Module 29 – Empowering Your Team

How did you get on with talking to your team and that team assessment? Maybe you haven’t got around to it. Uh already. Hopefully you have. I’m sure that it was a challenge, but hopefully it went well. You’ve learned from it, but whatever the outcome, the immediate outcome you have started the process of building your team, building openness and trust, and that is fantastic. So well done with that well done for sticking with it. It is so important. Now as we move to the close of this programme, I just want to talk today about empowerment and delegation. Now these are. Slightly different words, but they essentially mean the same thing and in practical terms for you as a leader. These are an important part of being able to function, and there are also areas which sometimes people have a real challenge with as they become more senior, they take on more responsibilities. And they take on more responsibilities for other people. What they have to do is they have to leave parts of their job behind for others to do and more and more they have to invite people they have to delegate tasks, tasks that Once Upon a time they would have done themselves. But now others do for them. And it’s a real challenge to be able to do that for some people, the idea of letting go of what you know well so that you can concentrate on the more challenging areas, the aspects of the job for which you are being paid as a leader and. Allowing others to do things that perhaps you’ve done in the past, jobs which, quite frankly, you probably do very, very well indeed. But now it’s time for them to learn how to do them while you concentrate on something else. But being able to. Delegate those tasks empowering your your team members is an important part of building trust as well. It’s important that you can pass on tasks to people. Clearly tell them the output that’s required without. Telling them in. Detail how to do it. Let them decide. Trust them to do it. Now this trust is a real challenge, and I’ve worked for many people in the past who haven’t been able to do it, but I’ve worked for one or two really great leaders who have. And they display an almost childlike ability to place give you something plays an almost absolute total trust in you to just get on and do things. And it’s actually really quite almost frightening how much trust they place. You, the faith they place in you, but when they do, you also then assume the full responsibility for that task. You get this sense of commitment, this commitment, that you must do this task. You must do this thing for them. And you can’t let them down. And this then you see is part of this two way process of trust that we’re starting to build up. But as a leader it also frees you up to concentrate on what it is that you are really being employed to do, concentrating on the high value tasks and allowing others. To do other other pieces. Of work so. Practise delegating. Practise passing out pieces of work to people. Give them an output, maybe give them a framework of the resources they’ve got to do it. The time frame they’ve got. To do. It but importantly let them decide exactly how to do it. Let them use their creativity. Their experience and let them learn from it. And if it doesn’t go so well. Then that’s a learning experience for the both of you. Explain to them how they might be able to do it better in the future. But in in a way. That doesn’t disempower them. It may simply be that you accept it and you say nothing. And they probably will know how to do it better next time, and that will be quite a masterful way of allowing them to grow whilst you grow to. And ultimately you’re growing your team. As a team and you’ll be growing your business as well. This is tough. This takes courage, but this is a vitally important part of being a leader and building your team. So see what you can do today, find a task and delegate it. Leave out the how and just let them get on with it and free yourself up to do something that’s really challenging for you. And what is really your work. So have a good go at that and then tomorrow. We’ll wrap it all up. Best of luck with the delegation challenge.