Empowering leadership: Unlocking team potential

Every leader wants to oversee an all-star team, where each member is an autonomous high performer. It's a dream that can be a reality — so long as leaders understand the key role they play in making it happen.

Refining an empowering leadership style is essential to unlocking the full potential of your team members. In this article, I'll cover the elements of empowering leadership and provide practical insights to transform your leadership approach. Let's get started.

Principles of empowering leadership

Empowering leaders can be found in many places: Businesses, politics and even your own family. But what is it that makes them so inspirational? What is it that makes you want to be the best version of yourself when you're with them or hear them speak?

I like to think it's about the core principles they value. These include:

• A clear vision: In a business environment, teams need direction. When you provide a clear understanding of your team's goals and how each member contributes to these objectives, you can unlock your workers' potential.
• Trust and respect: Personally, I want to work with folks I can trust. The same is true of most teams. When you prove yourself as a trustworthy leader who respects your workers' ideas and contributions, you open the door to innovation.
• Support: Unlocking your team's true potential isn't an overnight phenomenon. An empowering leader understands that and provides the support necessary for workers to level up.

Remember, empowering leadership is about fostering an environment where employees feel valued and are encouraged to take initiative and make decisions.

Effective delegation

Speaking of workers making decisions — delegation plays a critical role in empowering leadership. It's about more than just assigning tasks; it's about entrusting responsibilities in a way that promotes ownership and personal development. Effective delegation helps team members grow their skills and confidence, which are crucial for their professional growth and the success of your department.

For effective delegation, you can:

• Encourage decision-making: Sure, team members will make the occasional mistake — but that's how they learn. Allow them to make decisions within their areas of responsibility to foster a sense of ownership.
• Set clear expectations: If your team has a good understanding of what success looks like, they're more likely to make decisions that will yield positive outcomes.
• Identify growth areas: Where can individual team members stand to improve? When you know, you can assign tasks that will push them to develop key skills.

Best of all? When you properly delegate, you free up more time in your schedule for essential leadership tasks.

Fostering autonomy and accountability

Autonomy encourages team members to think independently and take initiative. Accountability ensures they understand their roles in achieving team goals and are responsible for their outcomes. Both are essential.

To help your teams balance the two, you should:

• Make your expectations and boundaries clear.
• Provide constructive feedback regularly.
• Make yourself available to discuss challenges.
• Acknowledge and reward efforts and achievements that align with team goals and values.

Create an environment where team members feel trusted to make decisions and accountable for their actions and you'll unlock workers' potential.

Grow as a leader with ICML

Adopting an empowering leadership style is not just about changing tactics but about transforming perspectives. It involves seeing team members as partners in success, capable of driving results if given the right tools and opportunities.

As you review your current leadership approach, know that ICML can help you grow. For a deeper exploration of empowering leadership, consider our Advanced Leadership course.