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Trust the Process: 13 Tips to Empower and Encourage Your Staff
The key to happy and productive employees is making sure they feel important in their roles.
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Employees typically look to their managers to make decisions that will impact them and the organization. But it’s also vital that team members feel empowered to make some business decisions themselves. Workplace autonomy creates a more dynamic and productive company culture as employees feel more valued.
This sense of trust and ownership drives higher engagement and better business outcomes. Research shows that companies with highly engaged employees see 23% higher profitability compared to those with low engagement. However, knowing exactly how to empower your staff effectively can be challenging. As a leader, it’s your job to motivate your employees to take more responsibility and create a more positive work environment for everyone involved.
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What is employee empowerment?
Employee empowerment means encouraging workers to make their own independent decisions. Influential leaders make clear the company’s goals and missions, and help employees feel confident in their roles so they take initiative.
Rather than micromanaging your employees, grant them the autonomy to flourish with your guidance. Mistakes are viewed as lessons learned and risk-taking is seen as a chance to grow. When implemented correctly, employee empowerment helps team members feel more comfortable developing as professionals in the organization. Empowered employees tend to take more pride in their work and feel ownership in the company’s achievements.
Tips to empower your staff
Looking to build a more engaged and productive workforce? Employee empowerment is essential for business success. Here are 13 proven strategies to encourage your staff and create a culture of ownership.
1. Communicate a clear vision
As a leader, it’s your job to get everyone on the same page. People who don’t know what they’re supposed to be doing won’t be able to accomplish their duties very well at all. Clearly define the company’s vision and the roles of everyone on your staff so they know their responsibilities and tasks. There’s a reason why communication is one of the three C’s of leadership.
2. Don’t avoid small talk
Make it a habit to sit down with your employees and engage in one-on-one conversations. You can have these talks in your office, break room or at a coffee shop down the street. Intentionally ask about their work progress, such as accomplishments or even complaints, but also try to get to know your staff personally.
Ask general, casual questions about what’s going on in their lives (e.g., “did you do anything interesting this weekend?”) to show that you care about them as human beings. This will lead to a friendlier and more productive work dynamic. It will also help you grow as a leader. [Find out how to improve manager-employee relations.]
You also want employees to know their opinions are valued. A simple gesture such as leaving your office door open can communicate a culture of openness. An open-door policy shows team members that you care what they think while enabling them to give their input and play an active role in your company.
3. Encourage self-improvement
When your employees learn new skills, it improves the business as a whole. Many companies are investing heavily in employee development, with organizations spending an average of $954 per employee on training in 2023.
If you can’t lend your employees financial support for their development, at least be flexible with their schedules to a certain degree. For example, allowing your salesperson or HR representative to leave half an hour early every Thursday for community orchestra practice can do wonders for their mental health and work ethic.
4. Support vacation time
This might seem counterintuitive, but you’ll get much more out of your employees if you urge them to take time off. Prevent burnout in the workplace by actively supporting vacation time. [Learn how the best HR software solutions can help you manage employee scheduling.]
Your employees will be more productive and perform better when they’re well-rested. An Ernst & Young study found that employees’ year-end performance improved by 8 percent for every 10 hours of vacation time they took during the year. You don’t have to mandate full weeks off at a time, but you should foster an environment where a long weekend here and there is not only tolerated but actively encouraged.
5. Delegate more than just work
As a leader, you’ll inevitably have to delegate work, but ensure that’s not the only thing you’re passing down. Ask a staff member to lead an important meeting, even if it’s just while you step out to take a phone call. The best way to gain employee loyalty is by showing your team they have your trust to handle crucial tasks. Delegating leadership opportunities will also provide insight into which team members may be ready for a promotion.
6. Learn flexibility
Life happens. Be flexible with your employees as things come up. Perhaps try a schedule that allows a parent to drop their kids off at school in the morning. As a bonus, they’ll be able to avoid commuting during rush-hour traffic, and they’ll come into work ready to switch gears from a personal mindset to a professional one.
You could also let employees work remotely to care for a sick parent or child if their role allows. With 35% of U.S. workers who can work remotely doing so full-time as of 2023, flexibility has become a key factor in employee satisfaction and retention. If long work-from-home periods don’t suit your company, at least experiment with one virtual day a week or a couple each month. With the right remote-work plan, you might even find that your employees are more productive when working in their chosen environment.
7. Inspire creative thinking
Just because you’ve been doing a task one way for your entire career does not mean that’s the best way to accomplish it. There are always problems to be solved and better ways to do things, so use the minds around you and encourage your employees to share creative business solutions.
Not only will putting the challenge in the hands of your employees save you some headaches, but it’s also likely that you’ll come out with a better result. Clarify the ends instead of the means, and let your staff go about projects in their own way. They might not accomplish everything exactly as you would have, but they will get the job done with their own flair.
8. Show you appreciate their efforts
Showing your team appreciation and recognition can help boost morale and keep them engaged in their work. Whether it’s a sales call handled exceptionally well or a report put together flawlessly, let your employees know when they are doing a good job.
Recognition doesn’t have to be expensive — according to Achievers Workforce Institute, 90% of employees say they would work harder if they felt better appreciated, with simple verbal acknowledgment being the most requested form of recognition. Offer public accolades for successful projects and personal achievements. This acknowledgment will encourage continued high-quality work and signal to employees that they matter to you and the company.
9. Practice forgiveness
If you get angry whenever an employee makes a mistake, they will play it safe and not take any steps toward growth. This hurts not just the employee, but also the organization. The purpose of employee empowerment is to allow staff members to feel confident and courageous enough to take risks and make their own decisions, even if not everything goes as planned.
Take time to discuss mistakes and how to avoid repeating them in the future, but don’t reprimand employees unnecessarily. Express appreciation for their taking initiative and talk through their thought process, offering corrections and guidance where necessary.
10. Play to their strengths
Understand each employee’s strengths and weaknesses so you can empower them in the best way for them and your company. For instance, if one of your workers is a great public speaker, have them lead the next meeting. If another employee has a way with words but prefers to work behind the scenes, let them draft the next newsletter. Give workers opportunities to shine in their own way.
11. Provide regular feedback and coaching
Empowerment doesn’t mean abandoning your team. Schedule regular check-ins to provide constructive feedback and coaching. According to Gallup, employees who receive daily feedback from their manager are 3.6 times more likely to do outstanding work. These conversations should focus on growth opportunities and skill development rather than just performance evaluation.
12. Create psychological safety
Teams with high psychological safety — where members feel safe to take risks and make mistakes — are 76% more likely to engage and 50% more productive according to research from McKinsey & Company. Foster this environment by admitting your own mistakes, asking for feedback and treating failures as learning opportunities rather than reasons for punishment.
13. Measure and track empowerment initiatives
You can’t improve what you don’t measure. Track key metrics like employee engagement scores, retention rates and productivity indicators to understand the impact of your empowerment efforts. Use pulse surveys and stay interviews to gather regular feedback on how empowered your team feels and what additional support they need to succeed.
What are the benefits of empowering your employees?
There are many reasons to practice employee empowerment as a manager. Not only will it help your employees feel more confident in their positions, but it will also help your business perform better as a whole.
- It drives accountability and ownership. When you allow team members to make their own decisions and take risks in the workplace, you are essentially investing in them. Your trust will hold them accountable for their actions, motivating them to work harder and smarter.
- It improves retention. Staffers who feel appreciated and supported are more likely to be loyal to the company. Organizations with highly engaged employees experience 43% less turnover, saving thousands per employee in replacement costs, according to Gallup.This reduces your company’s employee turnover rate and inspires workers to perform at their best for the long term.
- It sparks job satisfaction. When employees are free to take risks and perform at their own pace and to their standards, they tend to be more satisfied. Employee satisfaction translates to a positive work culture.
- It improves customer service. When handling customer matters, unempowered employees often pause to check in with their managers on how to go about a specific request or resolve an issue. By empowering your employees to get the job done without waiting for your approval, you set your company up for more efficient customer service.
- It accelerates innovation and growth. Empowered employees feel more confident and inspired to grow, which benefits their careers and your company.
Julie Thompson and Sammi Caramela contributed to this article.
