The daily experience of the average worker has become increasingly complex, with growing responsibilities and jobs broadening in scope. While company leadership should be taking steps to make their employees feel independent and empowered by these changes, they often treat them the same way workers were a century ago: heavily supervised and discouraged from sharing their opinions on important decisions. As a result, workers feel unimportant, demotivated, and highly stressed.
Empowered employees, on the other hand, have a stronger sense of belonging to a team that includes coworkers and management.
Research has shown that empowered employees perform better, have higher job satisfaction, and have a stronger commitment to the organization. According to the Harvard Business Review, a meta-analysis of 105 studies revealed that empowering employees is an effective strategy for motivating certain types of performance. Specifically, they found that leaders who empower their employees:
- Are more effective at influencing their creativity and behavior
- Are more likely to gain the trust of their subordinates
- Have a more positive impact on employees with less experience working in their organization
So,
what can leadership do to create this empowerment?
How to Empower Employees
Empowering workers is not just for the top names in the market; even the smallest organizations can benefit from it.
Empowering workers requires leaders to encourage workers to speak up, give them a mission, and let them make certain decisions. Instead of micromanaging employees, provide them guidance and allow them to flourish independently. Some ways this can be done include:
- Demonstrating confidence in them
- Clearly communicating expectations
- Showing appreciation for their efforts
- Listening to their concerns
- Mentoring them through their mistakes
- Delegating problems, not tasks
- Making them feel responsible for what they do
Employees must know that they are trusted and considered an important part of the organization. However, this must be done in a way that does not pile on additional burdens and stress on the employees.