On February 23, we held our first Thought Activitor of the year at Crafted.
It was an insightful evening with speaker Junita Fernandez, experienced Finance and HR Director. She provided expertise on team empowerment and why it works in the bigger picture.
Takeaways
Why Empowerment Matters?
Empowerment involves placing employees at the heart of the organization and giving them the autonomy to make decisions, on behalf of the company. In a nutshell, employees own the problem and find the solution.
When employees are empowered from all levels, it can increase organizational and individual productivity, efficiency, and competency
Steps to Team Empowerment
1. Employee, Leader, and Culture
Empowerment is established successfully with three key ingredients 1) employees who wish to be empowered, 2) a strong and confident leader, and 3) a company culture that encourages empowerment. Without these three ingredients, team empowerment can be challenging to implement.
2. Determine Guidelines
Simply empowering employees is not enough, Empowerment in the wrong manner can result in wasted time and demotivation. Before empowering employees, it is important to understand employees’ capabilities and resources and determine clear guidelines and objectives. In this way, there is a clear framework for the employee to make decisions and meet expectations, rather than generating ineffective results.
3. Support and Step Back
Senior leaders may have difficulties in letting go of power. However, stepping back and building the confidence in employees to make decisions is crucial to empowerment. Leaders should watch, provide support and continuously constructively feedback.
Empowerment Vs Delegation
Empowerment and delegation are two management tools that leaders utilise. Delegation involves assigning tasks to employees as followers. And limited authority is delegated to employees to obtain results with strict guidelines. Delegation helps managers to segregate the workload and obtain results, but the individual may not develop from delegation. For example, the team conducts market research on the top five coffee brands set by the manager. Whilst empowerment is entrusting employees to make decisions on behalf of the company and take ownership of their tasks. For example, the team investigates what are the top five coffee brands and conducts market research.
Whether to empower or delegate is dependent on the situation such as the task and employees. Sometimes, it could be more effective to delegate rather than empower – and vice versa.
Speaker Spotlight
Junita Fernandez, Experienced Finance and HR Director
Junita is a Board level experienced Finance & HR Director who is passionate about leadership values and empowering teams to their full potential.
She has specialized in the automotive sector having 19 years’ experience with Volkswagen Group UK and Suzuki UK.
Q: Who empowered you in your professional life?
A: Having reflected on my professional career, I can say that it was my Manager (U.B) in Volkswagen Group UK who empowered me fully. My career path to the role with U.B has seen me move from India to UK in 1990, work for a number of different Managers, take on a variety of roles and have three maternity career breaks. Each experience taught me different skills, increased my confidence & resilience so that by the time I took on the role to work with U.B I had the right set of competencies to maximize the benefits of empowerment.
U.B encouraged me to challenge the norm and think of new ideas. When some of these ideas were implemented, he always recognized the effort which increased motivation. He believed in earning respect and not demanding it. He supported and coached me which was invaluable investment in me. When I was offered my next role as Finance Director in Suzuki, I contacted U.B for advice knowing that he would be honest, frank and would focus on what was best for me.
Q: How can we increase our ability to empower teams?
A: The first step is to understand the benefits that empowerment can bring to your team. Explain to the team why you believe in empowering them. Take them on the transformation journey. You will need to invest in developing skills of the team, coach and support them. Win the respect of your team through your actions and build trust. Let go for your authority and watch your team grow. It will give you immense job satisfaction to see your team believe in themselves. As Simon Sinek said “Leadership is not about being in charge. Leadership is about taking care of those in your charge.”
