhaustion, and burnout. Empowering your team to handle the details allows you to focus on the bigger picture—and, perhaps most importantly, to take better care of yourself.
Constantly doing it all can take a serious toll on your health. What happens to your employees and the organization if you fall ill and aren’t able to keep everything running?
Taking a more collaborative, empowering approach with subordinates, peers, and even superiors greases the wheels and makes everything you’re trying to accomplish easier. It’s the difference between forcefully dragging your team up a steep hill versus everyone piling onto the same sled and quickly gliding downhill together.
Practical Ways to Empower Your Team
If you’re committed to creating a more empowering environment but aren’t sure where to start, the following strategies can help get the ball rolling.
Wait to Speak
As leaders, we’re accustomed to being out front—voicing opinions, providing direction, and offering solutions. But sometimes that instinct prevents others from thinking for themselves.
The next time an issue arises, pause before sharing your ideas. Instead, invite your team to suggest solutions. If idea generation doesn’t come naturally, coach them by asking exploratory questions such as:
What exactly are we trying to accomplish?
What factors do we need to consider?
What are the risks?
Solicit Their Opinions
A lofty goal has been set. You believe you’ve come up with the perfect plan—and you may be right. But before moving forward, take a step back and ask your team what they think.
This only works when you’re genuinely open to hearing their viewpoints. Come to the conversation with curiosity, not with your plans already set in stone. Avoid undermining the process by dismissing ideas or subtly steering people toward what you believe is the “correct” answer.
Let Them Do It Their Way
A highly successful CEO once put it this way:
“I let my team do things their own way. Even if I think my idea is better, their way will ultimately be more successful because they’ll be far more committed to making it work.”
There are often many paths to the same outcome. Even the most brilliant plan can fail without commitment, while a halfway decent plan can succeed when people are invested in its success.
Final Thoughts
Empowerment isn’t about abandoning structure or responsibility—it’s about creating the conditions for people to contribute their best thinking and effort. When leaders learn to balance direction with trust, they strengthen loyalty, deepen commitment and build organizations that are more resilient and sustainable over time.
