To empower your team members is much more than delegation. Empowering is about letting your own power go!

Empower! The very word is rich with significance. You remember the last time someone recognized you this way?

How did you feel then?

Wonderful feeling!

I had a wonderful boss when I worked in Saudi Arabia. His mantra was "bring me solutions!"

He was rarely interested in knowing the issues, instead, he wanted me to show initiative, to think for myself, to use the freedom to get on and resolve things for myself.

In a sense, he was enabling me to make decisions that, nominally, were his to make. But... there had to be a but... I was not always suitably equipped to make those decisions. I was young, often stupid, and made some very very silly mistakes.

Reflecting on this many years later, I still think fondly of him as someone who gave me the long leash I would thrive by - after all I learned a whole lot from the mistakes I made.

At the time though, I recall feelings of helplessness, fear, worry and sheer incompetence.

Let me refresh your knowledge of the definition of the verb:

em·pow·er [em-pou-er] –verb (used with object)

1. to give power or authority to; authorize, esp. by legal or official means.

2. to enable or permit. Definition on dictionary.com

Was I empowered? I was indeed permitted to make decisions and given sufficient authority, so in part I was.

Now I know that this was really delegation. At times it even felt like abdication - dumping me with problems that were nigh on impossible to solve and thus avoiding the consequences himself. Though I will choose to think of this positively.

Empowering someone is more than delegation. For most leaders that I work with now though, we start with delegating - because true delegation requires an attitude of passing control to someone else.

It is a little like a lightbulb in your home. The lightbulb is perfectly capable of shedding light in your darkness - the power source is the electricity that you pay for supplied to your home and (empowered) by the wires from the switch. It is you who throws the switch passing control (delegate) to the lightbulb to shed its light.

You could use candles, sit in the dark, bring a torch etc etc. i.e. you have a choice as to who gets the task.

6 steps to delegation

Delegate [ del-i-geyt]: to send or appoint (a person) as deputy or representative; to commit (powers, functions, etc.) to another as agent or deputy.

About a third of my coaching hours is helping leaders delegate effectively because they, like you, are overloaded and stressed out.

There's a simple six step process to follow to delegate to someone successfully. The leader needs to:

1. Establish exactly what to delegate to whom

2. Clarify the specific outcomes you want

3. Clearly define responsibilities

4. Communicate the scope and authority

5. Establish a time frame

6. Montior progress

Do you know what you can (or should) delegate? Exactly what is it?

Specifically what should this person achieve that are measurable results?

Precisely who does what?

When and within what boundaries should this person revert to you for authorization?

When does it start? End?

How are they progressing?

Giving power to someone else is where many struggle

If you struggle at all with this, know that you (and I!) are in excellent company here.

For myself, the time I struggled most was the first time I've trully given away something I love to do! Something I am actually very good at.

For example, I love to coach and train. I enjoy the delivery part, probably more than the designing, the writing, the selling, and certainly much more than the administration. Yet, the delivery part is something I have to "give away" to others - after all I can train them to do it much more easily than the designing and writing. Admin though, hey you can have it! (No I don;t know what to do either :-) )

So long as you can give your power (authority) away, delegation is not that difficult is it?

At least, not when the person to whom you are delegating knows what they are doing, has the right experience, attitude, motivation and process. So why did I resist it so much? Why was I so uncomfortable? What about you?

For myself, partly it is pride I admit, mostly though, it's about power! I'm giving power over my business, my reputation, my marketing, my public face... to someone else! So is this empowerment? For more on your 'Power' read my tutorial on Influence Level here

2 Steps to Empowerment

Empowering someone though is much more than delegation and trust. Empowering is giving away your power! Isn't that the same as delegation?

The key to empowerment, I discovered, is in the second definition above: "Enable" - to make ready, to equip, to make able.

You as the leader need to:

1. Teach, train or mentor that person with the skills, knowledge, expertise, means and resources they need to undertake the tasks you wish to delegate to them.

2. Delegate (see above)

So, strictly speaking, when I get someone else to deliver my coaching or training for clients, I've empowered them because I euqipped and enabled them to do so and then delegated specific responsibilities.

You can delegate to someone who is already equipped and enabled - they have the qualities, skills and resources.

True leadership goes beyond delegation though by empowering your team. Which means that you also give them the resources (develop their qualities and skills) they need through training or coaching or mentoring.

Share your story about "giving your power away" below or empower yourself to develop other good leadership skills here.