Are you an empowering leader?

Late last year I spent some time working with a group of young dynamic leaders at an international bottling company. During our two days together we explored how to reduced the pressure on new leaders in the business who were feeling overwhelmed.  

The results of our discussions and exploration together might surprise you. But it shouldn’t as it underlies the lack of productivity and engagement in most organizations today.

These managers, all of whom were young, dynamic and energetic were attempting to manage an increasing number of priorities placed on them by senior management. Their response to a continued increase in priorities was to delegate fewer and fewer of their task and priorities to their employees. In essence, increasing priorities resulted in perceptions that fewer tasks could be delegated and the reduced delegation resulted in a lack of employee empowerment.

Managers were facing priority overwhelm and as a result their productivity had diminished!

[Tweet “Reduced efforts to delegate and empower employees results in diminishing productivity of business leaders.”]

We spent some time exploring the value of being and empowering leader and how it would help reduce their priority overwhelm. I had the managers consider the infographic below to understand what they were doing well today, and where they needed to adjust their approach to increase employee empowerment.

Questions: Are you an empowering leader? Do you empower your employees to improve their skills and reduce your overwhelm? What areas in the above graphic should you place an increased emphasis on in order to be an empowering leader?

© Shawn Casemore 2014. All rights reserved.